June 18, 1993

Poison/damn Yankees/firehouse at the Allentown fairgrounds

I lost the ticket for this one. I don't remember hardly anything about it either. I remember being impressed with Ritchie's playing but I also remember thinking, "Why is he just standing there looking bored?" 

I don't have the newspaper review, I think because it was pretty scathing. You see, most of the time the people that my local paper sends to review concerts are bitter, failed musicians who never got a record deal. Therefore, any artist that has had a good deal of success, they crap on with their review. I guess it makes them feel better about their own miserable lives to insult popular bands that people generally like.

This particular review was so bad that it prompted a couple people to write letters to the editor. To see those letters click here. If I wind up at the library sometime, I'll have to look it up and put it here.

This picture was screwed up when the paper printed it and unfortunately I can't fix it

POISON GIVES CRITICS AND FANS A `TONGUE'-LASHING

by GARY R. BLOCKUS, The Morning Call

Go ahead. Try to dismiss -- as many critics have -- Poison's music as lightweight rock with sugar-coated lyrics.

Drummer Rikki Rocket will strongly disagree, but not just for obvious reasons.

"In just about every city we play, Make-A-Wish foundation people bring kids to us," Rocket said during a telephone interview. "Kids with cancer, kids with terminal diseases, tell us that they had had enough, that they wanted to give up, just quit. They didn't want to take their medication or therapy anymore. But they'd all say, `Then I heard (the Posion hit) "Something To Believe In" and it made me want to get up in the morning and go for it every day.'

"To me, we affected somebody. ... If there's a critic out there who doesn't get that, then I don't care what they have to say."

"Native Tongue," the group's first studio album since 1990's "Flesh And Blood," already has dropped off the Billboard Top 200 album chart. But, says Rocket, a 29-year-old Mechanicsburg native, that hasn't put a damper on Poison's lastest concert tour, which stops Friday at the Allentown Fairgrounds Amphitheater.

"We had a slamming show in Toledo the other night," Rocket said. "About 20 people started stage diving and (lead singer and Mechanicsburg native) Bret (Michaels) was totally encouraging it. He was at the front of the stage the whole night going off with these people ... We haven't done that since The Troubadour days in L.A."

Poison went through some trying times before returning to the concert circuit with opening acts Damn Yankees and Firehouse.

Bassist Bobby Dall, a Harrisburg native, went through drug rehabilitation, and founding guitarist C.C. DeVille quit the group. "Bobby wanted to go into rehab and get his act together," Rocket explained. "C.C. didn't want to do that. When you have someone that's family who's like that, and it's also your business, egos go through the roof and the drugs are fueling it."

"Stand," the first single from "Flesh And Blood," was about Dall's experience. "Some critics think this is a party band because of the lyrics," Rocket said. "We're not talking about drinking and shooting heroin. We talked about drugs like, `Stay alive, man.' `Stand' is about Bobby, what he went through. It's a cocaine song, but it's certainly not glorifying it. It's just the opposite."

Richie Kotzen, a 22-year-old Birdsboro native, was brought in to replace DeVille and so far he has wowed the guitar world and silenced several of Poison's toughest critics, according to Rocket.

"I think everyone's coming to the shows a little tentative. C.C's not in the band and they're wondering what they're going to see," Rocket said. "But I think everyone's leaving happy. Richie's definitely a superior player and performer. He's different in a good way, a different kind of persona."

The opening of the show sounds like a killer, too, with the sound of thousands of drums, laser lights and a 30-foot wall of flames.

In April, L.A.-based Poison kicked off the "Native Tongue" tour in Europe, returning to the United States last month for a May 14 show in Green Bay, Wis.

"A couple of the Packers came over and we ended up training with them," said Rocket, who sounds far more serious and thoughtful than a rock star should. "Bret and I ended up being put through the paces. Man, they killed us.

"The other night, a pitcher from Cincinnati gave us tickets to their game. Of course they were playing the Phillies. I don't even know which pitcher it was. Bret knew him from before."

Rocket also has time for his family. His parents, his sister and even his grandmother, who recently turned 81, will be at the Allentown show. Michaels' family will be here, too.

Along with some impromptu pre-concert tailgating among the masses, a few lucky fans may get chosen to go backstage and party with the band afterward. According to Rolling Stone magazine's "Summer Music Guide," the promotion is called the Backstage Party Cage. Local disc jockeys select fans from the audience, throw them in the cage and wheel them backstage for a "night they won't soon forget," according to Michaels.

To say Rocket and the gang in Poison don't give a rat's tail about what critics have to say is a definite understatement.

"As far as critics go, they're not buying tickets, so f--- 'em. It's nice to read a nice review, but when you have fans that will do anything they can to go backstage and meet you and talk to you and are excited about seeing you, that's the thanks you get."

Poison performs Friday night at the Allentown Fairgrounds Amphitheater, 17th and Chew streets. Gates open at 4:30 p.m. Firehouse opens the show at 6. Damn Yankees also will perform. Tickets will be available. For information, call 821-0906.