Sona Jobarteh Tickets Long Beach

Classic Rock meets 80's Hair Metal

On Wednesday night at the Riverbend Music Center, 80's Hair Metal icons Poison shared the stage with Sona Jobarteh and 70's Classic Rock artists Cheap Trick. Cheap Trick guitarist Rick Nielson continuously tossing guitar picks into the crowd and playing with an array of different guitars sounded great in a blistering 45 min set. Drummer Bun E. Carlos and Bassist Tom Peterson held down the bottom end and kept the band perfect time throughout the set. Robin Zanders voice has held up well over the years and he really sounded great on Tonight it's You and The Flame. The crowd was a bit subdued as they broke out several new songs from the upcoming release titled The Latest. Cheap Trick is one of the best rock and roll bands ever, why they choose to open shows instead of headline them is a mystery to me. Next was Poison, minus original drummer Rikki Rocket who was away after the birth of his son. Cinderella drummer Fred Coury sat in for him and was thundering the skins. Hit after hit followed in a 1-hour set that included Ride the Wind, Every Rose has its Thorn, Fallen Angel, Unskinny Bop, Something to Believe In which was dedicated to our troops overseas who are fighting for our freedom. Look what the Cat Dragged In opened the show with CC Deville playing fast and furious on his trademark Flying V guitar. Brett Michaels was all over the stage slapping hands with many in the front row and caught a bra thrown onstage. Brett called out Big John, a native of Cincinnati, and plugged the Rock of Love series on VH1 which starred Brett Michaels. Talk Dirty to Me and Nothing but a Good Time closed the show that had much pyro and energy. After he told the crowd where he was hosting an after party, in which the crowd went nuts, Poison's set was over. Next was Def Leppard, opening with Rock Rock (til you drop) from 1983's Pyromania. Next came Rocket and Animal from the Hysteria album, released in 1987. Singer Joe Elliot's voice sounded strong although I feel the bass of Rick Savage may have overwhelmed several of the night's songs. This album was the base for the majority of the set with no fewer than 6 songs played from it that included Love Bites, Hysteria, Armageddon It and crowd favorite Pour Some Sugar on Me. The band's most recent release, Songs from the Sparkle Lounge, was represented by Nine Lives, the song they did with Tim McGraw. Halfway through the show Joe Elliot, guitarists Vivian Campbell and Phil Collen (who had the flu), sat down for an acoustic set at the end of the long runway that came out from the middle of the stage. They played Bringing on the Heartbreak and Two Steps Behind. Like a rocket taking off a launchpad, the building nearly shook as they went right into Switch 625, also from the High and Dry album as Joe Elliot left the stage to drummer Rick Allen, a miracle of a drummer who tragically lost his left arm in a near-fatal car accident on New Year's Eve 1984. The show closed with Rock of Ages, a timeless classic with my favorite line, "It's Better to Burn out, Than Fade Away". The Thunder God, Rick Allen, never disappoints. I place him right up there with Led Zeppelin drummer John Bonham, another great drummer tragically lost to us in 1979 and considered to be the greatest rock drummer of all time. After the obligatory goodnights, the band returned with Let's Get Rocked from 1992's Adrenalized, an album made during and after the untimely death of original Def Leppard guitarist Steve Clark. Def Leppard will be back as Joe Elliot announced, "there will be a next time". For me, with all due respect to this great band, they need to get out of the 80's timewarp they seem to be in. They have so many more great songs from albums Slang, X, On Through the Night, Euphoria, and Retroactive. For the next tour, treat the fans to some of those songs too. You took the time to record them, so why not play them live. It's 2009 now, the 80's was then, this is now.