Bret Michaels • December 14, 2024 • The Sound — Clearwater, FL • Photos by Randy Cook

When the announcement for the Bret Michaels ‘Parti-Gras 2.0’ tour included a local stop in Clearwater, my attention was immediately captured. Then when his special guest were announced this show became a must see for me. Not only did Bret Michaels and Poison steal the show when I saw the Mötley Crüe/Def Leppard stadium tour, I have always wanted to see Dee Snider (of Twisted Sister) and having just seen Night Ranger a couple of months ago, I knew with that lineup and at that venue, with the forecasted weather ahead of the show, we in attendance were for sure in for ‘Nothing but a Good Time’!

The weather could not have been more perfect for an outdoor show in the middle of December. A crisp 60 degree evening at a beautiful waterfront park in downtown Clearwater was the scene as a near sell out of nine thousand strong gathered to take in a night of the music I grew up with. This was my fourth time seeing Night Ranger (all within the past few years) and I had forgotten how guitar solo heavy their songs are. It was my first time seeing Dee Snider perform. I had always wanted to see Twisted Sister but sadly never had. This was my third time seeing Bret Michaels perform, with both of the previous times he performed with Poison. 

My friend Stacey traveled down from Newport, TN for the show and she and I met up with a few different groups of friends at the venue. Everyone we encountered was excited for the evening ahead of us. Formed in 1979 and with more than 17 million records sold worldwide, Night Ranger is a band I grew up listening to and followed pretty closely. In the days of my youth all we had for music accessibility were the radio, whatever CD and cassettes my friends and I could afford to buy and eventually MTV. Night Ranger’s early material were in heavy rotation in my circle of friends. The crowd was already on their feet in anticipation as the lights went dark and the band emerged silhouetted ready to hit those first notes of ‘(You Can Still) Rock in America’. 

Night Ranger played a high-energy nine song set that drew heavily from their first two studio releases. The band’s monster radio hits were mixed in with two Damn Yankees covers and ‘Crazy Train’ to honor guitarist Brad Gillis’s time when he played with Ozzy Osbourne. With twelve studio albums of material to choose from, the theme of the night was ‘Parti Gras’ so they played basically a greatest hits hour long set. Not a person was in their seat as the band played ‘Sister Christian’, then segued into band introductions, before concluding with ‘Don’t Tell Me You Love Me’ and all I saw were smiling faces. Stacey said after the show that ‘Sister Christian’ was her favorite part of the evening, saying those few minutes were “electrifying” to her, hearing that song live for the first time which had always been a favorite. I could not agree more with her statement.

Lead vocalist Bret Michaels’ time with the band Poison has generated more than 65 million album sales worldwide and I know from seeing Poison before how excellent of a front man he is. This evening’s show was no different in that from even before he set foot on stage, the crowd was beyond ready to get the party started. Opening his set with ‘Talk Dirty to Me’, I witnessed dancing in the aisles and several mischievous looks between couples as hips were gyrating from the first notes. The party had definitely started, and continued with ‘Ride the Wind’ and ‘Your Mama Don’t Dance’, a cover of the Loggins & Messina song. Bret brought the members of Night Ranger out for an extended version of Lynyrd Skynyrd’s Sweet Home Alabama. After the fun tune, ‘Look What the Cat Dragged In’ the monster power ballad ‘Every Rose Has Its Thorn’ brought a collective crowd sing along with Bret. My favorite Poison song, ‘Unskinny Bop’ led the intro to the emergence of Dee Snider to join the party and sing a couple of Twisted Sister songs. 

Staring off with ‘We’re Not Gonna Take It’ Dee fired up the crowd even more than we already were with his non-stop energy.  The video for this song debuted on April 27, 1984 and quickly became one of my favorite music videos, and still is to this day several decades later it ranks up near the top of personal favorites. When that opening intro to ‘I Wanna Rock’ started I think every person in attendance was joined with me in raised fist and singing along. Dee then took a moment to mention, how if you are going to be a fan boy after seeing someone famous in a public place, be sure to know who you are approaching. In a seriously funny delivery Dee mentioned how two different times recently, at Starbucks and Home Depot (“Hey I like coffee, and I needed lightbulbs”) he was recently mistaken for Bon Jovi. After a lesson in the history and proper use of the metal horns ‘Highway to Hell’ continued with entire crowd sing along. Bret came back out and had Dee stay on to conclude the show with the reason we were all in attendance. ‘Nothin’ but a Good Time’ closed out the festivities. 

It truly was a great show, a fun time was had by everyone in attendance that Stacey and I met up with and talked to after the show. The weather was truly a blessing to be by the water in shorts in mid-December. Having so many friends in attendance and gathered together to enjoy the fun tunes we grew up partying to truly made it a fun party atmosphere. While I hope there is a full Poison tour in the future as we all left hungry for more, I would also go see Night Ranger again in a heartbeat, it was a great musical combination for this show.

Set list for the evening:

Night Ranger:
(You Can Still) Rock in America
Sing Me Away
Coming of Age (Damn Yankees cover)
Crazy Train (Ozzy Osbourne cover)
Night Ranger (with bass & full band drum solo)
High Enough (Damn Yankees cover)
When You Close Your Eyes
Sister Christian
Don’t Tell Me You Love Me (with band introductions)

Bret Michaels:
Talk Dirty to Me (Poison song)
Ride the Wind (Poison song)
Your Mama Don’t Dance (Loggins & Messina cover)
Sweet Home Alabama (Lynyrd Skynyrd cover) (with Night Ranger)
Look What the Cat Dragged In (Poison song)
Every Rose Has Its Thorn (Poison song)
Unskinny Bop (Poison song)

Dee Snider:
We’re Not Gonna Take It (Twisted Sister song)
I Wanna Rock (Twisted Sister song)
Highway to Hell (AC/DC cover) (with Bret Michaels)

Bret Michaels:
Nothin’ but a Good Time (Poison song) (with Dee Snider)

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