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The rain didn't keep these Bret Michaels fans away
Remember that scene in "The Wrestler" when Marisa Tomei's gold-hearted stripper recalls the good-time glory days of ‘80s hair metal? "‘90s sucked," she and Mickey Rourke concluded.
Well, if there was one show you could expect to find that cinematic Jersey Girl at this summer, it would have been Wednesday night (July 1)'s super-rocking alliance of Def Leppard, Poison and Cheap Trick at the PNC Bank Arts Center in Holmdel.
Before the final song of the evening, Def Leppard frontman Joe Elliot asked the adoring crowd a fairly straightforward question: "Do you want to get rocked?"
Now, that's not really a question Elliot needed to ask, because if you bought a ticket to this show, it was with the expectation of getting rocked. However, the audience still responded with nearly deafening cheers, as they had done for most of the evening. (The song that followed, incidentally, was the aptly-titled "Let's Get Rocked.")
So, how much did the show rock, exactly? Well, take a gander at the titles of some of the tunes played during Def Leppard's arena-shaking 16-song set: "Rock of Ages," "Let's Get Rocked," "Rock! Rock! Till You Drop" and "Rock On."
For fans whose summer soundtracks still consist of the Def Leppard's back-to-back ‘80s classics "Pyromania" (1983) and "Hysteria" (1987), there was plenty of reason to rejoice on Wednesday night: the band busted out four tunes from the former, including "Foolin'" and "Photograph," and six from the latter, including "Animal," "Love Bites" and the title track, all of which showcased the band's still-impressively tight vocal interplay and musicianship.
However, the highlight of Def Leppard's set came at its center, when Elliot and guitarists Phil Collen and Vivian Campbell strapped on acoustics and were joined by bassist Rick Savage at the end of a ramp that extended out into the crowd. What followed was a mini set that featured a strong unplugged take on the B-side "Two Steps Behind," which the band followed by playing the first half of 1981's "Bringin' on the Heartbreak" in a campfire fashion before returning to the electric axes and being joined by drummer Rick Allen to finish the song off.
While going acoustic marked the high point of Def Leppard's set, unplugging also contributed to the low point of Poison's middle-card show -- which is really saying something, considering that the rest of Poison's set wasn't much to write home about either.
When "Rock of Love" star and occasional Poison frontman Bret Michaels strapped on an acoustic 12-string for the granddaddy of all power ballads, "Every Rose Has its Thorn," the tone he got was dead, muffled and generally unpleasant. However, most of the folks in attendance didn't seem to mind, as they belted out the lyrics along with Michaels.
"Every Rose Has Its Thorn" was salvaged a bit thanks to its signature solo by lead guitarist C.C. DeVille, but that kind of sums up Poison's set. With the exception of DeVille's definite stage presence and entertaining fretwork, the band's 11-song set was wholly unremarkable.
Sure, there was a decent amount of pyrotecnics and more than a few Sunset Strip anthems the crowd had a blast singing along to -- "Talk Dirty to Me" was a highlight -- but that was countered by the fact that Michaels' voice was essentially shot after the show-opening "Look What the Cat Dragged In." This could probably be explained by the fact that Michaels spends more time in front of a television camera than behind a microphone these days.
Ultimately, Poison was the musical equivalent of a Michael Bay movie: big, loud, full of explosions and inexplicably popular.
Kicking off the evening's proceedings were classic rock heroes Cheap Trick, who handily proved over the course of their all-too-brief 10-song set that the winning combination of crunchy and catchy did not, in fact, start at hair metal.
The show's prompt 7 p.m. start time meant that Cheap Trick played in the daylight hours to a partially empty arena, but that didn't stop the band from rocking the Arts Center like it was Budokan and busting out hit after hit after hit.
Those who arrived at the show on time were treated to the classic "I Want You to Want Me" as the second song in the band's set, which also featured "Dream Police," "The Flame" and a cover of Elvis Presely's "Don't Be Cruel." By the time "Surrender" kicked in towards the end of the performance, the seats had filled up a bit and the late-comers probably realized how much of a good time they had missed.
Whether it was guitarist Rick Nielsen constantly raining picks on the folks in the first few rows, singer Robin Zander's classic frontman posturing or Nielsen's awe-inspiring number of cool guitars (including the classic five-necked monster busted out on the set-ending "Goodnight Now"), Cheap Trick's set was above all else entertaining, and not a bad way at all to kick off a hot summer night.
Here are the set lists from Wednesday night:
Cheap Trick:
1. "Way of the World"
2. "I Want You to Want Me"
3. "These Days"
4. "She's Tight"
5. "Don't Be Cruel"
6. "Sick Man of Europe"
7. "Dream Police"
8. "The Flame"
9. "Surrender"
10. "Goodnight Now"
Poison:
1. "Look What the Cat Dragged In"
2. "I Want Action"
3. "Ride the Wind"
4. "Something to Believe In"
5. "Your Mama Don't Dance"
6. "Fallen Angel"
7. "Unskinny Bop"
8. "Every Rose Has its Thorn"
9. "Talk Dirty to Me"
Encore:
10. "Nothin' But a Good Time"
Def Leppard:
1. "Rock! Rock! Till You Drop"
2. "Rocket"
3. "C'Mon C'Mon"
4. "Animal"
5. "Foolin'"
6. "Love Bites"
7. "Rock On"
8. "Two Steps Behind"
9. "Bringin' on the Heartbreak"
10. "Switch 625"
11. "Hysteria"
12. "Armageddon It"
13. "Photograph"
14. "Pour Some Sugar on Me"
15. "Rock of Ages"
Encore:
16. "Let's Get Rocked"
