Live Review: Steel Panther at the Auckland Powerstation

Steel Panther

w/ Blue Ruin

The Powerstation, Auckland

Sunday 26 June

Like similar acts Tenacious D and The Beards, Steel Panther are comprised of some very talented musicians who choose to centre their band on parody. By channeling late 1980’s LA rock giants like Mötley Crüe, Guns n Roses and Skid Row, Steel Panther bring the excess of hair metal forward thirty years, with a generous dosage of tongue in [between] cheek.

It’s all-out assault on decency, with every song guaranteed to offend. If it’s sexual and lewd, than you’re likely to find a Steel Panther song on the topic. I dare say it’s an assault on the environment as well, with the amount of hairspray the band uses surely responsible for a large part of our ozone depleting.

Arriving at The Powerstation on a Sunday evening, I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect. I have seen some of my favourite bands play this venue [Rise Against, Biffy Clyro, Jimmy Eat World], so I know it works well as a tightly packed intimate setting. The rest of the crowd, however, seemed to have a fair idea of what they were in for. Glancing around I saw countless fishnet tights, neon pink outfits, and luscious long locks flowing from underneath bandannas …. And that was just the men!

Kiwi rockers Blue Ruin kicked off night with their own blend of rock and punk. They recently opened for Runaways lead singer Cherie Currie, and the Runaways influence is obvious on the all-girl five-piece. In fact, they’ve had a good run of slots opening for various acts recently, including Buckcherry and The Misfits, both of whom they covered during tonight’s set. They did OK and looked the part, but it was pretty apparent that they need a few more band practices to tighten up their act. Blue haired front woman Jessie Booth appears set to fill Jennie Skulander’s boots if she keeps up what she is doing, especially with that roar of hers.

In between sets one wild-eyed individual approached my friend and I to chat. He had long curly hair, a thick black beard and glasses, giving him a white nerdy Jesus look. I think he decided to chat to the two of us because we both had beards as well. He was saying about how much he loved Steel Panther, and how he has been unsuccessfully trying to convince his son to listen to them as well. My [Swedish] friend has seen Steel Panther three times already, and was telling the guy that he was in for a fun night. Upon hearing my friend’s Swedish accent, the guy mistook him for American and began professing his undying love for Bernie Sanders to us, despite my friend explaining that he isn’t actually American. After a few minutes of hearing all about the virtues of the Bern, the guy produced a small joint and began to offer it around.

Kicking off the night with the panther growls that introduce song “Eye Of The Panther”, Steel Panther showed us what we were in for. Hot off an Australian tour with Black Stone Cherry, the band was in fine form. They sounded seriously good. Parody act or not, they knew how to play. They had the image down-pat too. Everything the band wore was lycra and leopard print, and they all had long flowing hair and bandannas.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZnZM1CzQF8Y

Bass player Lexi Foxx puts the glam component in glam rock, preening himself in front of the mirror, spraying hairspray and applying lip gloss between most songs. Aerosmith have the song “Dude Looks Like A Lady”, and although I thought it was about Mötley Crüe’s Vince Neil, it could very well have been written about Foxx instead. Foxx was on the receiving end of many of the band’s jokes, being portrayed as the “retarded bass player”.

Frontman Michael Starr was the “slightly fatter David Lee Roth”, or “slightly skinnier Vince Neil”, depending which way you looked at it. Either way, he could sing just as well. They band told of how he had received vocal lessons from Judas Priest singer Rob Halford, and Starr even came onstage dressed like Halford during one song, rocking aviator sunglasses and a bright red sparkly sequined coat.

Guitarist Satchel provided one of the highlights of the night with a ripping extended guitar solo that included a medley with nods to classic rock bands like Van Halen, Deep Purple, Black Sabbath, Guns n Roses, Iron Maiden and even a song from The Sound of Music made it in there.

Drummer Stixx Zadinia had little to say throughout the night, but he had complete control over his monstrous red DW kit. Throughout the set he would play around by throwing drumsticks to the band and crew, then catching them when thrown back and playing on without missing a beat.

The band’s real strength lay in how well they could improvise. There was plenty of stage banter, and although not all of it could have been original, much of it was. They interacted with the crowd, cracked jokes and brought girls up onstage to dance around.

