June 13, 2000

Poison/Cinderella/Dokken/slaughter at the Hersheypark Stadium's star pavilion, Hershey, PA

Notice how on the ticket it says rain or shine? Well they weren't kidding! It started off with drizzle, then showers, then torrential downpours - not to mention it was kind of a chilly temperature too. It was opening night for the Power to the People tour and you could feel the electricity in the air. Nobody seemed to care about the weather. Hersheypark must have made a fortune that day on rain ponchos! 

Once again there's no newspaper article that I could find on this one so here's my own review.

We got there before Slaughter started but, we had to wait in a huge line to get the after show pass. Apparently Hershey has never had to deal with a band that has so many after show guests! So by the time we got in to the arena Slaughter was almost finished. They sounded really good though from what we did hear.

Then Dokken took the stage. Reb Beach kicks ass! Their playing was really tight. It was cool to hear them do Dream Warriors. It was raining pretty good during their set and Don said "I want to feel what you feel," and with that he poured a bottle of water over his head.

Cinderella was next. They had a bunch of candles all over their amps which I thought was a really interesting background. Tom Keifer's voice is incredible, it sounds just as good live as it does on the record. I'm not sure, but I'm almost positive that he hit every single high note - something that always impresses me at a concert. At one point while singing the beginning part of Long Cold Winter they had a wall of flame go off behind them. I was pretty cold and wet at the time so the heat felt nice!

Then, after the lights dimmed for the final time, it was Poison's turn. They bounded out on stage with the energy and enthusiasm that made me love them in the first place. The set was pretty much the same as last year except they added 'Power to the People' and 'Can't Bring Me Down' from the new album. About halfway through the set, the rain was coming down pretty hard and Bret said, "I don't care if it fucking snows, we're going to keep playing!"

VH1 was there recording the mayhem. Bret said they were filming the show for a summer special.

Instead of the usual solo, CC chose to play the song 'Every Bone' from the new album. I can't remember exactly how he put it, but he introduced it by saying that Bret let him do it so he wouldn't be such a pain in the ass on tour :-D. Then after he sang the first verse, he whispered into the mike "it's dirty" - totally cracked me up! He also screamed into the mike, "LET'S HEAR IT FOR THE FUCKING RAIN!!!" - the guy's a riot.

At some point, Bret got so pumped up with adrenalin that he accidentally smashed up his favorite guitar (red with a confederate flag). It was fun to see that he was so excited to be there, he forgot what he was doing.

After the show, I got to meet Lori (director for Club Rockett) who directed us off to the side of the stage under a roof (thank God). I was pretty soaked even with the rain coat, and now that I was away from the heat of the crowd, I was even colder. It felt good to finally sit down. When Rikki finally came in, (he had tons of people he had to say hello to from radio station promotions before he got to us) I really just wanted to go home to some dry clothes and I'm guessing he did too. I had him sign my PTTP CD, he talked to everyone and then he went into some kind of trailer. 

The rain definitely made this concert a unique experience that I won't forget anytime soon.