PHOTOS: Stone Sour, Steel Panther, and Cherry Bombs at Sands Bethlehem Event Center, 10/03/17
With fire dancing, sharp weapons, comedic parody, confetti guns, wacky waving inflatable tube men, and an unexpected leg injury, the Stone Sour concert at the Sands Bethlehem Event Center on Tuesday, Oct. 3 was a wild and certainly unforgettable night.
It began with the Cherry Bombs, who aren’t so much a band as “a rock ‘n’ roll entertainment group” with pole dancing, silk climbing, fire spinning, and a dark burlesque show with sharp weapons and skimpy lingerie that grabbed everyone’s attention early on.
Steel Panther was up next with an hour of crude humor and impressive musicianship from the ’80s glam metal spoof. With long hair, tight pants, heavy makeup, and plenty of leopard print, it was clear that these guys were having as much fun sending up the music of that era as they were playing in its style, inviting ladies up on stage and making offensive jokes with songs like “Asian Hooker,” tongue planted firmly in cheek as they bragged about their own sex appeal.
The crowd was effectively warmed up, but before Stone Sour could really get started with their opening song, “Taipei Person/Allah Tea,” singer Corey Taylor fell and injured his leg, limping as he struggled to keep the show on track. Admitting this to the audience right away, he joked about getting old and simply powered right through it, having dealt with worse as the longtime frontman of masked metalers Slipknot (including spinal surgery last year).
Playing five songs from their latest record, “Hydrograd,” as well as a good mix of tracks from their previous five albums, the band refused to cut the night short, delivering about an hour and a half of hard rock, the pain only making Taylor’s vocals sound more intense. With confetti guns and the dancing inflatable tube men seen in their “Fabuless” music video, they were not going to be upstaged by their openers and continued to engage the crowd as only Taylor can.
Stone Sour setlist, Oct. 3, 2017, Sands Bethlehem Event Center, Bethlehem:
Taipei Person/Allah Tea
Knievel Has Landed
Take a Number
Reborn
Say You’ll Haunt Me
30/30-150
Hesitate
Tired
Rose Red Violent Blue (This Song Is Dumb & So Am I)
Do Me a Favor
Cold Reader
Get Inside
Song #3
Through Glass
Encore:
Gone Sovereign
Absolute Zero
Fabuless