One such girl was Asian, so got the dubious honour of being the centre of attention for the song “Asian Hooker”. Later in the night two scantily clad twins wearing studded bras got onstage and the band composed a song for them, each member ad-libbing couplets while Satchel strummed his acoustic guitar. It was a bit concerning seeing two sisters so desperate for attention that they would hook up with each other onstage, and even the band seemed slightly uncomfortable with it. Soon enough the stage was full, with girls being pulled up left, right and centre. It was undeniably crude, but that is all you would expect from Steel Panther. And that’s where the genius of their joke lies, because although they go all-out to shock with their content, it is hardly any different to the “serious” that they are spoofing, making the act believable.

At the end of the band started to throw items into the crowd: guitar picks, water bottles, empty hair spray canisters etc… One drumstick was thrown very close to where I was standing so I put my hand out to catch it, but it was just out of reach. The person who caught it raced to the back of our venue so I turned to see who it was, and lo and behold, it was none other than our Sanders-loving stoner friend from earlier in the night. Needless to say he was completely ecstatic with his prize.

Steel Panther put on an incredibly entertaining performance. It wasn’t just a concert, it was a show. A funny, absurd, inappropriate and improvised rock show. And it was awesome.

Death to all but metal indeed.

The Steel Panther set list

Joseph James

ALBUM REVIEW: DUMBSAINT – PANORAMA, IN TEN PIECES

Living in a social media driven world, there’s a constant barrage of content flooding our devices and filling our minds with opinions and ideas. Some are good and some just flat out suck. As an American, the current political situation leaves plenty to be desired for someone looking to their Facebook page or Twitter feed for inspiration. I blame the burst of social media accessibility over the past decade for my plunge deeper into instrumental music. I’ve grown weary of hearing everyone talk and instrumental music has given me reprieve and become a go to medium to digest without being force fed any opinions. This music gives me the power to choose entirely which emotion or feeling I want to channel regardless of the key or tempo at which the music is played. Granted, no form of art comes completely opinion neutral.

The majority of instrumental bands rely on visuals to help tell their story, because, let’s face it, everyone has something to say, even an instrumental band. From lights and fog to projection to music videos, the added dimension that is consumed by an audience’s eyes is a vital aspect of this genre of music. Our collective attention spans have been drastically shortened and, unfortunately, instrumental bands need to compete with the growth of social media in order to stay relevant and ahead of the curve of band anonymity. To many this challenge leads to a rehashing of ideas fostered by bigger bands within the genre. There will always be the trend setters, the big brothers, the pioneers of new ideas just like there will always be the followers, the little brothers, and the thieves of old ideas. However, sometimes bands take it all upon themselves to go more than just the extra mile in order to produce a musical product that spans multiple mediums and raises the bar to exceptional new heights. Australia’s Dumbsaint has done just that with the unveiling of their feature-length film for their latest record “Panorama, in ten pieces”.

I became familiar with Dumbsaint’s “Panorama, in ten pieces” prior to getting to watch the 60 minute feature film which gave me the opportunity to create my own narrative for the music. I was fortunate to have a friend throw this release my direction awhile back and I instantly fell in love with the dynamics and musical prowess. It was very obvious from the first couple of listens that the music was built to work with visual storytelling. However, it holds it’s own in the solo listening format and has become one of my go to records.

The feature was written, filmed, edited, and entirely produced by the members of Dumbsaint and goes to show that a lot of really hard, focused work can lead to incredible things. Nothing inspires me more than a band that does it themselves, and Dumbsaint has not disappointed me in their sheer effort. Working as a music video on steroids, the film is perfectly edited to their album and takes the viewer on a dark and twisted ride through a suburban community.

When I was informed Dumbsaint was preparing to release a feature film to accompany “Panorama, in ten pieces” I was initially a little nervous as to what type of story line or agenda the band was going to display. I didn’t want the connection I made to the music to get lost or interfered with by visuals that may not align with what my imagination had formulated. I always try to maintain an open mind, but I would be lying if I said a band’s social or political opinions have never turned me off. It’s a frustrating way to be programmed, but I’ve lost bits and pieces of respect for bands when they dive too far into waters I find uncomfortable or disingenuous. Thankfully, Dumbsaint introduced just the right amount of abstract thought and story line into their feature film to still leave the majority of their record up for interpretation.

The film centers around a residential neighborhood that is silently entrenched in a plethora of shady nighttime activities and dysfunctional relationships. Superb editing and a well thought out and interwoven cast give immense dimension to the 60 minute feature. Dumbsaint’s skill set goes much further than excellent musicianship as they exhibit a profound ability to capture one’s visual attention almost instantly. The story line is just as heavy as the music yet still maintains the perfect amount of restraint and necessary control to keep the audiences attention for the full 60 minutes.

