Before the Show

I saw Poison and the other groups in Branson for the third time this tour on July 22nd. We started the day by making the 6 hour 312 mile trip there not knowing if we would get tickets or not. Every place online said the show was sold out. But luckily there were still a few left when we got there.

On the way down, I had to find a radio station and found one just in time to hear that coming up next they were going to talk w/Bret Michaels of Poison. I took that as a good sign for getting tickets. He talked a lot about Songs of Life. I remember he said his favorite Poison song to do live was Nothing But a Good Time, but he enjoys building up to it playing Unskinny Bop and several others that I forget. They played Every Rose and Raine.

The Concert

They played a venue called the Grand Palace. This would be a really kewl place to have a show for a convention. It only seats 4000 so there's not really a bad seat in the house no matter where you're at. Just a thought anyways. Skid Row played their normal set. Johnny, lead singer, performed 18 & Life walking through the audience accompanied by Big John. He slapped everyone's hands walking by and gave out a few hugs. Vince did his set. Nothing really sticks out about it in my head right now.

Poison Played for 95 minutes doing the same set they had done earlier in the summer. Its been posted many times so I won't repeat it. Bobby had some problems w/his bass during I Won't Forget You so they started it over. Said they were gonna do it right if they're gonna play it. Blamed it on the bass tech and said he'd stayed out too late partying the night before. At one point, a female fan jumped on the stage and made a b-line for Bret and hugged him from behind before she was grabbed by security. Brett shrugged after that. Later on a male fan jumped on stage and started dancing as 4 security guys started going after him. He decided to jump back in the crowd.

C.C.'s solo and song time ended up behing hilarious. He said he was gonna play the Second Movement of Brahm's Second Concerto for the final part of his guitar solo. It got a huge pop from the crowd. When he introduced himself to sing I Hate Every Bone, He said Hello, Branson, Mississippi. Oops, Branson's in Missouri. Bret came onto stage and corrected him. Then he said oh, it's not Branson, but Missouri. Bret came back and corrected C. C. again. and they went into the song. After the guitar solo of the song, C. C. was going to introduce the other guys but he said he'd f*** it up but I'll do it anyways. So He first said that it was Bobby Rockett on bass and Rikki Dall on drums. Then he did it the right way with their names. He also said something about Rikki playing the choo-choo. If anyone has a clue on that one, let me know; I'm curious. Finally, he said I'm having the time of my life but now its time to get back to the song.

The show was full of everything you'd expect, pyro galore, lots of energy, and of course the music. They all are having a great time performing and it comes across in the performance. That just makes it all the more fun to watch. This is by far the biggest stage production that Poison has done in the last five years. And the tickets are still at a very reasonable price compared to other concerts.

After the Concert

After the concert, I was surprised to see that just a piece of police tape is all that separated the crowd from the buses. We had to cut through the parking lot to get back to our hotel so we decided to hang around for a bit and see what happened. Pretty soon, "Snake" Sabo of Skid Row walked along the tape and signed autographs and took pictures. He was a pretty kewl guy and answered questions from anyone. He shared how he got the nickname of "Snake." He said he grew up in New Jersey with Jon Bon Jovi. When he was around 12 years old, he had a piece of hair on his chest, just one, that was really long and curly. Jon told him that it looked like a snake and he should shave it off. And the nickname stuck all these years later. If you stuck around long enough, some of the others guys walked around and would sign autographs, but you needed your own marker. I also got Brent Fitz, Vince Neil's drummer, to sign my ticket.

My biggest surprise of the evening was when one of the Poison security guys walked along the tape and was selling Bret's solo CD. If you had one, you could go back to the bus and Bret would sign it. I had put my copy in my bag so I asked if you had to buy it there or could you just have a copy with you? They said as long as you have it with you he would sign it. So I pulled it out and was able to get in line. I didn't think I would get to have a picture taken too, but the security guy asked if I wanted one taken. Like I was gonna refuse that??? LOL I was one of the last people in line so I talked to Bret for a couple of minutes. He said they were playing in Poplar Bluff in August and I should come see the show. But that's too far away from me. I told him I was gonna try to make the show in Omaha though. And guess what he said??? He said don't worry, he'd take care of me. There'd be a couple of tickets for me. How KEWL was that?? Of course, I know they're not very likely to be there. He doesn't know my name or anything, but it was really nice to hear all the same. :D