Reviews

Bret Michaels – Casino Rama – September 23, 2016

Published

8 years ago

09/25/2016

Darren Eagles

Article Views: 770

Review and Photos by Darren Eagles

http://www.bretmichaels.com

80’s hair metal icon Bret Michaels, best known as the frontman for the band Poison and his stint on Donald Trump’s The Celebrity Apprentice, rolled into the Casino Rama Resort with this solo band for a trip back through some of his greatest hits. The venue was crowded with a diverse vintage of fans, with the customary 80’s rocker guys and gals, but also a curious number of much younger females who danced their way up the aisles and pressed the stage as if this was a current young rockstar on stage. Opening the show with the Poison hit, “Talk Dirty To Me”, Michaels wasted no time pumping the crowd up with hand slaps at the stage lip and high jumps at the song’s end. A cover of Lynyrd Skynyrd’s hit “Sweet Home Alabama” was one of a few covers in the

Opening the show with the Poison hit, “Talk Dirty To Me”, Michaels wasted no time pumping the crowd up with hand slaps at the stage lip and high jumps at the song’s end. A cover of Lynyrd Skynyrd’s hit “Sweet Home Alabama” was one of a few covers in the 70-minute set, with KISS’s “Rock and Roll All Nite” ending the show as the encore.

Michaels’ show was loud! Loud like the rock shows of decades ago. And Michaels pumped up the crowd to keep up with it asking them to “light the place up with phones”. Michaels took a few breaks during the show, as ageing vocalists do to keep their chords as fresh as they can. During one of these breaks, drummer Mike Bailey offered up a punishing school drum solo.

Original Cinderella bassist, Eric Brittingham was given time to show his prowess during a later short break as well. Michaels pulled out the harmonica on “Your Momma Don’t Dance”, played the congas on “Sweet Home Alabama” and strapped on a flame finished 12 string acoustic for “Every Rose Has It’s Thorn”. He began the show wearing his trademark red bandana which was replaced with a couple of different signature cowboy hats as the show progressed. You can tell he’s a staunch American patriot, with the stars and stripes in all of his graphic and stage set design. Michaels dedicated “Something To Believe In” to “all the men and women in our armed forces”, but declined to expand on any opinions he had about Presidental candidate Donald Trump. It was a high energy, fast paced

He began the show wearing his trademark red bandana which was replaced with a couple of different signature cowboy hats as the show progressed. You can tell he’s a staunch American patriot, with the stars and stripes in all of his graphics and stage set design. Michaels dedicated “Something To Believe In” to “all the men and women in our armed forces”, but declined to expand on any opinions he had about Presidental candidate Donald Trump. It was a high energy, fast paced

It was a high-energy, fast-paced show, and Michaels is one of those rockstars who has a genuinely likeable demeanor. He is active on the local level when touring, donating money to local charities at every stop. At the end of the show, the band came to the front of the stage and auctioned off a couple of Michaels’ stage worn hats and his t-shirt, raising $3600 in just a few minutes. While he couldn’t confirm it, Michaels said he might be back with a full blown Poison reunion tour next year.