Dumbsaint’s film for “Panorama, in ten pieces” debuts in it’s entirety on June 13th via Vimeo’s Video On Demand streaming service. If you’ve yet to listen to Dumbsaint, go do that now and then reserve yourself an hour on the 13th to sit back and indulge yourself in a music video masterpiece.

C.J. Blessum

To rent or buy the feature-length film visit Dumbsaint’s Vimeo Page.

Interview: Brutal Harmony

What is the story behind your band?

The vision behind Brutal Harmony is to bring our brand of raw metal music set to a storyline that is dark and twisted with classic horror themes.

Brutal Harmony was started as a side project. How do you split your time between your different projects?

Well, in the beginning of the project, we were just playing around with the idea of what we thought would be different and fun at the same time. So Brutal Harmony was created as a side project to a couple of other more serious bands that we were playing and touring with. As the writing continued, we realized this was more exciting and in many ways better than what we were already doing in the other bands. So as of February of 2016, Brutal Harmony is our sole project, and we invest 100% of our time and effort into BH.

How would you describe your sound?

Dark, Melodic, and Soulful Metal.

Do you really live up to the “brutal” aspect of your band name?

We believe the music and our live stage show will live up to our name. The songs, videos, and the stage show to come with share the story of the Brutal Harmony. We have a story board for the BH band member characters that will play out in our up-coming shows and videos.

The whole mask thing has been done before by bands like Slipknot, Mushroomhead, Gwar etc… How does your overall image affect your band?

Our mask represent those with no name, no spirit, or humanity. The masked characters are known as The Unity Of Fate.

Who are your key influences?

I would have to say various classic metal bands such as Slayer, Anthrax, Black Sabbath and many, many others.

What are some key themes and messages that you cover with your music?

Classic Horror Movies , Unrest, and the balance between good and evil.

What format do you use the most when listening to music? [vinyl, cd, streaming etc..]

We would say, all of the above [laughs]. Vinyl most certainly feels warmer and in our opinion, is the best format.

What song or album do you recommend for first time listeners?

Our single “FEAR”. It has all the elements that makes Brutal Harmony what we are.

Tell me about Sonic Outlaw Records. I can’t find much information about them online.

Sonic Outlaw Records is a new independent metal record label set to launch with Brutal Harmony in June 2016. The label is licensed and registered and geared up to roll out and sign a couple more artist before the end of 2016. The label is owned and financed by a group of private investor’s. There will be much to see later this summer.

What is your band’s greatest achievement to date?

Honestly, we feel our greatest achievement is doing what we love to do as much as we get to do it. Not everyone has that ability and we’ve seen so many great musicians quit music over the years, not because they want to but because life, family, jobs wouldn’t allow for it. The fact that we have all always found a way to overcome those hurdles we think is our greatest achievement so far.

Who would you most love to tour or collaborate with?

Slipknot is one of our very favorites but there’s just so many great bands out there these days it’s hard to narrow that down. Be easier to say who we would not collaborate with probably…….

What plans do you have for the near future?

We are still in the process of booking the rest of this year out but so far we have some great shows coming up. Main priority for this year is to finish the album to follow up the single release of Fear. Once that is done we will be hitting the road a lot harder.

Here’s your chance to say anything that we haven’t covered.

The song “flying purple people eater” is reeaallyy hard to get out of your head once it gets in there…….

Brutal Harmony: Facebook Website Twitter Youtube

Interview: Novacrow

Novacrow are a UK based hard rock band with a generous dose of zombies and sleaze added to the mix – think along the lines of Alice Cooper and Rob Zombie. They’ve just released debut EP Black Syrup, so I sent them some questions to learn more about the band.

What is the story behind your band?

Kitty: Seeing as the truth is pretty straightforward, in that Jonyx and I started making music together and we acquired Freddy and Torben for Novacrow purposes, here is an extravagant backstory.

Jonyx: Originally conceived on the planet of Sexlexis in the Andromeda system, we were sent to dominate Earth through the power of pelvic-thrustingly good music. Unfortunately Sexlexis became struck with the extremely erotic disease ‘Sexlexia’ and we were given the task of finding a cure, the fastest way to spread the word…Novacrow! (continuity errors in storyline may occur…)

Torben: …and then I joined

Where are you from, and what prompted you to start?

K: I have always loved playing in a band and I think the four of us were drawn together, because we all enjoy making lots of noise and embarrassing ourselves. Jonyx and I are from Wolverhampton, Torben is from Norfolk and Freddy is originally from Italy.

How would you describe your sound?

Freddy: A sextastic sonic force.

