By Michele Landon
Redhead LIVE! Photography

 

Calvert Marine Museum
Solomons Island, Maryland
May 24th 2012

Last weekend I had the chance to travel to the western shore to Solomons Island and the Calvert Marine Museum to see Bret Michaels and his “Get Your Rock On 2012” tour at the PNC Pavilion.

As a girl who grew up in the 80’s, I was excited to see Bret Michaels perform because I had never had the chance to see Poison back in the day. I wasn’t disappointed. The opening bands One Louder and Driven Livid had the crowd singing, dancing and setting the stage for the main act, Bret Michaels and the Bret Michaels Band.

I smiled to myself as I looked at the folks streaming in, taking their seats. Multi-generational is the way I would describe it. There were those in my age group (and older) that grew up with Bret Michaels fronting Poison, along with their kids and their grandkids!

The thing that stood out to me was how much Bret appreciated his audience. He connected with them throughout the entire show reaching down to the crowd, acknowledging them making everyone feel special. They in turn did the same for him. It was fantastic to see all of them on their feet, hands in the air, dancing and singing the entire night.

The concert was split between Poison songs like “Talk Dirty To Me”, “Something To Believe In”, “Every Rose Has It’s Thorn”, “Fallen Angel” and as an encore “Nothin’ But A Good Time”. I was surprised with the cover tunes that were mixed in though out the evening. I guess I expected to hear more of his originals. But the covers he chose were definite crowd pleasers.

Bret played the harmonica on “Your Mama Don’t Dance” after which he thanked everyone for the prayers during his life and death struggle with the brain hemorrhage. He told the crowd that a Sublime song “What I Got” helped him get better during that hard time and launched into that song.

He also let us in on some things to come on his new soon to be released album “Get Your Rock On”. Loretta Lynn will do a duet with him on “Every Rose Has It’s Thorn”, and rockers Phil Collen of Def Leppard and Sal Costa of My Darkest Days will be laying down tracks on this new album too. A favorite party song will make the album which Bret sang that night. He will be doing a rock version duet with Jimmy Buffet of “Margaritaville”.

The evening was a success and Bret capped it off with a “Meet & Greet” with his fans. Bret is a hard working musician and philanthropic guy. I can’t even list all his causes that he supports, but he is a man that cares and gives back, check out his website www.bretmichaels.com for the full list of causes, passions, blogs from the road and his original music.

I’d also like to acknowledge those that worked hard to make the night fun for all; the volunteers and staff at the Calvert Marine Museum, all the behind the scene lighting, sound, and road crew…you make it look easy even though we know it’s not. The fact is that it takes months of planning, days of set up and preparation to pull these events off.

If you ever get a chance to see a concert down on Solomons Island at the PNC Pavilion located on the grounds of the Calvert Marine Museum, I highly recommend this intimate setting on the water. They will be bringing the band “Boston” to the stage August 16th, 2012. They expect this to sell out fast and I can tell you, you’ll never get such an up-close chance to see this band anytime soon.