NEW VENUE BUT SIMILAR SHOW FROM STEEL PANTHER
Date: May 7, 2025
Venue: The Arena at Pickering Casino Resort
Location: Pickering, Ontario, Canada
Reviewer: Olivier
Photos: Olivier
Incredibly, it had been almost six months since I had attended a concert with my last one dating back to W.A.S.P.‘s stellar show at History in Toronto back in mid-November 2024. Such a long gap between concerts would have seemed unfathomable for me prior to the Covid pandemic rearing its ugly head back in March 2020 and really changing the concert music industry for the worse. First, there seems to be quite a few bands that have packed it in or simply scaled back their touring operations in a big way. Second, the concert prices have gone through the roof for the best known bands. I am thinking in particular of Metallica‘s two recent shows in Toronto where a last minute ticket (I checked for both dates) would have cost me approximately $230 to $320 for a seat at a stadium (Rogers Centre) that has a capacity of 39,150. Yes, I passed on that one. I know. Some of you might be thinking that I have previously complained about certain ticket prices in the past and you’re right but it’s worth (at least to me) to mention this almost critical issue once again.
The good news is that the tickets for The Northern Exposure Tour featuring Steel Panther and Buckcherry were reasonably priced ($60.00 plus more than 25% of “fees”). In any case, I was looking forward to seeing Steel Panther for my umpteenth time. Unfortunately, most of the time that I have seen Steel Panther in the past, they bring an opening act that I am not interested in with the notable exceptions of Diemonds in 2012 and 2016, and The Wild! in 2018. This time around, Steel Panther were co-headlining the tour with Buckcherry, with the latter being — kind of sadly — a band that I had never gotten into. Sure, I am familiar with Buckcherry‘s bigger hits such as “Crazy Bitch” and “Lit Up” as well as their newer material since 2015 (given that I post the vast majority of the News Articles on Sleaze Roxx) but as I was looking for a few CDs to listen to on the way to the concert, I wasn’t sure that I had any from Buckcherry! As I turns out, I didn’t have a sealed copy of their CD 15 that I think I had picked up from a Wal-Mart bargain bin for $5,00 a few years prior. I also knew that Kurt Deimer was the opening act but aside from hearing a couple of songs from him, I really was not familiar with any of his material.
Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to make it for Deimer‘s opening set as travelling across the greater Toronto area in rush hour traffic is always a time consuming task and Deimer‘s presumed 7:00 pm start would have meant sitting in traffic for probably two hours. I didn’t know which band — Buckcherry or Steel Panther — was closing out the night so it was imperative that I made the venue location by 8:00 pm given that the concert would most likely end just before 11:00 pm. The Northern Exposure Tour was hitting all sorts of cities around Toronto including Hamilton, London, Waterloo and Pickering so I had had plenty choice on which show to attend. I ended up choosing the Pickering tour date for a few reasons. One of the reasons was that it was the closest location to my place kilometres wise (although attending the Hamilton tour stop would have likely been faster time wise). The main reason though for choosing the Pickering location was that I would be attending a venue that I had never been to before — the Pickering Casino Resort.
Buckcherry
I arrived at the Pickering Casino Resort at about 8:00 pm. I knew that this was cutting it very close and that I was likely missing part of the next band’s set by the time I got into the casino and made it to “The Arena” (wherever that was within the facility). I wasn’t really concerned though as I had checked to see what would be Buckcherry‘s setlist via setlist.fm to see what songs they would be playing. I noticed that for one of their prior shows on The Northern Exposure Tour, their start time was listed as 8:00 pm so it was likely that Steel Panther (which was the band that I really wanted to see) was going to be closing the festivities at the Pickering Casino Resort. I hadn’t bothered checking Steel Panther‘s prior setlists for this tour given that I knew all of their songs quite well and thought it would be more fun just to be “surprised” on what songs they might up end up playing while at the concert itself. As I was walking through the Pickering Casino Resort, it reminded me of the Casino Rama Resort but just a lot smaller in every way. For a good view of the venue layout, check out the video below (from Follow The Filipina‘s YouTube page):
Eventually, I made my way to The Arena inside the casino and I could hear music already playing and there was hardly a soul (aside from the venue staff) outside the doors. Despite the information that I had obtained via setlist.fm, I was still slightly concerned that Steel Panther might be playing but as I walked a little closer to the doors leading to The Arena, it was 
definitely Buckcherry‘s music that I was hearing. The Arena consisted of a large general admission area and elevated seating in the back meaning that just about everyone in the venue would have a great view of the stage. The seats were about one third full (based on my visual assessment) and there was a larger amount of people in the general admission section.
