LIVE: BRET MICHAELS – February 26, 2022

Venue: Ruth Eckerd Hall

City: Clearwater, FL

Dates: February 26, 2022

Review and Photographs by: Todd “Toddstar” Jolicoeur (www.toddstarphotography.com)

Benefit and charity shows can go one of two ways, but when you match up Bret Michaels, Warrant, Hulk Hogan, Noah Galloway, and 50 Legs, you can bet you are in for one kick ass event and evening.  The evening kicked off with Galloway and a couple others representing 50 Legs taking the stage and kicking off some auction items in house with tickets up front for the show and we were off an running. Without much delay after some announcements, Warrant hit the stage and unleashed a torrent of hits from their catalog along with a couple newer tracks, beginning with “Sure Feels Good To Me.”  The band featuring singer Robert Mason, guitarists Erik Turner and Joey Allen, drummer Steven Sweet, and bassist Robbie Crane took us through a tight setlist that took us all back to the first album and second album with the biggest hits of portion of the evening and tossed in three killer power ballads including my personal favorite “I Saw Red.”  While everyone sang along to the tracks, the place seemed to explode when the band kicked it into overdrive with set closer and arguably their biggest song “Cherry Pie.” Once their set was wrapped up and the stage was shifted over for a Bret Michaels show, there was more introduction to the event and charity as well as more pushing of auction items and fundraising… it is a benefit show after all.  All music and photojournalism aside, I learned something new this evening and that was if they could get everyone in the venue to donate $2.50, it would provide one child with a much needed prosthetic.  As we moved closer to the time to welcome Bret to the stage, a special guest came out and introduced the evenings headliner – Hulk Hogan himself made an appearance and pumped the crowd up, as if he was lifting Andre the Giant once again.

Then the show went over the top as the Bret Michaels Band – guitarist Pete Evick, keyboardist Robbie Jozwiak, bassist Norman Voss, and drummer Meri Schaefer – took the stage and readied the crowd for the man himself to join them and once in place, the band tore into “Talk Dirty To Me.”  It was like an evening of greatest hits as he broke out the bigger songs from his catalog with Poison and treated the packed audience to eight smash hits from the bands first three albums and tossed in a BMB live staple to close the show.  Of course the two huge ballads – “Something To Believe In” and “Every Rose Has Its Thorn” were a part of the evening, but it was the rockers that kept the energy up and the set flowing, especially “Unskinny Bop” and “Nothin’ But A Good Time.”  As a Detroit guy, I still love “Ride The Wind” every time I hear it [the original video was filmed at Detroit, MI’s Joe Louis Arena] and will always remember seeing Pete Evick debut with Bret in Detroit.  The evening closed down with a killer rendition Bret Michael style of Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Sweet Home Alabama.”  And with that, the show was over and the venue emptied out with a packed house full of rockers cascading into the parking lot and onto the streets of Clearwater with a smile on their faces and a song on their lips.

BRET MICHAELS SETLIST: Talk Dirty to Me – Look What the Cat Dragged In – Ride the Wind – Your Mama Don’t Dance – Something to Believe In – Unskinny Bop – Every Rose Has Its Thorn – Nothin’ but a Good Time – Sweet Home Alabama

WARRANT SETLIST: Sure Feels Good to Me – Love in Stereo – You’re the Only Hell Your Mama Ever Raised – I Saw Red – Down Boys – Sometimes She Cries – D.R.F.S.R. – Heaven – Uncle Tom’s Cabin – Cherry Pie

FULL SET OF BRET MICHAELS PHOTOS HERE

BRET MICHAELS LINKS:

OFFICIAL SITE

FACEBOOK

TWITTER

INSTAGRAM

TOUR DATES

FULL SET OF WARRANT PHOTOS HERE

WARRANT LINKS:

OFFICIAL SITE

FACEBOOK

TWITTER

INSTAGRAM

TOUR DATES

50 LEGS LINKS:

OFFICIAL SITE

FACEBOOK

TWITTER

Tags: featured

Category: Live Reviews, Photo Galleries