Page 54 - Black Velvet Issue 84

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STEEL PANTHER / SKINDRED / THE
LOUNGE KITTENS – WOLVER-
HAMPTON CIVIC HALL, 12.03.15
With the door opening time being 7pm, you
get 15 minutes to get in the Civic Hall before The
Lounge Kittens grace the stage. The Lounge Kit-
tens are a spunky trio comprising of Jenny Dea-
con, Timia Gwendoline and Zan Lawther. They
sing their way through some comical and inven-
tive interpretations of rock cover tunes (one of
them even includes some cat meows). They
have great voices and do three part harmonies
while one of the kittens plays keys at the same
time. They cover Steel Panther’s ‘Glory Hole’
which goes down well, as do their versions of
Prodigy’s ‘Firestarter’, Andrew WK’s ‘Party Hard’
and Limp Bizkit’s ‘Rollin’. Dressed up in dayglo
green and black dresses, with brightly coloured
hair, they stand out. They’re different to the usual
run of the mill support bands and you get the im-
pression that they could turn their hand (or voice)
to any genre and do a great job at covering any
song no matter what style the original is. They’re
very entertaining and would make a great night
out for anyone.
Skindred and Steel Panther don’t really
seem to be two bands that would fit together like
bread and butter, but sometimes opposites at-
tract, and tonight, Skindred manage to win over
Steel Panther’s fans, even getting them – the
guys at least – to whip off their tops and do the
Newport Helicopter (swinging their T-shirts
around their heads). Benji Webbe incites the
crowd with ragga-infused metal tunes such as
‘Kill The Power’ and ‘Pressure’. He wears a huge
fur-covered coat and holds a Union Jack. ‘Trou-
ble’ is a darker, dancier track. Their intensity is
too strong for the crowd to resist. The crowd are
skinned alive.
It’s been a year since Steel Panther’s last full
UK tour and Wolverhampton are elated to have
them back. Opening with the metallic number
‘Pussywhipped’ from latest release ‘All You Can
Eat’, the crowd are immediately hooked. As it
turns out, Satchel is ill and didn’t even go to the
meet and greets before the show – but performs
the whole set like a trouper. “I feel like a pair of
donkey balls tonight,” he says before adding that
the audience is the wind behind his wings and
are keeping him going. Bassist Lexxi Foxx gets
to do his hair solo while female fans are picked
to go onstage for ’17 Girls In A Row’. Half of them
want to just take selfies with the band members
while they’re trying to play.
The band’s set as always is fun, comical and
full of top class musicianship. After a dozen up-
tempo rockers, we’re treated to an acoustic sec-
tion where Satchel sits down and Michael sings
a hilarious song about everyone’s ‘collective ha-
tred of Kanye West’. Stix Zadinia come out from
behind the drumkit to play a white grand piano
(which has a couple of candles on it to add to the
effect!) while Michael puts on a white hat (that
looks like something Michael Jackson would
have worn) and red jacket that he says he
bought in Wolverhampton. They also have a new
‘cum face stick’ and try to get members of the
audience to show an orgasmic facial expression
while the stick points at them to get them on
camera. Michael looks impressed when they re-
turn for an encore and the crowd sings ‘Commu-
nity Property’ very loudly before they end with
‘Party All Day’. We may not get to party all day
with Steel Panther but just an hour or two is good
enough for us.
YYYYY
Shari Black Velvet
Michael Starr (Steel Panther) Photo By Shari Black Velvet

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