Dave & Dave Unchained

[DavidLeeNatra]

I only had the, er...um, 'pleasure' of seeing Poison live once when they opened for Ratt in the mid-1980s just as the Look What The Cat album was released. My take on the band then was that they came across like an act that was adequate for large clubs but didn't have what it took to win over arena-sized crowds. Much like when I had seen Bon Jovi open for Scorpions after Bon Jovi's second album had came out, my feeling certainly wasn't one of thinking that Poison was a band that was destined for bigger things, certainly not on the scale of commercial success they ended up reaching.

Shows what I knew, although I never became what one would call a fan of either group, even after they both made it big.

When I saw Bon Jovi in 1986 on the Monsters as sevond opener after Doro Pesch's Warlock it was different. I instantly knew I witnessed something BIG! The German audience was a tough one and awaited the "poser" with crossed arms.

And Jonny-Boy was working that fucking stage if it was about life and death. And he WON the crowd over. After all the cheese he put out and the pussy rock he produced I still have some respect for him after all these years for that effort!

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[Terry]

When I saw Bon Jovi in 1986 on the Monsters as sevond opener after Doro Pesch's Warlock it was different. I instantly knew I witnessed something BIG! The German audience was a tough one and awaited the "poser" with crossed arms.

And Jonny-Boy was working that fucking stage if it was about life and death. And he WON the crowd over. After all the cheese he put out and the pussy rock he produced I still have some respect for him after all these years for that effort!

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I mean, I was as stunned as anyone else when Bon Jovi came out with Slippery When Wet and vaulted into the massive commercial success they ended up becoming. Mostly because from what I heard on the first two albums and saw for myself on the Scorpions opening slot, nothing there indicated to me that this was a band poised to become arena headliners and multi-platinum sellers. Those first two albums were hardly stellar stuff: nothing exceptional or particularly distinguishable from anything else going on within the confines of the American hard rock scene in 1984 and 1985. Jon Bon Jovi was a pretty boy: more photogenic than, say, Kevin DuBrow to be sure. But that wasn't translating into instant commercial success right out of the gate for the band. There wasn't this huge street buzz about Bon Jovi leading up to Slippery When Wet that I ever heard of.

To be sure, Bon Jovi put in some hard work touring for both Slippery When Wet and New Jersey. Lot of roadwork. Whatever I think of the music he made - which admittedly isn't much - one certainly can't say he didn't put in the hard work in terms of the touring.

Shit, even after Slippery When Wet and New Jersey came and went, I still would have thought back then that Bon Jovi was destined to wind up more timely than timeless and would have went the way of State Fairs/County Expos/House Of Blues-size venues like the rest of their hair band ilk. Almost as surprising as their massive late 1980s success was how they still endured decades after at in terms of the crowd sizes they were still able to pull in as late as 2010. And they were still lobbing off the odd charting song here and there in the 2000s.

[FORD]

Bon Jovi extended his career by turning into "Bono Jovi". When his first record of the 90s came out, he was suddenly wearing the same sleeveless shirt & haircut that Bono had at Red Rocks in 1983, embracing Democratic political causes, and one of the singles from that album had the lyric "all I've got is this guitar, three chords, and the truth" which was a direct steal from U2's version of "All Along the Watchtower", as seen in Rattle & Hum.

I pointed this all out at the time to a friend who was a big Bon Jovi fan. Of course he wouldn't admit I was right. Oh well....

[Nickdfresh]

Bon Jovi extended his career by turning into "Bono Jovi". When his first record of the 90s came out, he was suddenly wearing the same sleeveless shirt & haircut that Bono had at Red Rocks in 1983, embracing Democratic political causes, and one of the singles from that album had the lyric "all I've got is this guitar, three chords, and the truth" which was a direct steal from U2's version of "All Along the Watchtower", as seen in Rattle & Hum.

I pointed this all out at the time to a friend who was a big Bon Jovi fan. Of course he wouldn't admit I was right. Oh well....

to

If he espoused "Democratic ideals", he's a shallow corporatist cunt that tried to move the Buffalo Bills to Toronto as part of an ownership group with Rogers Communications, a major Canadian cable huckster conglomerate, despite the fact there is no current venue in Toronto to play NFL football in, and most NFL fans in Southern Ontario are quite happy to come to Orchard Park to watch football -even if its shitty Bills' football- and don't really want to put up with the bullshit it would take to go to an NFL game in Toronto when they can come to an open area of parking lots where they can drink their fucking faces off in open parking lots. Of course, Jon was shrieking at the top of his little lungs that he didn't wanna move the team and was going to keep them in Buffalo and all that shit. But, at the end of the day, he's a cunt full of shit and can fuck off. Have a Nice Day. Fucking liberal nice guy everyman...

[FORD]

Unfortunately, his "Democratic ideals" are closer to the Clinton type (corporatist cunts) than the Bernie type (FDR style actual Democrat)

[Nickdfresh]

Unfortunately, his "Democratic ideals" are closer to the Clinton type (corporatist cunts) than the Bernie type (FDR style actual Democrat)

I doubt he would know what the fuck we are talking about...

[twonabomber]

I only had the, er...um, 'pleasure' of seeing Poison live once when they opened for Ratt in the mid-1980s just as the Look What The Cat album was released.

Dancing Undercover tour, I believe.

Saw them at Blossom that year. Left halfway through Ratt's set, it was so loud you couldn't tell what the songs were. It was halfway through Wanted Man before I knew what it was.

