When I was first starting to get into music, a little later than most, I discovered a song called "Rocket." This served to by my first introduction to Def Leppard, who quickly became my first favorite band. I quickly obtained all of their albums up to that point. There was something about their big arena rock sound that just grabbed me. Sadly, I never got to see them live during their glory years. Now, nearly twenty years later my opportunity has arrived. Def Leppard was teaming up with, as unlikely a pairing as I have seen in recent years, Bryan Adams to go on a tour of minor league baseball stadiums, much like Bob Dylan and Willie Nelson did last year. I bought my ticket as soon as I could, my date was set to finally see them live.
I arrived at the stadium around 3:45 for the scheduled 6:30 start. I wanted to make sure that I was able to get a parking space in the lot, I did not want to deal with shuttle buses. There was already good sized crowd forming. I made my way to the merch trailer to see what they had to offer, I ended up with a Def Leppard "Rock of Ages 2005" tour shirt. I took that back to the car, so I didn't have to worry about carrying it for the entire afternoon. I then returned and got in line to await entry into the stadium.
The line grew rather rapidly, quickly filling in the open area of the parking lot. The lot was declared full around 5:00. While waiting in line I chatted with some fellow fans who were visiting the area from Florida, I ended up hanging with them for the majority of the show, which was cool as I was there by myself. The gates opened around 5:30 and the line slowly filed in. First stop concessions, got some food to keep me going then headed onto the field and down towards the stage. I settled in approximately 5 rows back from the guard rail and waited for the show to begin.
6:30 came and the warm up act hit the stage. Randy Coleman took to the stage with an acoustic guitar and one of his band members whose name I didn't catch. Unfortunately for Randy, the crowd was not terribly into the music, they wanted Adams and Leppard now. Being that way, there were numerous boos and such directed at the stage. To Randy's credit, his performance was actually quite good. He played 4 or 5 songs over a 20 minute period, including the song "Hey God" from the excellent film Crash. I thought his performance was good, I would like to hear what he sounds like with a full band. By the end of the set he had won over some of the crowd, but the rest was itching for the headliners. I hope he comes back to the area so that I can witness a full set with his full band, just so long he doesn't sing "Happy Birthday" to the US again, that was a little goofy.
Article comments
1 - Andrew Ian Dodge
I do hope they bring this tour to the UK. I, for one, would love to see this double bill.
2 - Laryssa
My husband and I were at this concert as well, and could not get over..how great it really was!! Everything went so well, other then the small fight that started...Both Bryan Adams and Def Leppard were fantastic! We enjoyed ourselves so much, I think everyone there had a wonderful night and raived about the concert!
3 - Chris Beaumont
Very cool! Were you anywhere near the fight? I was on the stage side of it. I am not much of an Adams fan, but he did put on a great show. Lep was fantastic!
4 - Laryssa
Hi,
No, we weren't near the fight but saw the cops go running that one time, and heard it was a little nothing fight.
First we were the second "seat" row ( near the fried dough and pizza) stand, by 1st base, then we were out about 15 ft from the stage to the right of it..I thought it was a really cool concert too, I enjoyed Bryan Adams as well, but was there mostly for Def Leppard, but they all did an awesome concert!
Dutchess stadium should host more concerts like that, they'll always get a great turn out!
5 - D
Photos from this concert at Dutchess Stadium can be found here
Enjoy
6 - Eric Berlin
Chris -- This article appears on Google News' Entertainment News main page at the moment. Thought you'd like to know...
7 - Dan
I caught them last year. It was really good.
When you mention the song "action" do you mean the song originally recorded by Sweet? This was a defining moment of last years show. They played it for an encore. I've looked everywhere for a recorded Def lep version, but to no avail.
It's a little disappointing that they're only playing stadiums. I'd rather see them where I don't have to fight for position.
8 - Chris Beaumont
I am not familiar with the Sweet song, I do know that this Action appeared on the Retro-Active album.
I am not sure how they would sound in a smaller venue, their sound is very arena rock sounding.
Thanks Eric, very cool indeed!
