Poison vocalist Bret Michaels stopped by Braun’s Concert Cove in Akron, NY while on his ‘Life Rocks’ tour for a night of music and fun. Michaels, who also has a current show on the Travel Channel called “Rock My RV,” focused on playing music from his latest album titled “Jammin’ with Friends.”
Michaels and his band didn’t take the stage until about 9:45pm, but when he did it was an hour and 15 minutes of pure energy. He made numerous mentions of Akron, NY and thanked everyone for coming out. He even called a local war veteran named Jeff on stage to share the spotlight on “Something to Believe In.” His band has been the same for the last handful of years, who are as follows: Dirty Ray on bass, Pete Evick on guitar, Chuck Fanslau on drums and Robi Wylde on keyboards.
Even though Michaels is a product of the 80’s music scene classified as “hair metal,” he has carved out a nice niche for himself as the show was very well attended. Michaels keeps reinventing himself with his appearances on a multitude of TV shows over the last few years. This has helped him at the gate as many of his female fans still flock to see the 80’s heartthrob. He stuck primarily to Poison songs and one solo song. For this writer, it would have been nice to see some of his earlier solo material like a track called “Raine,” or another one of his tracks from one of his 4 solo albums. Regardless, Michaels’ has a strong following and with the fans stills showing up in droves to see him, who am I to argue that fact?
It also should be noted that one of his acoustic guitars that he played on stage was raffled off immediately after he left for $900.00. All the proceeds were to go to Brett’s charity for Juvenile Diabetes.
Set List:
Talk Dirty to Me (Poison song)
Look What the Cat Dragged In (Poison song)
Sweet Home Alabama (Lynyrd Skynyd cover)
Go That Far
You Mama Don’t Dance (Loggins & Messina cover)
Something to Believe In (Poison song)
Unskinny Bop (Poison song)
Drum solo
What I got (Sublime cover)
Ever Rose has its Thorn (Poison song)
Fallen Angel (Poison song)
Encore: Nothing but a Good Time (Poison song)
We would like to thank Ross Catalino from Back 2 Back Entertainment for the credentials to cover the show.
