POISON Phoenix AZ (June 17) Review and Video Footage Available

The following is the Examiner.com review of the POISON concert at the Ashley HomeStore Pavilion by Ted Hansen

It was fitting that Poison closed their set on Friday night, June 17, 2011 at the Ashley HomeStore Pavilion in Phoenix with "Nothin? But A Good Time," for that?s what the band, along with their fans, had just experienced. For almost sixty minutes, lead singer Bret Michaels, guitarist C.C. DeVille, bassist Bobby Dall and drummer Rikki Rocket reminded the audience of who Poison can be. A good time, party down, crank it loud, unskinny bopping quartet that has morphed from a 1980?s glam/hair band to a solid group of rock and rollers. Touring in honor of the twenty-fifth anniversary of the release of their initial album Look What the Cat Dragged In, the audience was treated to a night of Poison?s greatest hits.

As the second act in the popular Mötley Crüe/Poison/New York Dolls tour, Poison was limited in what they could do. The song list was shorter than normal and the stage production perhaps a few pyrotechnics shy of what Poison and their fans may have wanted (although flames a plenty still came with the package). With a profile of a skull head surrounded by roses and wearing a flamed top-hat with a cigarette-holder in its teeth as the backdrop, the crowd came to its feet when Bret Michaels first appeared high above the band as they kicked into "Look What the Cat Dragged In."

It was a thank you to the fans night, as new home town celebrity Michaels repeatedly thanked the faithful for their twenty five years of support and on a more personal note, thanked those life-saving medical teams in attendance that had worked on him. But words without action are hollow and this thank you was punctuated by playing what the fans wanted to hear. If the 1980?s backdrop didn?t take you back at least twenty years then C.C. DeVille?s Flying V guitars certainly did. But one is jolted out of nostalgia when ballads such as "Every Rose Has It?s Thorn," now brings out swaying cell phones instead of lighters.

The band was stronger on original numbers rather than covers such as "Your Mama Don?t Dance," and the new "We?re An American Band." "Unskinny Bop" was the night?s highlight, the crowd dancing, Michaels bounding and spinning, the flames blasting. The crowd was primarily composed of those who are always workin,? slavin,? every day who gotta get away from the same old same old. For them, Poison gave them a chance to get away.

Set list:
Look What The Cat Dragged In
Ride The Wind
We?re an American Band
Your Mama Don?t Dance
Guitar Solo
Fallen Angel
Unskinny Bop
Drum Solo
Every Rose Has It?s Thorn
Talk Dirty To Me
Nothin? But a Good Time

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