Apparently, The Arena has a capacity of 2,500 people so I estimate that it was about half full this time around. Interestingly enough, whenever I have seen Steel Panther play at History in Toronto — which also has a capacity of 2,500 people — that venue has felt pretty packed and close to sold out. That just was the feeling that I had at The Arena. I blame this likely on The Northern Exposure Tour hitting so many tour stops within or close to the greater Toronto area this time around. Had Steel Panther and Buckcherry only played Pickering rather than Hamilton, Waterloo, Pickering and London, I think that their gig at The Arena would have likely been sold out.
As soon as I walked into The Arena, the first thing I noticed was that Buckcherry frontman Josh Todd‘s vocals seemed to be quite low compared to the music itself making his vocals quite hard to understand. It was even worse when he was addressing the audience between songs as I could hardly make out what he was saying. I was standing in the general admission area on the left side of the stage (facing it) for most of Buckcherry‘s set and the sound overall was just rather disappointing for a presumably state of the art brand new facility such as the Pickering Casino Resort. Taking into account that I am not much of a Buckcherry fan — but for the most part always pleasantly surprised whenever I hear a new song from them — I found their set on the rather flat side. There just didn’t seem to be much of a connection between the band and a large part of the audience.
Buckcherry performing “Good Time” live at The Arena at Pickering Casino Resort in Pickering, Ontario, Canada on May 7, 2025 (video from shits and giggles’ YouTube page):
Todd started off the show with a dark black dress shirt and blazer but before long, he discarded both of those clothing garments to display his much tattooed torso. It seemed that Todd had kept himself in great shape over the years since there was not an ounce of fat to be seen on his lean and slim physique. He often put up the Angus Young famed “devil’s horns” with his fingers over his head at the start of various songs. And despite the fact that he exuded a lot of energy while on stage, I just found the band’s set pretty uninspired. Guitarist Stevie D. was on the right side of the stage so quite far from me. At one point, he seemed to have the same guitar that Ratt’s Warren DeMartini’s cross swords graphic Charvel guitar. That guitar looked 
amazing from a visual perspective. Jetboy guitarist Billy Rowe put in a mostly subdued performance while providing the steady rhythm guitar riffs that lays the foundation for the band’s songs. Probably the most impressive performer out of the group was bassist Keith LeMieux who seemed the most into it. LeMieux‘s eyes whenever he was singing background vocals were certainly entertaining to see.
My favorite tracks played from Buckcherry on this night were “Onset”, “Ridin’” and “Say Fuck It” wile the songs that seemed to receive the most love from the audience were the ballad “Sorry”, the Bryan Adams cover of “Summer of ’69” (which had many people singing along to) and the set closer “Crazy Bitch”. That being said, “Crazy Bitch” dragged on into what seemed like an endless jam although the setlist via setlist.fm suggests that the band played many snippets of other songs that I obviously did not know. In any case, it felt like the momentum was lost for Buckcherry with their long drawn out version of “Crazy Bitch”. Overall, it was a disappointing performance from the band, which was hindered significantly by the sound issues pertaining to Todd‘s vocals.
Buckcherry’s setlist (as per setlist.fm):
01. Roar Like Thunder
02. Lit Up
03. So Hott
04. Onset
05. Ridin’
06. Keep On Fighting
07. Feels Like Love
08. Say Fuck It
09. Let’s Get Wild
10. Come On
11. Sorry
12. Gluttony
13. Good Time
14. Summer of ’69
15. Crazy Bitch / Sex Machine / Bad Girls / Irresistible Bitch / Proud Mary / Crazy Bitch
Buckcherry performing “Crazy Bitch” medley live at The Arena at Pickering Casino Resort in Pickering, Ontario, Canada on May 7, 2025 (video from Genaro Liriano‘s YouTube page):
Steel Panther
Steel Panther were next. They had a huge banner behind them with the words “Steel Panther” and the band’s drummer Stix Zadinia came out to a weak spoken word intro that was obviously aimed at some comic relief. Zadinia at one point 
seemed to pretend to be a robot as he slowly made his way to his drum kit. Shortly after, guitarist Satchel and bassist Spyder made their way to the stage along with some female pole dancers. I am not sure whether those pole dancers were part of the touring entourage or some new ones came in from one city to the next. In any case, there seemed to be two pole dancers taking their turns on one of the poles while the other pole was manned by another dancer. Before long, frontman Michael Starr was on stage as the band kicked off their set with one of their customary opening tracks — “Eyes of A Panther”. It’s such a great song and there is a reason why Steel Panther decided to “audition” for Season 20 of America’s Got Talent. With such a great opening track, you could feel the energy from the audience and that was a great thing! Luckily for Starr, Steel Panther and the audience, the vocal sound issues that plagued Buckcherry‘s set were not present for Steel Panther‘s set.