K: Fat juicy riffs, sleazy vocals and groin-grabbingly good choruses.

T: Top stuff.

What song or album do you recommend for first time listeners?

F: Our EP ‘Black Syrup’ is a must listen for anybody who enjoys being a person. I’d say ‘Fat Frog’ off it would give the best idea of what we’re about.

J: Black Syrup, it’s the tits!

T: I’d personally go for Fight the Horde, I consider it a stomping song.

Why kazoo? It’s definitely not a conventional instrument.

K: Kazoos are just hilarious. We first used one when we did a terrible cover of ‘My Heart Will Go On’ at a Valentine’s gig. People loved it, so we thought it would be funny to add a bit of kazoo into all of our shows. We ended up recording it on the opening track of our EP, Fat Frog.

Torben, you appear to be the punk in a band of metalheads. Does this cause any conflict?

T: When I first joined I wanted to play everything much faster, but whilst punk is my favourite genre, I grew up on metal, owning every Opeth record and listening to them on repeat. Gojira were also big for me, and still are. But having said that, I wouldn’t say it has caused tension, at core we’re all just looking to have fun playing music we love.

Sadly, rock music is still male dominated. Do you find that you’re treated differently to other bands because you have a female singer?

K: It’s hard for me to be objective as (obviously), I’ve only ever been in bands with a female member, but I’d say that we are treated differently to an extent. ‘Female fronted’ is regularly treated like a genre, which is a bit strange, as we often find ourselves billed alongside a load of symphonic metal bands. To us, the fact that we have a female member isn’t an important part of Novacrow. I’ve had my fair share of derogatory comments, but it’s going to take a hell of a lot more than a couple of snide remarks to stop me from rocking my ass off.

It looks like you have a lot of fun playing on the zombie/horror theme. What are some more creative examples of where you have taken this theme?

K: We did a big cheesy B-movie music video for our single Fight The Horde!!! Which was super fun to film. We’ve used this in our live shows too, in one we used a giant screen to show clips creating a ‘storyline’ and had zombies coming on stage and out into the audience. At our EP launch we did zombie face painting too, so we had a whole crowd of the undead.

Between you all, the band covers recording, production, writing and art. Tell me about your DIY motives.

F: For us it pretty much came naturally, we all seem to fit together like a sort of jigsaw puzzle. John has the most experience in photo editing and designing, so he just took on the role of artwork designer. I’m a producer of my own accord outside the band, so I took command of recording, production, and video editing when needed. This leaves most of the artistic direction up to Kitty, so she’ll write most of the songs and we all chip in accordingly.

And then there’s Torben.

Paint me a picture of what I should expect to see at a typical Novacrow gig.

Kitty: Picture yourself at a dingy venue with a cheap pint of beer in one hand. Novacrow comes onstage and suddenly you are weak at the knees. Each member is dazzlingly attractive and unimaginably talented. Their music is so fantastic, you feel faint. Their stage banter is so hilarious, your sides actually split from laughter. The crowd around you are going wild, foaming at the mouth, tits everywhere. You fish out your wallet and you’re literally throwing handfuls of money at the band, they are just that good….

Kitty, I saw that in the list of books you read last year you covered a lot of classic literature and graphic novels, especially some dystopian texts. Talk me through some of your favourites. I know you have a degree in English Lit, so I’m expecting some good recommendations.

K: YES. Excellent question. There are so many incredible novels that everybody needs to read! Obvious choices include Fahrenheit 451, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, 1984, Brave New World, Slaughterhouse 5 and any of Poe’s short stories.

My longtime favourite author is Stephen King. His first person narratives are unbeatable and I love his great sprawling fantasy epics. It, The Stand, The Dark Half and The Green Mile, are a few of my top choices.

In terms of a quirky recommendation, Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer, or Grotesque by Natsuo Kirino. I’ve also just finished the trilogy of 1Q84 novels, by Haruki Murakami, which were fantastically written.

What format do you use the most when listening to music? [vinyl, cd, streaming etc..]

F: I mostly download my music, and when I buy CD’s I’ll import them to my laptop. I ain’t got the time to pick out a CD and put it in a CD player and shit, I just want it THERE!

Torben: MP3s or digital music, whenever I travel or walk I have music in. I have a vast collection of CDs which I listen to whenever I can, because I love having a hard-copy of the music I love most.

Tell us your best tour story.

F: We once played a biker club in the middle of Derbyshire and camped out on their fields. There was a HUGE slug that turned out to be just two regular slugs. There was also a lot of booze, some cooked chicken, a broken pump, and a giant fake plastic horse. And Showaddywaddy.

