Grunge took care of Poison, and every other hair metal band of dudes who looked like ladies. But the cat keeps dragging them back in, especially lead dudette Bret Michaels (he recently survived both a brain hemorrhage and a stroke), who has turned himself into a professional reality-TV show bachelor and given skanks a job, not to mention a great Halloween costume idea for the past three years. Onetime roadie and personal assistant Christopher Long talks dirty in his book A Shot of Poison, chronicling 20 years with the band — fisticuffs, drugs, “tagging groupies” — as well as interviews with Michaels, guitarist C.C. DeVille, bassist Bobby Dall and drummer Rikki Rockett. Maybe he can finally explain what an “Unskinny Bop” is.

Mon., Aug. 9, 7 p.m., 2010

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