Cherries, Steel, and Stone

September 29, 2017

Autumn has FINALLY seemed to arrive in Kansas City. A cool, crisp feel to the air, an urge to dress in layers, and a respite from the heat and humidity of the midwestern summer. While the days may be getting shorter and colder, the Tuesday night was heated up by a one-two punch of metal, with a bit of fire and heat sprinkled in there for good measure.

This adventure takes us to one of our favorite Kansas City venues, Arvest Bank Theater at the Midland (or just the Midland as the locals call it) Fans locally as well as far away found themselves in Kansas City’s Power and Light district. Competing for the night’s attention (as well as traffic) was another performance at the Sprint Center – but a little thing like traffic never deterred a real-deal metal fan.

The first act up was a bit of a departure from your normal opening band. Instead, we were treated to the performance of Cherry Bombs. This explosive group of ladies are professional dancers, aerialists, fire artists, hoopers, pole dancers, and singers. The members of this bomb group are Cherry Vicious, Gypsy Wild, Dixie Holliday, Barbie Barracuda, Minnie Dynamite, Lola Savage, and Crystal Foxx. Setting themselves apart and taking full advantage to really kick off the show, these babes danced, swung fire, and generally lit the crowd up for the next few acts.

There was no cooling down after the last performance, and the Midland would certainly be heating up with our next act, a favorite at The Pit, Steel Panther! For the uninformed, Steel Panther is America’s premier comedic glam metal band. Steel Panther’s members are Michael Starr on vocals (or a skinnier Vince Neil), Satchel on guitar (who introduced himself by playing explosion by Van Halen), Lexxi Foxx on bass (the extra ‘x’ stands for ‘sexy’), and Stix Zandinia on drums.

Steel Panther opened up the set with “Death to All but Metal”, a rather raunchy song about, you guessed it, all other genres of music deserving death, save for Metal. The fun didn’t stop with metal, though, as Steel Panther rocketed into another song, “Goin’ in the Backdoor” (There isn’t much to read into with these song titles, but damn they’re fun) After some introductions and stage antics, the crowd was really feeling the steel with “Asian Hooker”, “Let Me Cum In”, “Wasted Too Much Time”, and “Girl from Oklahoma”. At this point in the show, like any self-respecting glam rock band would do, they brought on no less than seventeen different women for the song “17 Girls in a Row” The set continued with the raunchy “Gloryhole”, the ballad like “Community Property” and the always rockin’ “Party All Day (Fuck All Night).

I have no idea what the 80’s and hair metal were like back in the day, but I would imagine Steel Panther hit the mark pretty close. Despite the wacky outfits and middle-school humor, the band really packs a punch as far as musical chops; whether it be the vocal range or Michael Starr, the whammy bar action of Satchel, the presence of Lexxi’s bass, or explosive drumming of Stix.

Closing the show out was the headliners, Stone Sour. Hailing from Des Moines, Iowa and founded in 1992, the band was an original project of Slipknot’s Corey Taylor from 92-97. The band later reformed in 2000. Since 2006, the band has included Corey Taylor on vocals, Josh Rand on guitar, Roy Mayorga on drums, Johny Chow on bass guitar, and Christian Matucci on guitar. Speaking with fans of both Slipknot and Stone Sour, there doesn’t seem to be much a division for either band – fans respect either project equally and do not consider Stone Sour to be a side project at all. The fans consider it a separate entity all together, which is a pretty cool move. The frustration comes in the form of release dates: the music has hit their fandom so much that they just want more and more, but the release schedule for Slipknot and Stone Sour has them wanting more. They say distance makes the heart grow fonder, or maybe it’s like the Star Wars’ releases – give the fans just enough to were it’s awesome and don’t release junk – I can respect that…Anyway, back to the show

Stone Sour kicked the set off with “Taipei Person/Allah Tea”, off of their 2017 album “Hydrograd”. Followed up with “Knievel Has Landed” from the same album. Stone Sour took it old scool with Take a Number, and stuck with their guns with their mid-ought songs like “Reborn, Say You’ll Haunt Me, and 30/30-150. In total, Stone Sour rocked a fourteen song set before closing the show with a three song Encore, comprised of “Gone Sovereign”, “Absolute Zero”, and “Fabuless”

Stone Sour