My Favorite Bret Michaels Concert ♥
This weekend, I had the pleasure of attending a kickass Def Leppard/KISS concert, and it, of course, rocked!!
Going to concerts always makes me remember and reflect on BMB/Poison concerts I have attended through the years, and below is my favorite Bret Michaels concert experience.
(Now -- my single most awesome concert going experience was of course meeting Bret at the Canyon Club in Agoura Hills, where I finally got my arm & tattoo signed and it was an awesome concert as well, however the one I'm writing about below is extra special and I can pretty much guarantee that only hardcore fans ended up attending this one! :) )
I've of course seen Bret in concert quite a few times by now ... both with Poison and solo concerts. They are ALL great concerts. I'll say this, Poison and Bret bring it 300% every single time, they never disappoint. I love it.
When you think of your favorite concerts that you remember going to, oftentimes it's the big name, big ticket concerts that come to mind. My favorite concert, hands down, was Cheap Trick, followed by Poison .... followed by Def Leppard. It was 2009 I believe, Irvine Meadows/Verizon Amphitheater and I have yet to come down from the high of this concert, it was kick-ass.
THAT ... however .... despite being the bar to beat, as far as talent and big bands that all bring it on stage type of concert, that was not my favorite Bret Michaels/Poison concert. My favorite Bret Michaels show took place in 2010. It was actually postponed once, but well worth the wait.
The venue was the UCLA tennis court. Yes, that's right! Very strange place for a concert. It was threatening to rain as we drove out there, and at the time, we had never been to this venue and weren't sure if it was inside or outside .... well ... rain or shine.... it was outside.
It started drizzling as we walked in, no big deal. I had my trusty Poison hoodie on which protects me from a lot of things, among those things are rain and cold temperatures.
We walked around the venue a bit. Caught a glimpse of Bret as he made an appearance in the VIP tent. The venue was small enough that we could stand on the outside of the tent and look in, and personally, that is the closest I had ever been to Bret Michaels ever .... so I was happy.
We checked out the merchandise booth, probably bought a shirt (I always do lol.... just call me a sucker...) and when we walked back to our seats, who comes down the hallway but Bret Michaels himself. I'm not going to lie, I totally froze and then his security guard told everyone to stand back because Bret had to get ready for his show, and I froze even more, if that was possible. Bret, however, can take his time if he wants to and he did. He shook hands with everyone as he walked down the hallway and get this .... he INTRODUCED HIMSELF!!! He said "Hi ... I'm Bret Michaels". I was floored. Well .... more like frozen to the floor, yet floored.
I think that was the day when I decided that getting a tattoo of Bret was definitely a possibility. I was in awe over this world famous rock star who was walking down the small corridors of the UCLA tennis court, shaking hands with everyone and introducing himself, when he could just as well have breezed by like he owned the world and not given anybody the time of day. Trust me .... plenty of rock stars would not have done this, and they certainly wouldn't introduce themselves .... because everybody already know who they are of course!
That moment just showed me what kind of person Bret is. Don't get me wrong, I still don't idolize him by thinking he is perfect, he is not. But it showed me a humble side of him, a humble and polite side .... It told me that despite him being Bret Michaels, he still hasn't forgotten the manners that his mama taught him.
Just thinking back to it right now gives me goosebumps, it was just a great few minutes of my life that left a big impact.
NOW ... as exciting as this was... that sighting alone does NOT a "best concert ever" experience make. No.
When we got back out to our seats, the rain had picked up considerably, and of course, they ran out of plastic ponchos. A lot of seats were empty so I realized that that the only people who had still made it out to this concert in the rain were die-hard rock'n roll fans. The opening band for Bret was TESLA. At the time, I did not know Tesla very well, but by the end of their act, I was a Tesla fan. I really loved their raw talent, also a very very humble band with huge talent, and Jeff Keith is just a fantastic singer and a fantastic human being and there was just something about this singer that instantly made me a fan from the moment he set foot on the stage.
Part of what made this concert so fantastic was that I discovered the #2 band on my rock'nroll VIP favorites list. (If YOU have to ask who is number one .... well .... keep reading :P)
Anyway.... Tesla ended their awesome act, and by now it was raining. It was no longer a drizzle, it was rain. I had paper towels to wipe the seats down, and I hadn't been standing on my feet much during the Tesla act so paper towels worked great on the droplets on my seat right then, however when Bret Michaels took the stage, I was standing up more than I was sitting down, and the puddles on the seat were simply too much to handle for the poor paper towels, so it was no use trying to dry the seats off.
Despite the lack of audience and the rain, Bret, as usual, gave 300%! He HAD to know .... that the people who were there, standing there soaking, not in the sun shine but in the rain, were his die-hard fans. And it made me feel good, looking around at other fans like myself, knowing in my heart and soul that they didn't care at all if they were soaked to the skin ... they were there to see Bret, that was all that mattered.
Once the concert was finished... (and yes, soaked as we were ... we DID demand an encore and he DID give us what we wanted), my husband and I went to one of our favorite, although slightly pricey, diners, Jerry's Deli. The Century City one even, that is our favorite Jerry's. We don't go to Jerry's very often, it's a bit far for us and also a little pricey, but boy OH BOY do we enjoy ourselves when we get to treat ourselves to Jerry's Deli :) (And my absolute must-have item at Jerry's Deli is a large black and white cookie.....mmmmm!)
We walked in to Jerry's, looking like drenched rats from the concert and now that I was no longer dancing around to the best rock'n roll in the world, I was also getting a little cold. The hostess couldn't believe we'd sat through the concert in the rain (obviously not a hardcore rocker, but I'm not holding that against her....or against Jerry's ....).
I ordered one of my Jerry's Deli favorites, the beef stroganoff and to my horror .... they were SOLD OUT of black and white cookies!!!! The nerve!!
- The Black and White cookie .... Yum♥♥
The waiter took mercy on me and he actually gave me 2 free cookies (of my choice) on the house since they were out of the black and whites and at that point, I was obviously a very disappointed, sorry-looking drenched rat without a black and white cookie ..... I mean, who wouldn't take pity on someone like that. lol.
Despite the lack of black and white cookies and the lack of dry clothes, I was a happy camper at the end of the night. The rain, the discovery of a new favorite band .... the encounter with my very very very favorite rocker in the entire universe..... the puddles of water on my seat ...... Jerry's Deli ....
The thing is, everyone has been to a kick-ass concert like Cheap Trick/Poison/Def Leppard. Most big rock concerts are kick-ass in fact. This was just another experience, and hands down, it was the best Bret Michaels concert I have ever been to. It's the kind of event that you laugh to yourself when you think back to it ..... and you shake your head at your own persistence as you stand there in the rain to see your favorite band ..... and you smile at random episodes that helped make this such a unique and wonderful experience.
I love every Bret Michaels and Poison concerts. But out of all the concerts that I have loved so far ..... I loved this one the most.
Note: All these Bret Michaels photos were taken in December 2010 at a concert in Riverside, CA .... sadly, I have NO photos from my favorite Bret Michaels concert because it was raining and it was dark and they all came out blurry and sad.
