SKID ROW

The Chance, Poughkeepsie, NY

Friday, September 28, 2001

By Kelly

Friday night September 28, 2001 is a night I won't soon forget. A little background - I graduated from high school in 1991. My high school years were the prime time for musical acts such as Poison, Guns n' Roses, Cinderella, and so many others. My closest friends in high school were a group of 3 other girls who were completely wild for Poison. They wore Poison shirts almost every day, scratched the logo into their desks. You get the idea. I liked Poison, too. But I never felt like Poison was in my blood the way my girls did. An outsider most of my life, this time was no different. In contrast to my friends' bedrooms, closets and lockers, I only had a few Poison posters and shirts. No, my clothing and walls were always in tribute to someone else. My passion, my musical life-blood, was a little band called SKID ROW.

If you have seen my CONCERT LIST, you know how the first Skid Row tour, with Bon Jovi (my favorites from waaaay back)changed my life. And you know that I also saw them with Aerosmith. I never got to see them tour supporting Slave To The Grind or Subhuman Race. I was in college/just out of college in those years and it made me too poor. Not to mention that the musical climate was such that grunge was making everyone think that Skid Row was way too uncool to go see, so I had no one to go with even if I had the money. Last year I saw the Skids open for KISS two times and was excited to find that even without their legendary frontman Sebastian Bach, they were as tight as ever and every bit as fun to watch and hear. Which brings me to this past weekend...

Skid Row, in preparation for their latest CD, which is to be released early next year, is doing a club tour. I couldn't have been more excited unless I had a personally engraved invitation from Snake himself! Brian and I drove down after work and I would periodically freak out and yell "We are seeing SKID ROW in a CLUB tonight!!!" I think he assumed I was insane, and maybe I was. But imagine seeing one of your favorite bands ever in an intimate club setting - yeah, it's crazy!

By the time we arrived I was ready for anything, and really wanted to meet at least one of them. ANY one of them. I even panicked when we first walked in because a guy that looked like Snake walked right by us. Upon closer inspection, I realized it was not him. Alas, we never did meet them. But lots of other things did happen.

As the last opening act was onstage, Snake (the real Snake) came out and sat on the steps at the back of the stage to watch the band. Meanwhile, in a window high above and to the left of the stage, you could see the rest of the guys stroll by once in a while - obviously in their VIP room. Occasionally, one of the guys would stop and look down on the crowd. I saw Johnny Solinger (the Skids new singer) once and waved, then other people started waving. He gave us "metal" in return (the 80s "metal" hand sign, that is). I saw I think it was Rachel (bassist) look out and point toward Brian once and then gesture to his own chest while talking to Johnny, who then looked down at us and smiled. I can only assume this had something to do with Brian's Metal Sludge t-shirt. Shortly after, Snake left the steps and Scotti Hill came out and sat down. I was leaning over to see him and I think he noticed, because he flashed ME the "metal" sign! Naturally, I had to give it back. This was only the beginning of a beautiful relationship we developed with Scotti that night.

When the opening bands finally ended there was quite a long wait before the Skids began. Mama Snake (guitarist Snake's mom), and possibly Snake's dad(?) were there and we saw him walk them to the side-stage. That was so cool because I remember her advice column in one of the metal mags back in the day. Snake always spoke of her, too. They always seemed close. Poughkeepsie is close to NJ, so it isn't too surprising that some family were there.

We had planted ourselves directly in front of Rachel and Scotti, which turned out to be a brilliant place to be. Scotti is easily the most outgoing guy in the band. He's always making these crazy faces, as you can see in my pictures! Early on, Brian started making faces back at him, and he noticed! This began a show-long battle between the two of them - making faces at each other, all in good fun. I was ready to faint that my boyfriend was bonding with Scotti Hill! In fact, I was only able to make minimal contact with him myself because he was always making a face at Brian! Scotti would also kneel down quite often and let people touch him or his guitar. I regressed back to age 16 and grabbed his leg a few times while Brian got to strum his guitar.

Rachel, Johnny, and Snake were not as directly involved with the audience, but we managed to get some good pictures of them, too. I was not able to get a good picture of drummer Phil Varone, though, since he was so far back.

Scotti was extremely into making contact with the audience, and this was no clearer than during the song "Beat Yourself Blind," in which they did an extended jam at the end. Scotti took this opportunity to come out INTO the audience and make contact with everyone! We were in the "pit" area, and he even came down there. A brave man, that Scotti (though he did have a HUGE bodyguard with him). When he was near us, I managed to pat him on the shoulder, and as I did he turned his head. I ended up with my hand caught in his hair for a brief moment, which resulted in a huge handful of Scotti Hill sweat for me. Normally I'd be grossed out enough to gag, but I was just tickled instead. Call me crazy, I won't tell you any more about it...:o)

Here is a photo of Scotti in the pit, and that is my arm and my hand on his shoulder (!):

Skid Row played three brand new songs, and all I can say is the world should be on the lookout for this album next year. I believe, if these songs are any indication, that this band has what it takes to bring back straight up rock music! The audience rocked just as hard as ever when they played these songs - and usually songs you don't know can be a good excuse to go to the bathroom. So, watch out for the new Skids album in 2002!

During their final bows, I managed to get this weird picture of Scotti leaning down for the crowd:

And this AMAZING picture of Johnny Solinger!!! I still can't even believe he was looking right at me for it!!! THANX JOHNNY!!! :o)

All-in-all, I was not disappointed. Skid Row still has what it takes to be the huge arena band they once were. And they have the attitude and hard edge that younger kids can find cool. I said it before, but watch out for Skid Row in 2002!!!

I can't remember the setlist in order, but here are the songs they played:

Riot Act (definitely the song they opened with)

Sweet Little Sister

Piece of Me

18 and Life

Youth Gone Wild (encore)

Here I Am

Big Guns (? not sure, but I think they did this one!)

Makin A Mess

I Remember You

Monkey Business

Psycho Therapy (sung by Rachel, of course, and it was AMAZING!)