David Lee Roth and Poison

David Lee Roth
Opening Act: Poison
Sunday, April 17th, 1988
Spectrum Arena
Philadelphia, PA
Section 12, Row 11, Seat 4
$16.50

Almost seven months after my last concert. A lot had changed since then. I'd had MTV access for a year now. I was almost finished 8th grade. My music tastes had changed from Top 40 and MTV pop to the hair-metal hard rock late 80s style. My new favorite band was KISS - not so much for their makeup wearing history, but for their then-current 21st album Crazy Nights. It got regular airplay on MTV and fit right in with the hair-metal genre. My friend A led the way with us being metalheads. Her favorite bands were Motley Crue and Ozzy Osbourne. Susan's favorite was Europe. Debbie was not into this at all. My parents bought me a CD player, and my first CDs were Kiss' Crazy Nights, Def Leppard's Hysteria, and Poison's Look What the Cat Dragged In. Ah, 1988.

Van Halen was entering my vocabulary. David Lee Roth had just released Skyscraper, with This Must Be Just Like Living in Paradise on it. VH was about to release OU812. A, Sue, and I got tickets to see Dave with Poison opening. A's dad was our parental chaperone. He had left A's mom earlier that week, and this was the first time A saw him since he moved out. I remember sitting outside my house with Sue, waiting for A and her dad to pick us up for the show, and telling Sue about what had happened. A's parents were quite a bit younger than mine, and they were fans of some rock music.

Our seats were much better for this show. Still on the second level of the Spectrum, but with a full view of the stage. Er, stages. Roth had a main stage and then a smaller stage further back on the floor, looking almost like a boxing ring. He did a song or two back there to give the people with the back-floor seats a close up view. I think that was a good idea.

I liked Poison back then. They did a cover of Kiss' Rock and Roll All Nite. I just told Roy about this, and that they pronounced "every" in two syllables, instead of "ev-er-y" in three syllables like Kiss did. I think this was before their second album came out, but I definitely remember buying an "Open Up and Say Ahh" shirt. We horrified a couple teachers at school the next day wearing the shirt. Later on, I bought the original uncensored cassette of Open Up...

David Lee Roth was fun. He had Steve Vai on guitar, and Steve played the triple necked heart shaped guitar from the Just Like Paradise video. There was a drum solo, with the drummer Gregg Bissonette jumping over the drum set and playing from in front of the drum set. Exciting. I couldn't tell you what VH songs they did, I just wasn't that familiar with VH material yet.