Riveter opens for Bret Michaels: Part 2 Bret plays

So as I was saying, Riveter opened for Bret Michaels and his band, the Bret Michaels Band.*

We played well. We rocked the house and we loved every single second of it. The crowd was amazing and it was hard to pack up my stuff and get off the stage.

But Bret was a-coming, so off we went.

As we were loading out our gear, Big John was there to greet us.

He said that we did a great job and that he really enjoyed us. He commented on our cover of Betty Blowtorch's "Hell on Wheels" — the song we lead with.

Big John was a friend of the lead singer and bass player, Bianca — one of the most bad-ass rock 'n' roll chicks I've ever heard of. John said as we started to play, he said, "That's Bianca's song."

That kicked ass.

Not only did he know the band we were covering but was good friends with the chick who made it all happen and someone we all think was the most rockin' chick.

So we all had a moment that put a beautiful cherry on top of getting to play for Bret Michaels' awesome fans.

We hung around the back of the club, waiting to see if we'd be able to meet Bret who had just come in on a plane.

We watched the small group of fans get moved to the other side of the parking lot so that Bret could make his jog from the bus to the stage door — while we got to stand inside the barricaded corral (which totally added to our rock-star experience).

The introductions happened just as Big John said they would in his pre-show security meeting and then he was walking to Bret's bus with Bret's silver cowboy hat in hand.

Moments later, the bus door opened and the wee figure of Bret Michaels stepped out followed closely by Big John.

Bret is much shorter than I imagined — probably around 5'7" or so — and much better looking.

He waved to his fans and as he jogged by we three Riveter girls, he smiled, waved and said, "Sorry I can't chat."

Next thing we knew, the band was striking up the chords to "Talk Dirty to Me" — the Poison song that we've been covering for a couple years.

We squeezed our way on to the packed dance floor and watched the pro work the stage and the crowd.

Dude knows how to put on a mofo excellent show.
The crowd of mostly becleavaged girls got what they had waited hours to see. Bret Michaels in concert.
They played Poison songs, Bret's originals and a host of covers that songs we were truly excited to hear.
All the while, Big John was videotaping the show from on stage. Bret later shared that they upload the video and send it over to for the troops to watch in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The band was great, the music was great and Bret Michaels exceeded all of our expectations.

After the show, we watched Bill sticker up Bret fan after Bret fan — which you read about here.

We lingered with the other fans out back, hoping to get to meet Bret and to even get on the now famous bus.

But ultimately we decided that we'd had our share of rock-star fun — meeting Bret would've been fun, but not meeting him didn't dampen a truly amazing experience.

This is one story that we'll be telling and reliving for a long time to come.

Thank you, Bret Michaels.



*The Bret Michaels Band is actually the band, Evick, just without Bret. It's headed up by Pete Evick who is a really cool guy and his band RAWKS. I totally go see them even without Bret (just don't tell Bret).

Here's Pete and I after the show: