Def Leppard
w/Bryan Adams
October 14th, 2005
Nissan Pavilion, Bristow, Virginia
I guess you could call me an old school Def Leppard fan since I have much fonder memories of their rougher edged High 'N' