Poison: Live Raw & Uncut Summer Tour 2008

By Skitch, Unassociated Press (red-HALO.com)

Ever since their “Look What The Cat Dragged In” album back in 1986, Poison has always been a guilty pleasure for me. I know they’re not the world’s greatest band and they’re far from the most technical group of musicians. But, they’ve found themselves the perfect niche as a good time party band and they do it very well. From start to finish, they’re showmen.

Poison was scheduled to take the stage at 10:00. By 10:15, the crowd was getting a little impatient. The person to my right said, “They’d better start soon, the noise ordinance doesn’t allow music after 11:00.” With the lights still up in the pavilion, the stage lighting came up and the video screens were turned on. The crowed rose to their feet and began to cheer … for a Rock of Love commercial and a Poison Live, Raw & Uncut DVD commercial.

I’ve since realized that was, in fact, the start of the show. Following the commercials, GNR’s “Welcome to the Jungle” was pumped thru the PA. The stage and pavilion lights were up full and Brett Michaels was walking around the crowd taking photos and shaking hands. As the crowd sang along to GNR, I realized the producers of the show were setting the perfect party atmosphere.

When the stage and pavilion lights went out, Big John from Rock of Love screamed, “Indianapolis … Are you ready?! From Hollywood, California please welcome … Poison!” {Note: Reading it doesn’t do it justice, it was energetic. Just listen to the introduction from the Swallow This: Live album, it was the same guy.}

In the dark, the screens flickered a moment then displayed the movie countdown from 5 followed by pictures of Bret Michaels, CC DeVille, Bobby Doll and Rikki Rockett and a viewer discretion warning which read, “Warning: The follow program contains adult themes and situations. Would you expect anything less?”

The first song up, Look What The Cat Dragged In. I’ve seen Poison a few times and actually predicted they’d start the show with this tune. It’s the perfect song to start the show, it fits the band’s personality perfectly. As I mentioned before, they’re a good time party band, not Rush. The great thing is I think they embrace who they are by mocking themselves a bit starting with that song.

Bret Michaels popped out of a trap door from under an elevated riser behind the drums kit. The stage was lined with amps, 14 in all, on both sides of Rikki’s drum riser. Stairs were set up at stage left and right leading up to the elevated riser behind the drums. It was similar to the stage in the “Unskinny Bop” video, but only in design. Unlike the stage in the video, the stairs and risers were all plain white. In fact, the only color on stage was CC’s purple flying V guitar and the red flames on Rikki’s white drum kit. {Note: Bobby’s bass and Bret’s acoustic guitar were both black if you were wondering.}

The boys followed “Look What The Cat Dragged In” with I Want Action, also from their 1986 debut album. Both “Look What The Cat Dragged In” and “I Want Action” were performed with full energy from the band. CC’s guitar solos were just as I remembered them, Bret’s vocals were spot on and Bobby and Rikki were holding down a solid rhythm section.

Ride The Wind from the Flesh & Blood album followed “I Want Action” and I remember being very impressed with the harmonized backing vocals provided by CC, Bobby and Rikki.

After “Ride The Wind”, Bret chatted up the crowed for a bit. He welcomed everyone to the show and thanked Sebastian Bach and Dokken. He also plugged the Kid Rock/Lynard Skynard show the following night and introduced the next tune from the Poison’d album, What I Like About You.

During “What I Like About You”, the music video played on the screens. Poison’s rendition of this classic tune is pretty good. I know some people don’t care for cover tunes, but I enjoy hearing them. I also find it interesting that both Poison and Def Leppard came out with cover albums recently; the old is forever new.

Following “What I Like About You”, Bret began to chant, “CC” and the crowd joined him. CC walked to the front of the stage, motioned the crowd to cheer more and began to play a Guitar Solo. I’ve always enjoyed CC’s guitar solos. It’s one of the great things about Poison, there’s a guitar solo in every song they wrote (even the cover tunes).

CC’s solo began in the way most guitar solos do, with a lot of fast notes followed by a held high pitched bent note. The great thing about CC is he’s a ham. He’d play a few lines and then stop to get the crowd to cheer for more. He made his way from one side of the stage to the other, stopping every so often to egg the crowd on for more. At one point he stopped and walked around the stage basking in the cheers. He then mouthed the words, “Okay, Okay, one more time.” He then proceeded to play “Flight of the Bumble Bee”, something Nuno Bettencourt (of Extreme) was famous for playing, followed by a finger tap solo. CC ended his solo by playing a little of “Amazing Grace” which sounded pretty good on guitar.