What is your band’s greatest achievement to date?

K: The fact that we’ve somehow tricked people into believing that we’re a real band, rather than a group of attention seeking idiots. I’m super proud of the EP and the excellent feedback we’ve had from it.

Who would you most love to tour or collaborate with?

F: The almighty GWAR.

K: Wednesday 13, Rob Zombie, Skindred or Alestorm.

T: Murder Dolls or Green Jellÿ who were great fun to play with… anyone who’s up for fun and some heavy music basically.

What plans do you have for the near future?

K: Loads of gigs, working on new material and general badassery

Novacrow: Website Facebook Twitter Instagram Youtube

3 Gigs, 1 Day for NZ Music Month: Shihad live at Meow, Wellington

Shihad

Meow, Wellington

Sunday 1 May 2016

News about this show left me both excited and nervous. Like Shihad’s live FVEY debut at Christchurch’s Horncastle Arena, this gig was ballot only, meaning that if you don’t manage to win a ticket, you don’t go. Opportunistic gig-goers could try their luck by entering the draw through iHeartRadio and 2degrees websites, but that was the only way to get a ticket. It’s an interesting promotion, because it means that there is a risk of alienating the true fans who would be willing to pay for admission if they had the chance. But then again, if you are lucky enough to win, then you get to attend for free.

Thankfully, I did score some tickets to the gig. Again, my heart sank when I realised that I wasn’t able to get to the office in Wellington central to pick up my tickets within the specified time. But I emailed iHeartRadio and they understood, and were able to sort something that meant that I wouldn’t miss out on receiving my allocated tickets. And luckily for any other diehard fans who had missed out, Shihad released an extra allocation the day before.

Shihad were to play three gigs in three centres on May 1st to promote New Zealand Music Month. It must have been a tight schedule. I know they were pushing it fine to make it to the Wellington show because I was on the same flight as them. Thankfully they didn’t hit any unexpected delays.

Funnily enough, one of the last acts I saw at Meow had also done something similar and played another show in the South Island on the same day. Meow was an interesting choice of venue. I would have expected San Fran or Valhalla as the venue of choice for a heavy band of this stature. Usually Meow is not suitable for a rock gig because it’s full of tables, chairs and empty beer kegs. Thankfully they’d cleared enough floor space to make it manageable, like when Frank Turner played there last. Maybe frontman Jon Toogood thought highly enough of Meow to return, after playing there on his solo tour late last year.

Last time Shihad played in Wellington they opened for their heroes AC/DC. It was great, but it seemed wasteful having such talent play a daytime slot when the crowd still wasn’t full. This time was far better, packed intimately into a small bar, squashed in with a hundred or so die hard sweaty fans. The band members were all dressed fully in black, with only white lights shining upon them for most of the set, which made for a sharp and simple looking show.

Shihad have recently re-released their eponymous “Fish Album“ on vinyl, along with a ten inch pressing of the Blue Light Disco EP. The band decided that to celebrate this, along with the 20th anniversary of Fish, the had better play some songs off the album. The four songs from Fish, and two songs from Blue Light, were welcome appearances. Shihad have been drawing predominantly from FVEY for their sets over the past few years over the past few years, so it was nice to hear some older material that wasn’t so chug-heavy. In fact, I think it may be the first time I’ve seen Shihad play a bunch of those tracks. And just so we wouldn’t think that they were going too soft, they finished off with four FVEY songs, which left everyone gasping for breath.

I had initially held reservations, wondering if the band would need to hold back and pace themselves in order to last three sets in a day. I needn’t have worried. Sure, the set was short, but it was intense. Shihad are simply one of the best live acts around – on both local and international scales. Their intense energy and quality songs made for a vivacious homecoming gig.

I saw both Iron Maiden and Black Sabbath play this weekend, and although both were incredible, I found myself enjoying the Shihad gig more. Toogood actually mentioned that Maiden are one of the reasons he decided to start a band, and Sabbath are obviously influences because Shihad covered their song “The Wizard” on their debut Devolve EP. Shihad have taken the best aspects of their influences and distilled them into something more accessible for the next generation. Take the song “The Living Dead“, for example. It could easily pass for a Killing Joke song, but is easier to listen to than most KJ songs.

I have nothing to complain about. The venue worked well, Shihad were devastatingly good, and the show was free. It was a treat to hear them play some really old material that doesn’t often arise, and I honestly think it was the most enjoyable gig of the weekend.

Will Not Fade

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