As I sit here listening to Neil Young, I am thinking two things:  1. Goddamn, Harvest is a great record and 2. I can't believe how serious this music is. I mean, if you aren't moved by Neil Young, there's seriously something wrong with you. This is pull-at-your-heartstrings music. These are songs about life, love, farms(?). But I don't feel like laughing. Which isn't to say that Neil is an unfunny man. I'm sure he has a sense of humor...probably sarcastic and ironic and I'm sure some of his lyrics throw inside joke jabs at the industry and "the man". Nevertheless, I am not smiling...and every now and then I need to smile.

Steel Panther makes me smile much in the way that old John Candy films make me smile. Goofy, harmless fun. The soundtrack to Caddyshack, or whazzuuuuuuuuuuuuup jokes in the nineties. It's the kind of humor serious people think is stupid and hipsters can't appreciate. It is pogs. It is Geico commercials. It is Kurt Russell in Big Trouble Little China.

If you haven't heard Steel Panther, all you need to know can be heard in the track below, "Death to All but Metal." Fashioned after 80's glam rockers and appealing to all the over-the-top theatrics of that era, Steel Panther exercise their right to rock with insult humor, profanity and lots of it. Frankly put, it's balls to the wall fun.

Tonight, the Panthers will be visiting WNY via Niagara Falls venue, Rapids Theatre (7:30pm). Also on the bill are Syracuse's Brand New Sin, a great hard rock band on Century Media, as well as the Jim Crean Band. It's Wednesday...mid-week. Your life needs some humor. Get some.