Stone Sour /Steel Panther / The Cherry Bombs – The Sands Event Center, Bethlehem, PA – 10/3/17.
Review and Pictures: Tara Lakatos
Stone Sour, Steel Panther and The Cherry Bombs performed at the Sands Event Center in Bethlehem, PA on October 3, 2017. This tour is supporting Stone Sour’s newest release “Hydrograd” which was released on June 30, 2017. Steel Panther is touring in support of their current release “Lower the Bar” which was released February 24, 2017. The Cherry Bombs are a female dance act that started in 2014 by Alicia Dove after ending her career as a cheerleader. They have performed at Sturgis and have opened for Bret Michaels, Vince Neil, Saliva and Jackyl, just to name a few.
THE CHERRY BOMBS
The Cherry Bombs dance crew came out to open the show. The first number was a burlesque act reminiscent of a club in Paris in the wee hours of the morning. The girls were dressed in varying degrees of leather, spikes, torn thigh highs, fishnets and G-Strings.
The number was well choreographed as the group has worked with some of the top choreographers in the industry including Jaret Hughes and Bubba Carr. Their next number included pole dancing which included some very impressive aerial moves high above the stage.
After the audience was hot and bothered they came back out with a scorching number, literally. Rings of fire twirling around a dancer and fireballs swinging on the ends of chains. Three of the performers swung the fire around themselves and each other while synchronizing their moves. If their looks weren’t dangerous enough for the crowd this definitely kicked things up to the next level. It was quite enthralling to watch dancing and acrobatics being performed with an element of danger. It was definitely a fun way to open a rock show.
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STEEL PANTHER
Steel Panther came on next. The sleaze and cheese of rock and roll. They have been dirtying up the airwaves since 2003 when they released their self produced debut album “Hole Patrol”. Steel Panther consists of Michael Starr (vocals), Satchel (guitar), Lexxi Foxx (bass) and Stix Zadinia (drums). The glam metal band still struts the look of all of the best hair bands circa 1985; complete with spandex printed pants, makeup and enough Aquanet to finish off the rest of the ozone layer. During one monologue, between songs, Lexxi stood looking into a hand held mirror applying makeup and spraying his long gorgeous mane with the aforementioned can of Aquanet.
Steel Panther’s music is 100% sexual: the lyrics, the gyrating and tongue flicking. Their show is an R rated musical parody. The third song they performed was “Asian Hooker”. Right before the song started Michael pointed to the front row asking someone to come up. Ironically enough there was a young Asian woman in the front row, security helped her over the rail and onto the stage. Michael sang, danced and grinded with the woman. A few times Satchel tried to get in on the action, he would get about 2 seconds of dancing in before Michael would whisk the woman away. I’m sure her night was made, she was smiling the whole time and didn’t seem to be nervous with thousands of people staring at her.
With the antics and shtick aside Steel Panther is a really good band. They had a ten song set covering hits spanning their career including “Eye of a Panther”, “17 Girls in a Row”, “Gloryhole” and “Death to all but Metal”. Their musicianship and stage presence make for a very enjoyable rock show. Michael’s vocals fit very well into their style and at times reminds me of David Lee Roth. (Editors Note: Hey Tara.. Do a You Tube Search of Atomic Punks with Ralph Saenz) Satchel is an amazing guitarist. I always enjoy watching him play. Lexxi while spending a lot of time playing the true glam metal part holds down a solid bassline and enjoys engaging with the crowd. Stix is a very solid drummer and definitely enjoys flirting with the fans from behind the kit.
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STONE SOUR
Stone Sour closed the show with a 16 song set, even dusting off “Cold Reader” from their self titled debut album. Stone Sour consists of Corey Taylor (vocals), who also is the front man of Slipknot, Josh Rand (guitar), Christian Martucci (guitar), Johny Chow (bass), and Roy Mayorga (drums). Stone Sour is a total 180 from Slipknot for Corey. His vocal styling in Slipknot is pure metal, rough vocals and extended screams. In Stone Sour 90% of his vocals are clean. He is one of the most versatile male vocalists.
I had the pleasure of meeting Stone Sour twice over the summer. They were all super down to earth and Corey was extremely funny. It was nice to meet a band that just wanted to chat and have fun with zero presence of an ego. I even joked with Corey and told him to be careful with the head banging so he didn’t break his neck again.
Stone Sour opened the show with “Tapei Person/Allah Tea”. This song is a fast paced, heart pounding, drum driven rock song. Drummer Roy Mayorga is an absolute monster behind the kit, his skills are front and center from the moment his sticks started to pound the skins. The guitar riffs on this song are pure rock, you can’t help but to rock out, head bang and jump with fists in the air to this one. Guitarist Josh Rand is the most precise I’ve ever watched, he’s literally like a machine. Lead guitarist Christian Martucci, the newest member of Stone Sour, is electric. He plays with a huge personality, engages with the crowd and has endless amounts of energy. Johny Chow is a booming bassist. He and Roy are a super tight rhythm section. At the end of “Tapei Person/Allah Tea” Corey must have landed weird from his riser and twisted his knee. He hobbled off stage and came back a few second later and said, “I’m not gonna lie, I just fucked up my knee, don’t get old, it sucks”.
Next up was “Knievel Has Landed”. Another drum driven track, the type of song that if you were driving and listening to it that there is a good chance you would get a speeding ticket. During this and some other of their heavier songs there were sporadic crowd surfers and some small mosh pits. While I love Stone Sour’s harder songs I have a soft spot for their more melodic tracks of which they performed several. “Haunt Me” is one of my favorite tracks, “Through Glass” which is the song that introduced me to Stone Sour in 2006 from their second release, “Come What(ever) May” and “Song #3” from their current album “Hydrograd”.
Stone Sour’s encore consisted of “Gone Sovereign”, “Absolute Zero” and “Fabuless”. The show was filled with hits new and old and showed the versatility of Corey Taylor. It can’t be easy to front two mega bands with completely different styles. Not to mention having to mesh as one with two completely different sets of musicians. Stone Sour is definitely a band that should be a must see on your concert bucket list.
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Sand Event Center, Bethlehem, PA
