bathroom. It had a teal blue toilet and bathtub LMAO
(Click on the pictures to see them full size.)
Steamboat Days is a 6-day music
festival held every year in Burlington, Iowa that's been around for 40 years;
that's all I know about it. But I didn't really care where or what it was
as long as Poison was playing.
Poison brought Hollyweird minus the
opening acts to Burlington on June 14, 2002. That was one of those days that
riding in the car for the 5 hours to get there didn't seem like it was time
to see them until I saw the sign for Burlington city limits. That put a huge
smile on my face knowing it was just 4 hours til
Poison :) So we went to the hotel
and checked in. Then did a big double-take at the
bathroom. It had a teal blue toilet and bathtub LMAO
(Click on the pictures to see them full size.)
One really nice thing about Steamboat
Days and their venue is that its an open-seat arrangement. That means
they have a VIP section where basically you buy a ticket for a guaranteed
chair which is also closest to the stage or you
have to bring your own lawn chair if you don't buy the
extra ticket. They open the gates to the VIP section and its a mad scramble
to claim your chair or the standing room in front of the stage. Thanks to
my hubby, I got in the 3rd row :))) He spotted the tour buses coming
in and getting to see them up closer backstage they are pretty kewl looking.
8:00 (the appointed starting time) came and
went. 10 minutes later an organizer introduced
Poison's opening act. Their name escapes
me. It was a local area act; a supposed blues band that was REALLY not up
to par to open for Poison. I figured
that was a good time to check out the merchandise. Just as a hint to the
buyers, if you want the hockey jersey, buy it at the concert; it costs $30
less than online. But for any other merchandise you want from
Hollyweird, buy it online; it's SIGNIFICANTLY cheaper.
After the opening act was done slaughtering the blues for 30 minutes, it
was another 45-minute wait till Highway to Hell
started playing and it was time for Poison to finally start
their set. Waiting is always the worst part, isn't it?
The set list that night (I think it changed right after this show) was Look
What the Cat Dragged In, Talk Dirty to Me, Ride the Wind, Squeeze Box, I
Want Action, Guitar Solo, I Hate Every Bone in Your Body but Mine,
Something to Believe In, Your Mama Don't Dance, Drum Solo, Every Rose
Has Its Thorn, Unskinny Bop, Fallen Angel, Rock 'N Roll All Night, and
an encore of Nothing But a Good Time. A pretty good choice of music;
all stuff that I like. But like a lot of people, I'm always disappointed
a little b/c there's ALWAYS other songs that I would love to hear too. The
biggest one that was missing this year was Let It Play; but I'm a
little prejudiced there, its my favorite of their songs. I definitely
wish they would have played more songs from
Hollyweird. Wouldn't it be awesome to hear Shooting Star live???
Or at least the title track, which I would have sworn people were saying
they played earlier in the
tour?
It would be impossible for me to remember a play-by-play of the concert; so I'll try to pick out a few kewl or unusual moments from the night. This was a more PG-rated version of a Poison concert; there was only one f*** mentioned the entire evening. Right b4 that was said, Bret said he was told to watch his mouth this evening, but the new album and the next song Something to Believe In was dedicated to the people of 9/11 and the soldiers and so on which got a HUGE crowd reaction. He said you just don't f*** with the USA; I couldn't agree more :) Slightly more PG was the encore where he said they weren't leaving til we had "nothing but a darn good time."
Bret
said they were gonna shoot off all the pyro the place would let them and
boy did they!! :))) The dragon cannons are back and firing this year. There
is plenty of other pyro and fireworks to go around too as well as the confetti
machine for Rock 'N Roll All Night. One thing unique to
Steamboat Days was a lady interpreting
in sign language the entire concert; bet you won't see that at too many
Poison concerts. Or even rock concerts
for that matter.
C.C. is his usual energetic self. It's obvious he was having a great time.
He still manages to put himself into interestin positions and never miss
a note of the music. How does he do that anyways? LOL When he
sang Every
B
one, he introduced himself for the guitar solo (like
usual) and then decided he wanted the crowd to sing the chorus with him.
So they brought the lights up and he taught them the lyrics and then explained
that oh, this is such a dirty song, he hoped he didn't offend anyone. That
brought lots of cheers followed by the place singing right along with him
:) I can't remember for which song, but at the end of one that
Bret usually jumps up on the last
chord to end it setting off the pyro, he had C. C. do it instead. The crowd
went crazy cheering. :)
If there is any doubt if Bobby has made a full recovery from his surgery
last year, all you need to do is see him in concert.
He is right back to jumping around and going
all over the stage full tilt as if
he'd
never had it. :) At one point, near the end of the concert,
someone threw a bra on the stage.
Bret put it over his mic stand
for a while. Pretty soon, Bobby had it and put it on his head. He wrapped
it around and hooked it under his chin and proceeded to play the next song
wearing it. LMAO
Rikki's Monster Drumset looks and
sounds great. As usual, he plays an awesome drum solo complete with ending
pyro. Not that we would expect anything else. :) I don't recall this happening
before, but after his solo Rikki was
tossing some of his drumsticks into the crowd and attached to them were backstage
passes. So I
guess if you want backstage and
don't know how else, there's one idea for you. The girl in front of me caught
one of them and I thought she was gonna faint when she figured out what was
attached to it LOL
As for the after-show, they are always a ball if you can get a pass; I highly
recommend joining either BMIFC
or Club Rockett or even both of
them. I had a pass to attend
Bret's meet 'n greet at this show.
It was a VERY small group for this show: just one other lady and myself.
Poison's appeal spans several generations.
This lady said she was old enough to be their mother; her daughter got her
hooked on the band :) There was also about a dozen radio contest winners
in line to meet Bret so there
was a chance to visit some.
The other three members of
Poison were all walking around at
varous times so I did get to see them, but there was no chance to say anything
or meet any of them this trip. I did however get to meet Janna and hear her
story of how she ended up working for
Bret. It's a really interesting
story if you get the chance to hear it. :)
A tiny bit of background info so this makes more sense. I teach JH kids and
last fall helped them make red, white, and blue friendship bracelets to sell
to raise money the school sent to a family who lost their dad in the Pentagon.
Anyways, there were a few left over and I promised the kids to give a bracelet
to any of
the members I got to meet this summer. I've helped create
a few new Poison fans :)) So when
it was my turn to meet Bret, I
explained all that to him and gave him the bracelet. I was expecting maybe
a thank you and he'd take it. I never expected what happened though.
Bret had me tie
the
bracelet on his wrist and said it was gonna stay right there till it fell
off :)) I thought that was a pretty kewl thing to do so I have to
say thank you, Bret. He is a really
sweet guy. :) That managed to distract me enough that when I got my
pictures back, I was surprised to see
Bret wearing a cowboy hat in it;
I don't remember it LOL
Live is what Poison does best and they obviously love soing it the best. That's why they tour year after year. I hope they plan to do it for MANY MANY years to come. I know I'll be there every time they do. :))) So what are you waiting for? Go buy your concert tickets already! LOL :)