Just loud for the sake of being loud, not musically loud. No clarity.

to

If he espoused "Democratic ideals", he's a shallow corporatist cunt that tried to move the Buffalo Bills to Toronto as part of an ownership group with Rogers Communications, a major Canadian cable huckster conglomerate, despite the fact there is no current venue in Toronto to play NFL football in, and most NFL fans in Southern Ontario are quite happy to come to Orchard Park to watch football -even if its shitty Bills' football- and don't really want to put up with the bullshit it would take to go to an NFL game in Toronto when they can come to an open area of parking lots where they can drink their fucking faces off in open parking lots. Of course, Jon was shrieking at the top of his little lungs that he didn't wanna move the team and was going to keep them in Buffalo and all that shit. But, at the end of the day, he's a cunt full of shit and can fuck off. Have a Nice Day. Fucking liberal nice guy everyman...

I stopped at the duty free coming back from Toronto after the first VH show in '07. Monday afternoon, Canadian Thanksgiving (Tommy V will correct me) and the Bills on MNF. Duty free is PACKED with Canadians in NFL jerseys, snatchin' up beer like there was an announcement made that the beer in the building is all there is left in the world. Guys fighting over a case of Budweiser...all I could do was laugh.

[Terry]

Dancing Undercover tour, I believe.

Saw them at Blossom that year. Left halfway through Ratt's set, it was so loud you couldn't tell what the songs were. It was halfway through Wanted Man before I knew what it was.

Just loud for the sake of being loud, not musically loud. No clarity.

I believe it was.

For some odd reason, I ended up seeing Ratt three times in the 80s. First time was as an opening act for Billy Squier, which was the only time out of the three that I actively wanted to see the band. The other two times, for their Invasion and Undercover tours, I got asked by friends who had extra tickets at the last minute because the original ticketholders had backed out: I hadn't originally planned on attending either show from just a general lack of interest. Ratt were never particularly great live, either. I had wanted to see them when they opened up for Squier in 1984 because I really liked the Out Of The Cellar album, but they never blew me away any of the times I saw 'em live.

This was all in Rhode Island, where my best bud's divorced mom knew the main concert promoter for the Providence Civic Center (the main concert venue for bands playing in the state). She'd get us tickets, take us up, drop us off and pick us up after. Between 1983 and 1986, we saw Black Sabbath/Quiet Riot, Ozzy/Motley Crue, Judas Priest/Great White, Scorpions/Bon Jovi, Dio/Twisted Sister, Ozzy/Metallica, Van Halen/Autograph, Ratt/Poison, Billy Squier/Ratt, Dio/Rough Cutt, Iron Maiden/Accept, Deep Purple/Girlschool, Aerosmith/David Johansen, KISS/Black 'n Blue and I also remember seeing Dokken there as an opening act, but I'm fucked if I remember for who...and I can't remember who opened for Ratt on the Invasion tour because we got there only for Ratt's set (plus, I do recall being pretty baked for that one). My dad took me there to see Billy Joel in 1984, and that actually turned out to be a great show, but I didn't want to go because the idea of going to a concert with my father wasn't cool.

Best headliner: Dio on the Last In Line Tour. Twisted Sister, at the height of their Stay Hungry fame, opened...but they were pretty fucking lame. Even back then as a 14 year old, I thought their image was as lame and ridiculous as their music. Dio just came out and fucking blew that audience away. Second best was Maiden on the Powerslave tour. Van Halen on the 1984 tour was perhaps the biggest theatrical production I'd ever seen in the Civic Center, but not the best band in terms of the impact of the show on me, which was weird because Van Halen was certainly my favorite band in 1984. Deep Purple was easily the loudest band I ever saw in those years: my ears literally rang for 2 days after that concert.

[Terry]

Bon Jovi extended his career by turning into "Bono Jovi". When his first record of the 90s came out, he was suddenly wearing the same sleeveless shirt & haircut that Bono had at Red Rocks in 1983, embracing Democratic political causes, and one of the singles from that album had the lyric "all I've got is this guitar, three chords, and the truth" which was a direct steal from U2's version of "All Along the Watchtower", as seen in Rattle & Hum.

I pointed this all out at the time to a friend who was a big Bon Jovi fan. Of course he wouldn't admit I was right. Oh well....

However Bon Jovi did it, by hook or by crook, he managed to extend his career LONG after many of his 1980s contemporaries couldn't even get booked into the Tic-Tock-Inn, much less fill a stadium. So, corporate centrist democrat douchebag capitalist Rockstar poser or not, at least Bon Jerkoff didn't have to kiss Eddie Trunk's ring on That Metal Show to keep his name out there. Career-wise, little Johnny Bongiovi made out pretty good on what I'd consider to be a meager amount of talent.

[FORD]

Dancing Undercover tour, I believe.

Saw them at Blossom that year. Left halfway through Ratt's set, it was so loud you couldn't tell what the songs were. It was halfway through Wanted Man before I knew what it was.

Just loud for the sake of being loud, not musically loud. No clarity.

Yeah, that sounds like the only Bon Jovi show I ever went to, in the Tacoma Dome in 1989. Acoustics in that building usually are fairly good for concerts (unlike the late and not so lamented Kingdome) but they just had their shit up so loud that it was a fuzzy distorted mess. Had no idea what song they were playing half the time. Only bothered to stick around for the same reason anybody would stick around a Bon Jovi concert..... rocker chicks flashing their tits!

[Seshmeister]

Dancing Undercover tour, I believe.

Saw them at Blossom that year. Left halfway through Ratt's set, it was so loud you couldn't tell what the songs were. It was halfway through Wanted Man before I knew what it was.

Just loud for the sake of being loud, not musically loud. No clarity.

Maybe their sound guy was told to be loud as possible because when I saw them supporting Ozzy at the time of IOYP they were louder than the headliners, almost painfully loud.

In a 40 minute set they did two guitar solo spots...