Poison bests Ratt in '80s flashback
When it comes to successful '80s nostalgia shows the purchase of a ticket is like the signing of a contract. The performers agree to play songs the crowd knows, and only songs the crowd knows, and the crowd, in some cases with generous lubrication, will treat said performers to a hero's welcome and charitably overlook the ridiculous period hairdos and physical and vocal deterioration that are side effects of doing 20 years of scissor kicks and shots.
Saturday night at the Tweeter Center only one half of the Poison-Ratt twin bill held up its end of the bargain.
Although their shtick has atrophied somewhat over several years of annual summer touring, the guys in Poison are still having nothin' but a good time churning out their power pop on glam metal steroids. And no one more so than lead singer Bret Michaels, who compensated for diminished vocal oomph on hits like "Ride the Wind" and "Something to Believe In" by executing Rock 101 moves with endearing earnestness. (There was much pelvic wriggling, pounding of his heart, pointing to hot chicks in the crowd, substituting "Boston" for any and all geographical references in songs, etc.)
C.C. Deville gamely played his dual role as nimble ax man and band jester, fingering his fretboard with gusto and singing his solo number "I Hate Every Bone in Your Body . . ." with stoopid glee.
The quartet even neatly sidestepped the "no new stuff" rule by filling the spaces that might've housed album cuts by playing other people's old stuff from their new album of covers, "Poison'd." Furthering the notion that they were more extra loud pop-rock band than true metalheads , they worked up Tom Petty's "I Need to Know," the Marshall Tucker Band's "Can't You See," and the Romantics' "What I Like About You."
The lighters in the half-capacity crowd came out for totally '80s ballad "Every Rose Has Its Thorn," and after gracious thanks they wound up with "Talk Dirty to Me" and "Nothin' But a Good Time."
If Poison successfully bottled the eau de Aqua Net floating in the ether, Ratt did near the opposite. In fact, the intermission music -- Aerosmith , AC/DC , GN'R -- proved a far better warm-up than these former brothers in spandex.
With his general air of weariness and battered larynx, singer Stephen Pearcy did the best he could to rally the crowd with exhortations to party but struggled mightily for notes high, middle, and low. The band's less well-known catalog of similar sounding songs with generic titles like "Lack of Communication" and "Back for More" didn't help. Even bigger hits including "Lay it Down" and the money song "Round and Round," although heartily sung along with, had a deflating air of anticlimax that no amount of nostalgic good will could salvage.
