For years after high school, my friends and I would head out to Riverbend Music Center in Cincinnati to see Poison every summer. That trend ended in 2002 after we saw the band perform at the same spot for three straight years. That was until last night when Kim and I headed down to Fiddler’s Green to see them open up for another old favorite band of mine, Def Leppard. Cheap Trick was also playing the show, but we didn’t arrive early enough to see them play. In fact we walked in after Poison had already taken the stage.

I must say that even after seven years have passed, Poison can still put on a heck of a show. Bret Michaels can still command a crowd, even if his voice is fading slightly. And the rest of the band still seems to be on top of their game. Their show isn’t overly flashy, but there is still a nice light show and even some blasts of fire from time to time.

After Poison wrapped up their set, Def Leppard took the stage after a rather lengthy set change. During the break I was amazed to see the size of the set that was being constructed on stage. When complete, there were three levels to the setup, complete with video screens along the front of each level and back behind the entire set. It was quite a difference from what Poison just had up on stage.

Def Leppard came out rocking, but I quickly noticed that singer Joe Elliott is losing his voice even more than Poison’s frontman. He blasts his way through the start of most songs, but when the high notes come, he just can’t sing like he used to. However, the rest of the band sounded just as good as I remembered. This was my first time seeing the band perform live, so I wasn’t sure what to expect. After a quick Google search it seems like my opinion is shared by many others. They are probably worth seeing once, but I doubt I’d put effort into seeing them again.