Bret Michaels' Concert Uniform

There are many jobs where you have to wear a uniform. Professional athletes in team sports wear jerseys with their team name on them. Many restaurants require employees to wear uniforms or hats with the restaurant logo. I remember working at Blockbuster* and wearing the dashing navy shirts with gold trim and store logo. This brings me to Poison lead singer, fellow Pittsburgh Steelers fan, and Rock of Love star Bret Michaels. (Man, I miss Rock of Love.) Poison recently played at PNC Park in Pittsburgh with Motley Crue, Def Leppard, and Joan Jett & the Blackhearts. I saw this picture of Michaels with a Terrible Towel and thought it would make a perfect addition to my Celebrities in Pittsburgh gear series. 

Then, I noticed that Michaels was wearing a Poison T-shirt. This seemed odd to me. I don't ever recall seeing a musician wearing a shirt of the band they are in or of himself/herself. It turns out that Michaels is wearing Poison shirts throughout the tour.

Minneapolis:

Marysville, Ohio:

Buffalo:

Toronto:

Bethlehem:

Boston:

Council Bluffs, Iowa:

Denver:

I think you get the point. So now I'm wondering if Bret is constantly doing laundry and wearing the same shirt each show or if he's just grabbing various Poison shirts from the merchandise stand at each tour stop.

* If you're under 25, you may have only heard of Blockbuster, a chain where you could rent movies on something called VHS tapes and DVDs. You would enter the store, walk around aisles to select your movie, pay approximately $5 per film, and then you had to return it by noon the day after you rented it. (If you rented a movie on Friday night, you had to return the film by noon on Sunday.) I'm convinced Blockbuster made much of their profits through late fees. Oh, here is one of my Blockbuster shirts:

Photos by Morgan of Live Nation, Tammy Vega, and others all on Bret Michaels' Twitter page.

Notes From The Def Leppard-Poison-Cheap Trick Concert

I saw the Def Leppard/Poison/Cheap Trick show out at Nissan Pavilion over two weeks ago, but I’m only getting around to writing about it now. Sorry. Since I’m already late and the tour may be over, I’ll go with a notes format. Enjoy.

- After attending the Neil Diamond concert last August and the Fleetwood Mac show in March, it’s nice to see "younger" performers live. At this pace, I’ll see a Jonas Brothers performance in 2013. (That’s a joke; you don’t have to leave just because I typed Jonas Brothers).

- Throughout the concert, all three bands yelled "Hello Bristow," "How You Feeling, Bristow" or some other variation of this. Nissan Pavillion is in fact located in Bristow, Virginia so they were accurate in their location. However, Bristow is an unincorporated town with a population under 16,000 according to Wikipedia. Wouldn't it have better to say "Hello Virginia" or "What's up DC?" I'd be surprised if there were 500 Bristow residents in attendance (and not working) at the concert.

- Before their performance, an audio montage of Cheap Trick pop culture references played. No video, just audio. Odd start, but I always like a good Simpsons quote or two.

- The crowd was louder when Welcome to the Jungle played over the sound system prior to Poison arriving on stage than at any point during or after Cheap Trick’s set. Maybe people were still outside tailgating during Cheap Trick.

- Through the back of the T-shirt of someone sitting near us, I learned that Iowa State University Intramurals include an NCAA Bowl Pick’em; NCAA Basketball Pick’em; 8-ball and 9-ball pool; and Curling. How exactly is NCAA bowl and basketball pick'em an intramural sport? It seems more like gambling.

- Unfortunately, there was no sign of Taya, Amber, Jess or any other Rock of Love girl in Bristow. Big John did come out on stage though for a brief cameo.

- Bret Michaels must have said C.C. in reference to guitarist C.C. DeVille at least twice per song. We get that there will be a guitar solo in every song, and we know C.C. will be the guy performing said solo. You don't need to tell us. Do you need to tell C.C.?

- The most random part of the show was a woman in front of us wearing feathers in her hair. It was random that Sacagawea attended the concert, but that wasn't the weird part. For Posion's Every Rose Has Its Thorn, she took a plastic parrot on a string from her purse and tried to attach the parrot to her shoulder. Apparently, the fake parrot wanted no part of this and continuously fell to the side no matter how hard the woman tried to attach him/her.

- In a shocking development, Def Leppard performed Pour Some Sugar On Me; Poison played Nothin But A Good Time; and Cheap Trick performed I Want You To Want Me.

- What I found interesting is that Cheap Trick referenced Poision and Def Leppard and Poison mentioned Cheap Trick and Def Leppard. Def Leppard never said anything about Poison and Cheap Trick.


My conclusion: Everyone Rocked! Good show, good time and each band played all of their big hits.