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Boston, MA-It has been twenty years since Poison opened for Ratt on their first national tour together. Tonight history repeats itself (except now Ratt Opens for Poison), as the tour of the summer featuring Poison, Ratt, and Sweden's Vain of Jenna rolled into the Boston Tweeter Center.
To kick of the festivities at the Tweeter Center in Mansfield, Vains of Jenna, all decked in their 80's glam-wear, won over a whole new audience. Vains of Jenna have that raw, glam appeal of young Guns ‘N’ Roses. These musicians are in for the music, and their performance was raw, real, and energetic. They are on Bam Margera(Unholy Alliance reality show fame) record label and have that hunger that will make them succeed. It was also inspiring to see them onstage watching Ratt's set. All of the bands on this tour have so much respect for one another. You really don't get that rock n' roll brotherhood too much in the music business today.
Singer Lizzy Devine reminds me of a young Axl Rose, donning a bandana and no shirt. He spit out words with a punk attitute, while guitarist Nicki Kin, unleashed his raw, Slash like guitar style. The rhythm section consisted brothers JP White on bass, and Jacki Stone on drums.
Highlights of the set included the Tom Petty cover song,” Refugee". The band played 5 original songs including,” No One's Gonna Do It For Ya", and "Don't Give A Damn." When asked about the tour, guitarist Nicki Kin says,” Yeah it's true, we will be out with them all summer, we're really fuckin excited about it. It’s gonna be a great tour and a great opportunity for us to show everybody what we’re all about. CC saw us last summer at The Cat Club, and he and Bobby Dall saw us at The Viper Room, last time we played there. They're really cool guys. We were all influenced by that kind of music and Poison. It’s really big in Sweden right now. Vains of Jenna have been on the road touring constantly in support of your debut album,” Lit Up/Let Down on the Bam Margera label Filthy Note Records. This your is really important, we never played in front these big crowds before and hopefully It will help us sell some more copies of our album." Buy the new Vains of Jenna Cd here.
Ratt hit the state at 8 P.M. and performed a 75-minute set of all of the hits plus a few surprises. These days the new Ratt consists of Stephen Pearcy on vocals, Bobby Blotzer on drums, Robbie Crane on bass, John Corabi on rhythm guitar, and guitarist Warren Demartini. The new version of Ratt is fresh and ready to rock. Stephen Pearcy ruled the stage, with his signature prowl and unique, vocal style.
Ratt performed all of their classic hits including, "Wanted Man", "You're In Love", "Lack Of Communication", and "Back For more". Stephen Pearcy said look for a new Ratt DVD in July.
One of most impressive highlights of the set was the blues,” Way Cool Jr." Ratt has always had a blues vibe to their set and tonight they proved it, as bassist Robbie Crane and drummer Bobby Blotzer, along with guitarist Warren Demartini cranked out the funky rhythm.
Singer Stephen Pearcy was pretty impressed with the great response from the audience. Stephen enthuses, so you're back for more. It has been 20 years since Ratt and Poison did a full-blown tour together. It seems like just yesterday."
Tonight's concert brought back so many memories of their 1987 show at the Providence Civic Center. Funny thing, the songs still sounded great, and the chemistry of all the bands was just as charged as it was back in the day. They say you can't rewrite history, but tonight in Mansfield, MA, the whole new era of the Poison and Ratt sequel took on a new chapter, as the 80's bands that started it all performed to their die hard fans, and gained some new faces along the way.
Ratt had everyone on their feet, and dancing to "Lay It Down". Stephen was in a very good mood as yelled this song is for the ladies, it is a ballad and laughed. Well you ought to know me better that that. The band whipped into "Body Talk". I hadn't heard this song in years, great choice. Ratt ended the show with the song that started it all, "Round and Round."
RATT Set list:
Sweet Cheater
Dangerous But Worth The Risk
I'm Insane
City To City
Wanted Man
Slip of the Lip
Way Cool Jr.
Nobody Rides For Free
Back For More
Over The Edge
Lack Of Communication
Lay It Down
You're In Love
Body Talk
Round and Round
Next up, Poison hit the stage at 9:30 P.M. and performed a 90-minute set of all of their classic hits, and even performed a few tunes off of their cover album, POISON'D. Prior to the band taking the state, on the video screen appeared an advertisement of the Brett's new reality TV show,” Rock Of Love". The segment also included a few clips from the bands new album,” POISON’D including, “What I Like About You", and "Can't You See". First of all, I would like to say, I think it is cool that both CC Deville, who just wrapped up The Surreal Life and Bret Michaels, who is getting ready to unveil,” Rock Of Love" are doing these reality TV shows. It sort of boosts their star power for a whole new generation of fans. Since, MTV really doesn't play music video anymore, we now have these reality shows with the 80's rock stars.
Kicking off the set with their standard song,” Look What The Cat Dragged In". Poison captivated the crowd with their 80's hits. Although, I have been coming to see the band since 1999, it still never gets old. The reason for this is, I think because the band still has the best time onstage and in retrospect this reflects on the audience. Poison's set is all about having a good time, and tonight in Mansfield, 8000 Poison fans surely had,” Nothing But A Good Time".
Rolling into,” I Want Action Tonight", Poison were there for the party and took the audience back in time with all of their classic hits.
Highlights of the set included,” I Won't Forgot You" with Bret playing acoustic guitar. Bret enthuses,” It is great to be back in Boston. We actually shot parts of this video of "I Won't Forgot You" in Springfield and Worcester. This song has a special meaning to us here tonight.
Other highlights included CC Deville's great performance. CC, who is clean and sober these days, has to be one of the 80's most fun performers to watch onstage. CC performed,” I Hate Every Bone In My Body But Mine" with much enthusiasm.
I was really looking forward to the show tonight and hoping to hear some of the new cover tunes off of POISON'D. Poison performed my favorite,” Can’t You See", and gave the song a great new rendition. Bret's voice has that special melodic quality that simply won over that song for me. The band also performed," I Need To Know" by Tom Petty and The Romantics,” What I Like About You". It was a nice change of pace, and made the set flow rather nicely.
It was the perfect night for a concert with 70-degree temperatures, unlike many years when the band performed in the 98-degree heat. Bret also remarked about the weather and said,” I got to ride my bike around Boston today. Boston has always been one of our favorite cities."
Poison’s stage show was stripped down and open with a catwalk for the band to go up and prance on occasionally. The band mostly relied on the music, with just a few flash pods. Poison's performance was energetic, as they performed,” Fallen Angel", "Every Rose Has A Thorn", and "Unskinny Bop".
The rhythm section of bassist Bobby Dall and Rikki Rocket was tight. Bobby smiled a lot onstage, so you knew he was having a great time.
Tonight's Poison's show had to be one of my favorites so far. The set flowed flawlessly, and the acoustic part of the set and new cover songs made the show a really fun evening. I hope everyone has the opportunity to catch the Poison/Ratt/Vains of Jenna tour this summer, as two of the top 80's bands take you into the future of Ratt and Roll and POISON'D with "Nothing But A Good Time".
Poison Set List
Look What The Cat Dragged in
I Want Action
Ride The Wind
I Won’t Forgot You
What I Like About You
CC Guitar Solo
I Hate Every Bone In Your Body But Mine
Something To Believe In
Can’t You See
Your Mama Don’t Dance
Rikki Drum solo
Unskinny Bop
Every Rose Has It’s Thorn
Fallen Angel
Talk Dirty To Me
Encore
Nothing But A Good Time
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