August 21, 2003

 

Poison/Vince Neil/Skid Row at Montage Mountain, Scranton, PA

 


Colors have been altered to combat fraud

 

This show was not one we had planned on but it wound up being the best one this year. The security team was a lot more organized this time compared to when we were there in 2001. They at least made an attempt to keep people who weren't supposed to be up front out. We had row 6, which was actually row 5 since there was no first row in this section, on CC's side.

We almost paid for the Premier Parking, but we decided against it. The supposed Premier parking is not that much closer than the regular free parking. Certainly not worth the $10.

Here's a newspaper review and as usual my own review is below. I did take some pictures during the show, they didn't turn out so good though. I'm running out of space here at Angelfire so I'm posting them in my online photo album. 

This time we were there for the whole Skid Row set. Johnny's voice seemed stronger than it was in NJ, the high notes sounded much better. I forget which song it was but he wandered out into the audience to sing it.  He went all the way to the back and then up to the front again. He started talking about the new Skid Row CD and said, there's no rap, no DJ's, just pure American rock and roll with two guitars, bass, drums, and a singer. Then he dedicated Youth Gone Wild to everyone who stands up for a rock concert. It really bugs me when people sit in their seats at a rock show, or even worse ask you to sit down when you stand up, so I thought that was pretty cool.

 I didn't have anything to eat all day except a bagel so after the Lynchburg Lemonade during Skid Row's set I needed something! We saw they had pizza so we got two slices. They were $4 a slice!! What's worse is that they had a tip jar on the counter - here's a tip, don't charge $4 a slice!

Vince Neil sounded so much better than last time. He really nailed Home Sweet Home, plus he was running around like a nut! They cut "You're Invited But Your Friend Can't Come" and replaced it with "Don't Go Away Mad". When Vince intro-ed Don't Go Away Mad, he said "well, we haven't played this one for a while so if we fuck it up, it's Jason Hook's fault!" Jason Hook had a "Blame Canada" sticker on his guitar (South Park reference)

I was pretty tired after exerting myself during Vince's set, but I got a major second wind as soon as Highway to Hell came on. I am always amazed by the effect Poison has on a crowd. I mean the roar that went up from the crowd was deafening! Rikki looked great, Bobby was all smiles, Bret was very revved up and happy, and CC... well I'm not sure what was up with CC. He was not his usual "20 cups of coffee" self. He didn't sing "Every Bone" this time, opting for a blistering solo instead. They didn't play "Rock and Roll All Night" either which was fine with me since I'm kinda sick of hearing it. I just  wish they would have added another song to the setlist since they got rid of two, but they didn't.

One funny thing that happened was when Bret came running over to the edge of the stage with his guitar. He planted his feet towards the edge and then CC came running up next to him and threw his leg in front of Bret's as if to say "Look at me, not him!" It looked hysterical and Bret doubled over laughing!

On to the meet and greet. This one was possibly the shortest wait we've ever had. I believe it was only 45 minutes total of waiting time. Like usual, we were led around to a couple different areas so they could separate us into groups. The last move was into this dimly lit tent area. One person spots a cooler and within a second or two everyone's digging through it including myself. I grabbed a bottle of water and no sooner did I pull my hand away than some venue security guy runs up, closes the lid, puts his foot on it, and says "sorry, these are for the crew only." OOPS! Oh well, it tasted extra good because it was ill-gotten ;-)

As we were sitting there enjoying our water, in walks Big John and Rikki. He said hello to a bunch of people then he spotted Brian and says "Hey, THERE'S the big guy and shakes his hand happily. Then he sees me and goes "hey sweetie, how are you?", grabs my hand to shake it and gives me a kiss. He said that he saw us in the crowd and I was kind of shocked because I figured he couldn't see shit from all the way back there on his drum kit. I said something to that effect and he said "yeah sometimes I can't see anything at all but tonight I could." We had Big John take a picture of all 3 of us and I said something like geez I hope I look normal in this one which made him laugh that oh so recognizable laugh he has. Big John was telling him to move on at that point so we said goodbye and took off.

There are no tour plans made for next year so I guess they really are taking a summer off. It's going to be a long, boring 2004 without them!