Okay, so now Twisted Sister is up on the Main Stage. To start off with, their lead-in music was It's a Long Way to the Top (If You Wanna Rock and Roll). As the bagpipes are playing the outro, they walk out and launch right into You Can't Stop Rock and Roll. Dee looks and sounds absolutely amazing. He may have looked like a complete freak back in the day and was undoubtedly not taken seriously, but dude is legit and they rocked the roof off. Of note was a fun little point where Dee starts to talk about how in the 90's all these bands started doing Unplugged...
"This is a pretty interesting moment on the show, because it's something that we haven't done before. Twisted Sister noticed that our peers - the other bands - great bands - all of them have been doing this unplugged thing. I know what you're saying 'Dee! Duh!' I mean it's been going on since the late 90's - all these great metal bands have been unplugging, especially when it comes to their ballad, so Twisted Sister thought that maybe - where is my guitar, bring my guitar out here, would you please?"
Roadie brings Dee an acoustic guitar. Oddly, there's no guitar strap on it...
"Twisted Sister thought maybe it was high time that we, too joined the other great 80's bands and we unplu-Oh f*ck this...
F*CK UNPLUGGED, F*CK ACOUSTIC GUITARS, F*CK FOLK MUSIC, F*CK THAT!!!"
Smash, smash, smash, smash
"Twisted Sister will unplug our electric guitars when they pry 'em from our cold, dead hands!! This one is played the way it's supposed to be played, it's called the Price!"
So very rock and roll. Great set, great energy. Despite initially not being too hyped up about them, I'm really glad we got to see them.
You Can't Stop Rock 'n' Roll
Shoot 'Em Down
Stay Hungry
I Believe in Rock 'n' Roll
The Kids are Back
We're Not Gonna Take It
The Price
Burn in Hell
I Wanna Rock
So the closer on the Festival Stage was Jackyl. Despite the fact that they've played around here numerous times (Just this past weekend, actually), I've never seen them. They're like AC/DC on steroids. At this point, you MIGHT have been able to get as close as about 150 ft from the stage. It was freakin' packed. They tore through a 7 song set, with JJD noting at some point that he didn't give a shit about schedules and such.
So they close with the Lumberjack song and I'm pretty sure it was getting near or past the point that Bret Michaels was supposed to start. After 2 minutes of bullshitting with the crowd while the band played the riff, he finally starts the song.
Lights out.
They kept playing like nothing ever happened. They cut the song short a little, and he still cut a bar stool in half. When they finished, he says "I never could tell time too good!" Thanks the crowd, and they leave.
I heard conflicting reports that they shut off the lights on them and that a fuse blew. No way to know, but I doubt a fuse blew and they were unable to fix it the REST of the song. Pretty sure lights were back up later when they were tearing down the stage. Anyway, video. Lights go down around 1:50.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFxivW9n7d0My Moonshine Kicks Your Cocaine's Ass
Down On Me
I Stand Alone
When Will It Rain
Dirty Little Mind
Redneck Punk
The Lumberjack Song
Then, looking at the stage setup for the Bret Michaels Band, you can see that the set consists, most obviously, of six large decorative panels, each of which displays Bret Michaels' face.
Are you that self-absorbed? Wow.
We stuck around for Talk Dirty To Me and Look What the Cat Dragged In. Left when he started doing Sweet Home Alabama. I've seen Poison, don't want to see them again without the rest of the band. GONE!
I will say, that he sounded really good. When he was yelling out to the crowd, he didn't sound at all like Bret. As soon as he started singing, it was unmistakably Bret Michaels.
Talk Dirty To Me
Look What The Cat Dragged In
Sweet Home Alabama
Your Mama Don't Dance
Go That Far
Something To Believe In
Unskinny Bop
What I Got (Sublime)
Every Rose Has Its Thorn
Fallen Angel
Encore:
Nothin' But A Good Time
So that's that. What a killer weekend. We recruited 3 new people to go this time around, who've agreed that they're definitely going again. It is literally a festival of rack. No, I didn't mean rock, I meant
rack. The M3 Festival sees more hot chicks than a sorority house toilet seat. My one buddy was nearly speechless at it all. A great weeknd of hair metal, our 4th year in a row now. Looking forward to many, many more. At some point, they're gonna start scraping hte bottom of the barrel for bands, but I think there are plenty of bands they can still showcase, and they've clearly brought bands back many times, so it wouldn't matter who was on the lineup, I'm still going.