July 14, 2002

Poison/Cinderella/Winger/Faster Pussycat at the PNC Bank Arts Center, Holmdel, NJ

I say it every time, and I'm going to say it again... I love this venue! We had second row last year but it was more to the side. This year we had second row dead center. Believe it or not, there was a noticeable difference. I took a bunch of pictures that came out pretty good considering I was going nuts the whole time. I'll be posting those shortly.

They played the Star Spangled Banner as we were walking in. I thought that was a truly nice touch and I was impressed because everyone stopped what they were doing and stood up respectfully.

Even though we got there pretty early, we still had to park in the secondary lot and walk up heart attack hill to get to the place. It wasn't really hot so the walk wasn't too bad.

Security was great up until the very end. We had second row and we wanted to keep it that way. They kept everyone who wasn't supposed to be there back until Bret did his usual mob rules thing.

This was an incredible way to end my string of shows for this year.

 I was thinking, in the time it takes for the intro to Boots to play, Faster Pussycat could probably squeeze in another song. I guess without the intro some of the mystique would be lost though. We stood this time because the photographers in front of us were COMPLETELY blocking our view. Besides, it was our last show and I thought it would be nice to show our appreciation. There were more people standing for their set here than anywhere else I'd been. I wonder if they changed the song Cathouse to Whorehouse because Tamie's no longer involved with the club Cathouse. Same set as both previous times.

I hope Winger does some kind of club tour after their stint with this tour is over. I'd certainly like to see them again.
I noticed that Kip's pick flinging is deadly accurate. He was whipping picks at people who weren't paying attention which was pretty funny. We stood for their entire set and he whipped a pick at my boyfriend, but it bounced off him and landed on a guy in front of us. They all look pretty happy together so I'm hoping that the reunion wasn't just for this tour.

Cinderella, as usual, got the crowd on their feet immediately. The set was exactly the same, but still outstanding. It's pretty cool that Eric and Jeff still can swing their guitars around their neck and not kill themselves.

These were the best seats we've ever had for Poison, and I was beside myself with anticipation. It was such a thrill to be so close that we actually were in their spotlights. We had told Bret the night before in Hershey to look for us in the second row. He found us pretty quickly and pointed to us several times during the show. The best part was during Ride the Wind when he sang the line 'stories told, two old friends' while pointing to us and smiling. Brian caught one of Rikki's sticks after his drum solo.

During CC's solo, he was raising and lowering his hands to tell the crowd when to scream and when to be quiet. I think he was amused that it was working so well because he started doing it faster. He made it so the crowd was giving these short loud bursts of noise followed by silence. Noise... silence... noise... silence. It was hysterical! He finished by saying in that classic CC voice "Jersey, you just made me shit my pants!"

Obviously it was a great show, I don't think I've ever seen a show of theirs that I thought sucked. I wish they'd vary the set list more, but I enjoy myself no matter what. I've loved this band since 1987, and as long as they keep doing concerts, I'll be there screaming my lungs out.

The after-show got a little ugly. When they first took us back, there were at least a hundred or so people, waiting for the beer that we were told would be there. Time passed, and the people were getting pissed because no one knew what was going on and there wasn't anything to eat or drink. The crowd diminished to about half of it's original size by 1:00AM. Brian and I were planning on leaving around 1:15AM if nothing happened because we had a two hour drive home. Smoothie finally came and gathered up all the Club Rocket members at 1:10AM. A few minutes later, they brought us back into the still crowded room that Rikki was in. Rikki came over and apologized for the long wait. He was saying that the room was completely packed a little while ago, plus his sister and Modern Drummer magazine were there too.  We took some pictures with him and were about to go when Bobby appeared. He was wandering around, then he saw me staring and he asked with a smile what he could do for me. I laughed and said how about a picture. That was nice because we never got a picture with him before.

Hopefully they will continue touring long enough for me to meet CC.

 
Our Pictures with Mr. Dall

 
and Mr. Rockett