Poison cover band, with Worcester's Frank Pupillo as the frontman, comes up short on 'Clash of the Cover Bands'

WORCESTER - Despite losing on E! Network’s “Clash of The Cover Bands,” it was nothing but a good time Wednesday night for Shot of Poison, especially after receiving a invite to join Poison's singer Bret Michaels onstage.

Shot of Poison is a Poison cover band that is very popular in the Worcester area club circuit, while the real Poison is a multi-platinum-selling, '80s glam metal band.

In honor of the airing date of their episode, Shot of Poison's front-man and Worcester native Frank Pupillo hosted a combination viewing party and acoustic set at Rascals, the club he co-owns at 70 James St.

On the telecast, the celebrity judges - Cape Cod native Meghan Trainor, Queen frontman Adam Lambert and "Song Factory" songwriter Ester Dean - were hooting, hollering and singing along during Shot of Poison's scorching stage performance of “Nothin’ But a Good Time.”

Hailed as a “dead ringer” for Poison’s singer Bret Michaels, Pupillo and his fellow Shot of Poison members - Bruce Bennett of Salem, New Hampshire, Ken Gilman of Shirley, and Adam Boc of the Boston area _-received raucous applause from the judges, as well as the studio audience.

But their competition, a Los Angeles-based Depeche Mode tribute band called Strangelove, which opened with “Enjoy the Silence,” turned out to be too much to overcome in the end, even though the 40-plus fans who came to Rascals for the big reveal thought collectively that Shot of Poison was robbed.

Strangelove won $10,000 for defeating Shot of Poison Wednesday night. At the end of the season, one winning band will take home a $25,000 top prize plus a chance to perform on “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.”

But who really won Wednesday night?

Yes, Strangelove technically won their bout on “Clash of the Cover Bands” but they didn’t get a call from Depeche Mode’s singer David Gahan to join him onstage.

On the other hand, Shot of Poison didn’t win on the reality TV competition show but Bret Michaels, the singer of Poison, did reach out to the band Wednesday and invited them to perform with him onstage. Shot of Poison was absolutely floored by the invite.

“We met Bret at Indian Ranch (in Webster) four years ago,” Gilman said. “Four years later…he invited us to go on stage with the Bret Michaels Band and play ‘Nothin’ But a Good Time’…He’s the king of glam metal. Period.”

Introduced by show host Stephen “tWitch” Boss as “four blue collar guys from Massachusetts who grew up watching their favorite rockers on MTV (that are) now living their rock ‘n’ roll dreams,” Shot of Poison was shown via interview snippets.

“I put this band together in 2017, finding these guys one at a time,” Gilman said. “We wanted to play huge stages, big shows, arenas. This show can help us reach our lifelong goal of doing music and nothing else. Tonight we’re gonna rock. We’re gonna raise the flag and fly it for a band we cover. We want them to know we love their music and we want them to be proud.

“In the ‘80s when Poison was huge, I was in the Navy but I chose to get out because I wanted to be a rock star,” Pupillo said. “Being in this band has definitely had its perks and the biggest perk is I met the girl of my dream, my fiancée.”

After their initial performance, Trainor and Dean gushed about how much they loved it. Then came Lambert’s critique of the band.

“So Poison is hair metal, Sunset Strip,” Lambert said. “The only suggestion that I would have, this is rock ‘n’ roll, I want it dirtier. You know. I want it a littler nastier, a little bit messier.”

After going through a rehearsal with vocal expert Kuk Harrell and performance expert Ray Leeper, A Shot of Poison was ready to rock!

For the rapid-fire battle round, Strangelove played snippets of “Just Can’t Get Enough,” “People Are People” and “Personal Jesus” while Shot of Poison countered with “Your Mama Don’t Dance,” “Fallen Angel” and “Every Rose Has Its Thorn.”

Despite Lambert praising Shot of Poison afterwards for delivering energy and a “rocker’s edge” that was “dirty, free and loose” and Trainor admiring the way they performed together onstage and made the crowd go nuts, the judges picked Strangelove.

During an informal Q& A at Rascals, the four musicians took turns talking about how they were overwhelmed, in a good way, by the whole “Clash of the Cover Bands” experience.

“It was a lot of fun. We had a blast. They treated us like royalty,” Bennett said. “We had over 30 different handlers…Just to be on that show we were in makeup for an hour. It was crazy.”

“We were treated very well,” Gilman added. “Everybody on this stage grew up wanting to be a rock star. We didn’t. But we got an opportunity to be rock stars. They treated us like rock stars, very professional, courteous…We got to be on national TV tonight (Wednesday). I never dreamt of that.”

Boc talked about how he was overwhelmed not only by the experience but by the rich television history of CBS Studio Center, located in Studio City, Calififornia, where the show was taped.

Although they didn’t seem to mind the outcome of the competition, Pupillo confessed they are a little disappointed.

“My brother, Mike, came over to me and goes, ‘You better not (expletive) lose to Depeche Mode.’ And I’m like, ‘Yeah, I hope not,’” Pupillo said, despite knowing and being sworn to secrecy to what was the outcome.”

Despite not moving forward in the competition, Shot of Poison’s appearance on “Clash of the Cover Bands” has already opened new doors of opportunity for the band.

In addition to a plethora of invitation to do private parties, Bennett said they have received calls from the organizers from the Spencer Fair, the Big E in West Springfield and the Topsfield Fair about playing their fair next year.

This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Poison cover band, with Worcester's Frank Pupillo as the frontman, comes up short on 'Clash of the Cover Bands' on E!