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When I first heard Poison was coming to town on tour this
summer, I was amped! I mean, the band I followed so passionately
as a kid was coming to town, and despite my
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adoration of them
back in the 80s, I had never actually seen them in concert. Then, I hear
they are teaming up on tour with Def Leppard and Cheap Trick, so that was a no-brainer. I had to be
there. That was one trifecta of
teased hair and torrid talent I was not going to miss.
Luckily, I scored free tickets on a
radio contest, so I didn't have to invest $80 a pop on some less than
close seats. My old college roommate and I headed down to the Sprint
Center, Kansas City's newest and finest concert venue, and headed on in
expecting to see quite the eclectic crowd. We were right. I donned my
Cobra Kai Tee, in homage of the 80s, but couldn't hold a candle to some
of the concert goers I saw that night. It got to the point that I
couldn't tell if people were dressed up in costume, or if it was their
everyday party garb. We shuffled into the arena, and distantly I could
hear Cheap Trick rocking "Dream Police."
We
were a bit late, so didn't see the entire Cheap Trick set, but did catch
the aforementioned hit, plus "The Flame." I didn't know what to expect,
but I was incredibly impressed by the vocals and overall sound from the
band. After decades, they could still make the hits sound legit. The
music was crisp and the vocals sounded like a near flawless replication
of their radio airplay.
Following a 20 minute intermission, the
lights dimmed and C.C.'s guitar started to blare through the speakers.
Poison was taking the stage and the crowd was going nuts. Songs about
strippers and debauchery filled the arena, as they rocked through their
hair raising hits. "Talk Dirty to Me" never sounded dirtier, and the
raucous crowd couldn't have bopped any harder to "Unskinny Bop." I was
pleasantly surprised that, despite the abundance of lighters and Aquanet
in the air during "Every Rose Has its Thorn," no fire alarms or
evacuations were needed.
Def
Leppard, due to having the most worldwide album sales, was the headliner
of the night. I was thinking that they would have a tough time following
Poison's scorching set -- and for the most part, I was right. The first
several songs were lackluster and my clapping following each tune was
more lackadaisical than legit. Joe Elliott seemed to
conveniently have
the crowd fill in and sing through the high notes that he probably could
no longer hit. Don't get me wrong, though -- it wasn't all bad. Half way
through the gig, the rocking got better and the songs got louder.
"Animal" was ferociously fun and "Rock of Ages" rocked all the
widespread ages in the crowd. I was quite surprised when I heard the
echoing of "Love is like a bomb" throughout the arena that "Pour
Some Sugar on Me" was not the encore. I remarked to my friend as Def
Leppard left the stage that the only song left I could think of was
"Let's Get Rocked." Just then, the lights dimmed again, Joe came out and
said " I have just one question for you Kansas City. Do you wanna get
rocked?!" The crowd responded its approval with thunderous applause and
following the finale, the concert came to a close. All in all, the
concert was awesome -- plain and simple. I went in excited, but with
limited expectations and left as satisfied as the girls on "Rock of
Love." As I exited the arena, I stopped to peer in at the concert tees
and see how much they cost. My heart sunk as I saw the cheapest tee cost
$40. I weighed the benefit of wearing a Poison Tee shirt from 2009, or
getting one from 1988 on Ebay for half the price. Let's just say I am
currently the highest bidder . . . and had enough left over for a pair
of leather pants.
Link to Tour Dates:
www.poisonweb.com
Follow
Ryan on Twitter @ryanzonline
