Despite ‘Starlake’ in Burgettstown being only about a twenty minute drive from my house, The Pure Rock Shop hasn’t covered many shows there over the past few decades. But with the All-Star line-up on the Bret Michaels Parti Gras tour this summer, we couldn’t resist the opportunity to see the Poison frontman at another hometown show.
It is always special when Bret returns to Western Pennsylvania from the PNC Park Stadium tour show with Poison to our now annual day after Thanksgiving Bret Michaels band shows at The Palace in Greensburg, and last night was no exception.
The evening began with Don Felder of The Eagles, who was fronting a solo band that included former Chicago bassist Jeff Coffey and keyboardist Peter Dryer, who had performed along side of Don at Rokisland Festival back in January. Additionally, he is now joined by Nashville-based country guitarist and actor/model David Myhre and drummer Brian Tichy (Foreigner, The Dead Daisies, Whitesnake, Billy Idol, Slash).
Sadly we missed most of the band’s opener of The Eagles hit “Already Gone” while making our way to front of house to photograph the show, which started about five minutes early despite local (and international) tensions around the shooting at the Trump rally north of us in Butler, PA.
But, spirits were high, and fans were focused on the music as there were several more Eagles classics yet to come. As the sun beat down on the lawn and warmed us still under the pavilion, the show continued with a hit-packed set that included the harmonies of “Seven Bridges Road,” the groove of “Heartache Tonight,” and a finale of the ultimate classic “Hotel California,” among others.
The next performance was from country artist Chris Janson who first connected with Bret Michaels for CMT Crossroads, a TV show that brings country music stars together with artists from other genres to exchange stories and perform together. Knowingly being the only non-rock artist on the bill, Chris worked hard to win over the crowd adding in some pop and even heavy metal to a set of his own songs like “Drunk Girl” and “Buy Me A Boat.”
Showing off his many talents, the frontman moved behind the keyboard to jam on the Prince classic “Purple Rain” and even got behind the drum kit to play a little bit of Metallica’s “Enter Sandman” and Rage Against the Machine’s “Killing in the Name” with a few other nuggets thrown in for the rock crowd.
He later returned to the stage along with Don Felder to compete with Bret Michaels in a harmonica playing contest. But, what impressed us most about Janson, was that he was able to politely greet and unify the audience, asking those that could to stand tall and raise their hands together to lift up anyone who needed it.
The positive energy continued to grow as the crowd was showered with beaded necklaces in anticipation of the ‘Parti Gras’ celebration, and what a celebration it was! The evening began with a triple shot of Poison hits, beginning with the high-energy classic “Talk Dirty to Me” and concluding with the Loggins & Messina cover of “Your Mama Don’t Dance” from the 1988 Open Up and Say…Ahh! album that brought Don Felder and Chris Janson back to center stage before chants began for the original voice of Foreigner, Lou Gramm.
Lou won the audience over quickly as he began his min-set with “Cold As Ice,” and continued on with “Hot Blooded” before driving things home with the ultimate anthem “Juke Box Hero,” reminding us of his legendary status and reinforcing the no frills, all hits mantra of Parti Gras. Leaving the audience and the Bret Michaels backing band little time to catch our breaths, the night moved on with the tongue-in-cheek Poison favorite “Unskinny Bop” before finally giving everyone a moment to exhale and reflect. First responders and veterans were invited to the stage to get a birds-eye view of the lit up crowd who honored them with a beautiful sea of cell phone lights in response to Bret’s heartfelt tribute of “Something to Believe In.”
While the frontmen may have transitioned, the band, which features long-time lead guitarist Pete Evick, bassist Norman Voss, drummer ‘Proud’ Meri Schaefer, keyboardist Rob Jozwiak, rhythm guitarist Dean Cramer, and background vocalist Becci Clark, remained for the whole set. No doubt, the band had the very challenging job of supporting all three artists with the most intimidating likely being Twisted Sister’s Dee Snider.
While his stature and energy are no doubt larger than life (just look at my stage shots from M3 Rock Festival), Dee certainly knows how to make us laugh in addition to killing it on those fist-pounding Twisted Sister favorites, “We’re Not Gonna Take It” and “I Wanna Rock.”
I’ll let you catch it live to hear the Sponge Bob story, but I will point out that he gave a lesson on metal horns before ending his min-set with a cover of AC/DC’s ‘heavy metal anthem’ “Highway to Hell.” For the record, the horns gesture’s association with heavy metal originated with the one-time Black Sabbath frontman Ronnie James Dio, who used the Italian hand-gesture intended to ward off the devil (or bad luck) to differentiate himself from his predecessor Ozzy Osbourne who often flashed the peace sign.
Dee Snider later returned to the stage to join the Poison frontman, who gave us a final set of his hits, ending the evening with the party anthem, “Nothin’ But A Good Time.” And while it was sad to say farewell, we are exited to report that Bret Michaels plans to return to Starlake with the full original Poison band. So, keep watch for the tour announcement.
Follow us @ThePureRockShop on Facebook and Instagram for more local shows like Liliac tomorrow and be sure to hit our archives for more from Bret Michaels band coverage.
Coverage by Editor and founder Kara Marie Uhrlen on 7/14/2024. All event photos © Kara Uhrlen and The Pure Rock Shop.
