POISON

Mohegan Sun Casino Arena
Uncasville, Connecticut
April 13, 2017

Photos & Review by Dan Wenc

It was nothing but a good time at Mohegan Sun Arena on April 12th when Poison took the stage for their third show as part of the 2017 reunion tour, along with Tesla and Def Leppard. It was clear that there the crowd was loaded with Poison fans to watch this long awaited reunion. Fans had donned their Poison concert shirts, new ones and the worn and faded ones from concerts of years past.

2017 should be noted as the year that Poison reunited with the all original line up after a several year hiatus. Even better was the Poison all original line up, Bret Michaels, CC Deville, Bobby Dall and Rikki Rockett. There were no fill-ins here.

They took the stage in true Poison form, they easily let the fans know that they were back and the crowd had energized. This was definitely a long time coming for Poison fans to experience a performance like that night. The night started off with “Look What the Cat Dragged In” and “Ride The Wind”. If that wasn’t enough to keep the crowd fueled up on Poison like it was 1980 something, next in the set was “Talk Dirty To Me”. No matter what your age was, this Poison performance brought you to the time in your life when everything was just rock n’ roll. 100% pure fun.

Then along came the 1990 hit ballad, “Something to Believe In”, a song that was a non-political song, that shows the respect for war veterans, Bret told the crowd. Then came along Bret with the harmonica and then into, “Your Mama Don’t Dance”, followed up with a CC Deville guitar solo.

The sold out crowd was on fire. The band looked and sounded great. High energy and Poison euphoria would describe the show that night. Young, older and everywhere in between was the crowd. The anthems that children of the 80’s grew up with during our MTV generation were being enjoyed. Some parents brought their own kids to give them the experience of a lifetime and share with them the experience of a real arena rock show.

The evening’s set continued on with “Fallen Angel” and “Unskinny Bop”, as Bret continued to work the crowd. Bret introduced the band, as if we already didn’t know the names, but it was an homage to the Poison legacy and to have the band their together on that stage that night.

Bret praised drummer Rikki Rockett in fighting his recent battle with stage four cancer and Rikki was met with standing ovation. Rikki was seated behind one amazing looking Poison themed drum kit, and took off with his drum solo.

Bret then took the stage with his acoustic guitar slung over and talked with the crowd about his passion of performing and thanked the fans for support paid thanks to Def Leppard for sharing the tour with them. Then Bret told the crowd that the next song was going to be like a “drunken summer night of karaoke” and told the crowd to break out the cell phone lights and raise em up for the classic ballad, “Every Rose Has Its Thorn”. That was not all, the final song of the night summed up what Poison music represents and what the remainder of the tour will be, “Nothin’ But A Good Time”.

With all the Poison songs that we all wanted to hear that night, the band hit the mark with the selection they did play in their allotted time.

Great performance and this tour is definitely something to be excited about. Speaking for all 80’s rock and Poison fans, we hope this is just the start of seeing Poison out on the road all together again. Thank you. This is the DO NOT MISS show of 2017.