The next song — ”It Won’t Suck Itself” — was a nice surprise since Steel Panther don’t always include that one in their setlist. It’s actually a really good song and kept the party going. Next up was Satchel and Starr‘s stand up comedy routine. Having seen the band live probably around 15 times now, it would be good if they changed up more of their jokes to come up with some fresh material. Alas, that was not the case on this night and although I got a chuckle of their usual shtick such as poking fun of Def Leppard‘s one arm drummer Rick Allen or calling Starr a “chubby” David Lee Roth, it would have been even better if they had some brand new jokes to offer. With the band intros out of the way, Steel Panther launched into “Asian Hooker” which seems to be part of their setlist every time that I have seen them play live. Although “Asian Hooker” was well received, that’s one song that I would not mind being removed from Steel Panther‘s setlist.
Steel Panther performing “Eyes of A Panther” and “It Won’t Suck Itself” live at The Arena at Pickering Casino Resort in Pickering, Ontario, Canada on May 7, 2025 (video from shits and giggles‘ YouTube page):
Just like most ’80s era bands, Steel Panther seem relegated to playing material from their earlier albums given that out of their rather short setlist of 11 songs and even though they have six studio albums under their belt, five songs were played from 
their debut album Feel The Steel (2009), three from their sophomore record Balls Out (2011) and one from their third album All You Can Eat (2014). That left only one song played from Steel Panther‘s last three studio records and that came in the form of the very good “Never Too Late (To Find Some Pussy Tonight)”.
From then on, it was just one super familiar song after another from Steel Panther with “Just Like Tiger Woods”, “Girl From Oklahoma” (which had two young ladies getting serenaded by Starr), “17 Girls In A Row” and “Party Like Tomorrow Is The End of The World” (the latter two had what appeared to be about 25 female fans on stage with the band). “Girl Like Oklahoma” provided some funny moments such as when Starr got each of the two young Midland based ladies to sing after him. They both sang pretty badly to be honest but as soon as Starr heard each of them sing, he would look absolutely “amazed” and he got the audience to cheer. It was quite funny to see. The two young ladies were able to withstand the pressure of the repeated calls from people for them to take off their tops before a whole bunch of other female fans came on stage to join them.
Pretty soon, the familiar sounds of “Community Property” could be heard and I knew that we were nearing the end of Steel Panther‘s set. I was correct in that regard given that the group then closed out the night with rousing renditions of “Death To All But Metal” and “Gloryhole”. At the time, I felt that Steel Panther‘s set seemed rather short but I had not counted how many songs that they had played. However, while writing this review, I was disappointed to see that co-headliner Buckcherry played 15 songs (with very limited stage banter between songs) while Steel Panther only played 11 songs. Tu put things into perspective, when I saw Steel Panther open for the mighty Judas Priest in Rochester, New York, USA back in October 2014, they played ten songs. Of note, Steel Panther‘s setlist had not changed much in 11 years given that seven songs that were played back in 2014 were still in the band’s live setlist almost 11 years later.
Overall, it was a solid set from Steel Panther but I would have definitely liked more songs played from them, some different jokes and a better “package” given that I am not much of a Buckcherry fan.
Steel Panther’s setlist:
01. Eyes of A Panther
02. It Won’t Suck Itself
03. Asian Hooker
04. Never Too Late (To Find Some Pussy Tonight)
05. Just Like Tiger Woods
06. Girl From Oklahoma
07. 17 Girls In A Row
08. Party Like Tomorrow Is The End of The World
09. Community Property
10. Death To All But Metal
11. Gloryhole
Steel Panther performing “Death To All But Metal” and “Gloryhole” live at The Arena at Pickering Casino Resort in Pickering, Ontario, Canada on May 7, 2025 (video from shits and giggles‘ YouTube page):
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