Steel Panther at The Rust Belt -- July 10.
Saturday, July 10, 8 p.m.
The Rust Belt, 533 12th Avenue, East Moline IL
Winners of two Loudwire Music Awards for Live Act of the Year, and one of the only groups to achieve top-five Billboard success on both the Hard Rock and Comedy charts, Steel Panther brings its unique blend of glam metal and hilarious lyrics to East Moline's The Rust Belt on July 10, the California musicians' outfit lauded by Blabbermouth.net as “a genuinely brilliant '80s-inspired heavy metal band.”
Originating in Los Angeles in 2000, Steel Panther began to gain popularity on the Sunset Strip during the early 2000s under the name Metal Shop, which was eventually changed to Metal Skool. By 2003, with the band members opting for onstage aliases, the lineup consisted of vocalist Ralph Saenz ("Michael Starr"), drummer Darren Leader ("Stix Zadinia"), bassist Travis Haley ("Lexxi Foxx"), and guitarist Russ Parrish ("Satchel"), all of whom are still with the group. Metal Shop finally managed to gain some success, and before 2003 ended, the rockers had released Hole Patrol, their self-produced debut EP. After changing their band moniker to Steel Panther, the group recorded their studio album Feel the Steel in 2008, a release that debuted at number one on Billboard's Comedy charts, boasted the hit singles "Community Property" and "Death to All but Metal," and won Germany's Metal Hammer Award for Best Debut.
Since then, Steel Panther has released a quartet of additional studio albums (2011's Balls Out, 2014's All You Can Eat, 2017's Lower the Bar, and 2019's Heavy Metal Rules), all of which topped the Billboard Comedy charts and made the top 10 on Billboard's Hard Rock charts. Steel Panther also enjoyed chart-topping singles in 2013's “Party Like Tomorrow Is the End of the World” and 2016's “She's Tight,” as well as top-10 hits with “17 Girls in a Row,” “The Burden of Being Wonderful,” “Gloryhole,” and “You're Beautiful When You Don't Talk.” More recently, Steel Panther released the non-album single “F#ck 2020” in December of last year, and this past February, the musicians launched the virtual photo exhibition Sex, JPGs & Rock N Roll. Created to support live-concert photographers whose careers were impacted by the pandemic, the effort found Steel Panther's musicians curating a virtual gallery every two weeks, with prints for sale in various configurations, to support concert photographers who have covered the band throughout the years.
Steel Panther plays its July 10 concert with an opening set by The 9th Planet Out, admission to the 8 p.m. show is $29-39, and more information and tickets are available by visiting TheRustBeltQC.com.
