Last night I when to see Steel Panther at the O2 Acadamy Sheffield. The night started off with a one and a half hour wait between getting in the support act starting. I thought that was a bit of a long wait but the night was worth the wait.

The support act were The Sirens. A trio of sexy ladies who did a few burlesque routines to metal songs. They were only on for 15 minutes but I can safely stay every guy in the auidence was extreme pleased.

After a few minutes it was time for Steel Panther. It was probably the most fun gig I've been to. They played most of the songs from their Feel The Steel album which was cool but what was the most fun is what happened between songs. Lots of interaction with the audience, mainly consisting of commenting about hot girls and what they were do to them. Steel Panther manged to get four girls from the crowd up on stage and show their boobs. Yay!

Steel Panther are all about image but the music was really good too. Classic 80s rock with the stylings of bands like Whitesnake, Bon Jovi... I could go on. Community Property was my favourite and had everyone singing along. To be honest people were singing to every song.

The night  was great fun and they annouced they'll be at Download this year.

Here are the three videos I recorded.

1. Eyes of a Panther
2. Asisan Hooker
3. Death to all but Metal

Steel Panther - Feel The Steel Tour Videos

A few days ago I was on my way to work and on my doorstep was a little parcel. I took a look at it and saw it was from O2 and was addressed to me. I thought bet this is going to be something useless. On the back it said "Just Become"... hmm very curious.

So I open it up and side was a bard of Green & Black Organic milk chocolate. Nice! Pretty cool I thought. Underneth was a little booklet about what O2 customers get. Off the top of my head it was about O2 academy's and priority booking. Below that, on the card below is had written "Because your with O2. Because we wanted to say thanks. Because everyone loves chocolate".

The reason for it as I can see is probably because I've about 5-6months left on my iPhone contract and very recently O2 lost their exclusivity. Whatever the I have to say it's very nice of O2. Not many companies do that. It's a small gesture that makes you remember them, tell your friends and blog about. And when I choose my new phone and network if price and services are equal on 2 or more networks  I'll be going with O2. 

Thanks O2.

P.S. The cost of a beer at the O2 in Birmingham is a bit much!

On Friday night I finished work early and got the train to Birmingham to see Funeral for a Friend and Fightstar at the O2 Academy as part of the Vans Off The Wall night. It was back in April I was last at the Birmingham Academy when I saw Papa Roach and since it as moved to a new location. It looks good on the outside and the inside is pretty nice too. There's 3 stages. The main stage which  is larger than the average venue (not including the big areanas), 2nd stage and the 3rd stage which is about size of a stage you find in a pub. The venue as a whole was ok but the sound in the main room didn't fill the room enough and having seen Fighstar 4 times and Funeral for a Friend 3 times it wasn't them! Oh and the price of a pint of Carling was a lot! £3.60! That's more than at Download and Sonisphere and they are festivals! The worset thing about the price is Carling tastes like piss.

Anyway there were load of bands playing but I can't remember the ones on the 2nd and 3rd stages. On the main stage was Attack! Attack!, Kids in Glass Houses, Fightstar and Funeral for a Friend. Didn't seem much of Attack! Attack! but they sounded alright. Kids in Glass Houses didn't do anything for me. The only reason I went was for Fightstar and Funeral for a Friend.

Fightstar are one of my favourite bands and I've seen them 5 times now. Unfortunately, the lead singer Charlie Simpson had a throat infection and so really couldn't perform at his best. Which is a real shame because his voice is awesome. He solidered on. Because of his throat the set was a little softer than the usual (they didn't play Deathcar) and he missed out quite a few lines but we, the crowd did what we could. I say Fighstar do have great fans. The music was, as always, bang on. Omar Abidi was playing his ass off on the drums. The bassist, Dan Haigh, seemed to take a bigger roll interacting with the crowd than normal. Alex Westaway was also doing a fine job. So to sum up Fightstar there were great if not slightly disppointing but rest assured I will be seeing them again. My Fightstar videos are on YouTube.

The task of closing the gig was upto Funeral for a Friend and they did it nicely. They were on top form. The start was a bit stupid as they had some guy in a banana suit come out singing a song... can't think what it was. After that it was great start to finish. They didn't play anything from Memory and Humanity which is a good thing as it wasn't their best. I think they played only 2 songs that weren't on their first 2 albums or early EPs. Into Oblivion is always great live, it's so up beat and just has such a great feeling to it. Others songs they played included my favourite Rose for the Dead. Can't really say any else than they were quality and here are my Funeral for a Friend videos. 

Overall a great night. Which ended at MacDonald's with a drive-through orchestra (about 10 cars randomly pressing their car horns), was pretty fun.