Bobby, Rikki and Bret returned to the stage as the crowd cheered for CC’s guitar solo. Brett walked to center stage strumming his acoustic guitar. He introduced the next song, Something To Believe In, from the Flesh & Blood album mentioning that they play it each night for the troops. He talked about going overseas this past summer to meet with the troops and reintroduced Big John from Rock of Love who walked on stage with a video camera. Bret explained that they film “Something To Believe In” each night and send the video to the troops overseas.

Following “Something To Believe In”, Bret pulled out a harmonica and played a little blues intro to Your Mamma Don’t Dance which was quickly followed by Rikki Rockett’s DRUM SOLO. As Bret introduced “Mr. Rockett”, Rikki’s drum riser lifted off the stage.

The crowd cheered for the elevated drum kit and Rikki began beating his drums in to submission. The great thing about Rikki is he’s a true showman with his drumming. He stands up while playing and effortlessly twirls his sticks or tosses them in the air and catches them without missing a beat. The solo itself was pretty good, at one point I remember Rikki playing a Buddy Rich style single handed roll; that was impressive.

Rikki’s kit lowered back to stage level and moved forward toward the crowd as he finished the first part of his solo. He stood up carrying a large jam box on his shoulder and walked around to the front of his kit. He set the jam box down in front of his bass drum and hit the play button to start a backing track for the next part of his solo. He then walked to the edge of the stage and sat down on a box drum where a set of bongos were set up and continued his solo.

When Rikki was done with the hand percussion part of his solo, he walked back behind his drum kit and played the intro to Unskinny Bop as his drum kit moved back into its original position. CC and Bobby returned to the stage and Bret came running out as a stage hand tossed him a pair of maracas.

After “Unskinny Bop”, Bret thanked the crowd again for coming out and supporting them for the past 22 years. He then plugged the new season of Rock of Love, aka Rock of Love Bus, which will feature 20 women on the road with Bret for a month long tour. Bret also mentioned the first stop on the Rock of Love Bus would be in Indianapolis.

Bret than began to strum the intro to Every Rose Has Its Thorn on his guitar as the crowd cheered. Lighters were raised all over the pavilion and in the lawn and a mirror ball was dropped from above the stage. It was very surreal … a flash back to junior high school dances in 1988. At the end of “Every Rose Has Its Thorn”, Bret prepared the crowd for the last chord saying, “The end of this song features the first four notes I ever learned on guitar, this is where my dad’s $12.50 guitar lessons paid off”.

Another song from the Open Up And Say… Ahh! album, Fallen Angel, followed “Every Rose Has Its Thorn”. For me, Open Up And Say… Ahh! is thee Poison album; perhaps because it came out around the same time I got my first drum kit and I drummed along to every track hundreds of times or simply because it was good time Poison from start to finish.

From “Fallen Angel” you could feel the show was building to an explosive ending. The boys followed “Fallen Angel” with Talk Dirty To Me, which was by far the bands Best In Show number. CC was tossing picks to the crowd and dancing around with Bret, Bobby was running from stage left to stage right and Rikki was standing while playing throughout most of the song.

As Bobby, CC and Rikki hammered the ending to “Talk Dirty To Me”, Bret thanked the crowd for 22 years of support and reminded everyone about Rock of Love Bus. He then said, “Thanks to all my friends up front, [and] all the way up in the lawn, have a good summer, see you next year!” and the stage went dark.

Within a very short amount of time, possibly because it was now after midnight, Big John from Rock of Love came out on stage and yelled, “Do you want more Indianapolis? Give it up one more time for Poison!!”

Bret, CC, Bobby and Rikki ran back out on stage (Rikki in a Corey Feldman hat) as Bret said, “Indianapolis, we’re not leaving ‘till you have nothin’ but a good f-in’ time”, he then pointed to Rikki and said, “Rockett!” and Rikki and CC began the intro to Nothin’ But A Good Time. Once again, there was full energy on stage. Clips of the band from the 80s were being played on the video screens; skateboarding on hotel luggage carts, wrecking hotel rooms and clips from their music videos.

Just prior to singing the line, “I raise a toast to all of us”, Bret asked Rikki, Bobby and CC to bring it down a bit. A roadie handed him a Corona and he asked the entire crowd to raise their drinks, he toasted Indianapolis, took a drink and then continued singing.

“Nothin’ But A Good Time” ended in classic 80s tradition, Bobby and Rikki pounded on the last note as CC took one last opportunity to solo. Then with a loud explosion, confetti dropped from the ceiling (just like the end of the video). The boys continued to hammer on the last note as Rikki’s drums rose up off the stage again, Bret said, “Thank you, Indianapolis, good night” and the band hit 5 notes and the stage went dark.

The pavilion and stage lights came up rather quickly and the band was still on stage. Bret said he’d “like to thank everyone one more time without screaming it for the video” and he CC, Bobby and Rikki made their way out to shake hands and take photos in the crowd as the credits rolled on the screens.