9 - Sherry
In ref. to Randy Coleman. I know him and thought I would pass on this info. He and Carlos Rivera are the warm up band. Randy had a band called Zoo Story. You can go to there web site and get there CD and you can go to the Randy Coleman web site and get his CD there also. Randy has a very pure voice and great music. Take the time to listen to it. I have had the pleasure of hin doing a charity event for me and I have seen him in L.A. He is a great person to be around and it comes through in his music. It hits the heart and soul. His music reflects life. If you want to hear him with fullband check out the web sites. His music has also been featured in the movie Dragonfly with Kevin Costner and also The Event with Olympia Dukakis. Enjoy
10 - Chris Beaumont
Shery-
Thanks for that information, I will have to look into it some more. I did like what I heard.
11 - christina
hope you don't me chiming in: Just saw this show on Saturday in Schaumburg, IL and while we didn't care much (SORRY!) for Def Leppard (thought Joe's vocals blew, but I WAS on stage left so all we heard was him literally screaming), we were apparently the only ones ... it was quite evident that the happy crowd was there for DL rather than Bryan, but that was fine by me because I was there for Bryan who was, all bias' apart, FANTASTIC! Even my bf who is NOT a fan was impressed with his performance!
Although it's a very odd line up, it's DEFINITELY one to check out in this type of venue! Smaller, but not too small (wouldn't have worked for Joe's vocals for sure).
12 - Chris Beaumont
Glad to hear you had a good time, despite Joe's lacking vocals. It is an odd lineup, but it helps expose the opposing audiences with some more music, which, when done well, is always a good thing!
13 - Al
Massive Def Leppard fan since I first heard "Pour Some Sugar On Me" when it first came out (at a middle school dance in the 8th grade), but have never seen them in concert... Well, my wonderful wife, for my 1st year aniversary present (July 31st) bought us tickets for the West Virginia show. We are wondering, about what time did the show end? Just curious since we are debating driving home (Richmond Va) or getting a hotel near there that night. Thanks....
14 - Chris Beaumont
Def Leppard ended their set arounf 10:30. The whole show started at 6:30. I hope DL is closing your show! They are swapping the closing slots.
15 - christina
hey Al, don't remember where I found the list, but I DO know for sure that they're alternating who's closing and the show in West Virgnia would have Bryan closing -- have a blast! (And give Bry a try... you'll be surprised!)
16 - Tom
Hey all , I have been a DF fan since my high school days (84) and never got the chance to see them either until this year in Memphis. To much of my surprize my much younger girlfriend is even a bigger fan of them than I am. She has all their albums. it was a really big surprize for her when I got the sold out tickets at Mud Island on the Mississipi river. The crowd behaved great as hot as it was and was a night to remember. I cant beleve how great they still sound, One dissappoinment was they had a small local band that sucked opening for them but they didnt play very long. Rock on.
17 - Jaime M
I went to the show last night in Raleigh, NC. I loved it, they didn't play very long. We were sitting in the VIP section when the opening band and Bryan Adams played but got to our seats when Def got onstage. They played my FAV song last..Pour Some Sugar on me. I enjoyed this show very much....even the $55.00 dollar shirt my husband bought me...the one with the british flag...
18 - Dave M.
Went to the show last night in Everett, Wa. (11/8/05). Your review was excellent, the show was just as you described it. The only problem we had was the trip home, they were working on the freeway and reduced it to one lane. Thanks for the great review.
19 - Jon
I was at that concert it rocked out loud.
20 - Brandy
Yay!! I can not wait to go see them this April! I was reading your entire review and I can only imagine how amazing it will be! I've never seen them before, either; but even though I'm only 22 years old, I have been a fan longer than you have! LOL. My mother used to play their music videos when I was little (5 years of age) as she cleaned the house and she would just stop, stand in front of the tv and dance!! I would join her of course. I know that they are from the 80s, and are way older than I am, but I am just ecstatic that someday I will be able to brag to my kids about how I got to see such a legendary band up close! It's totally worth it!!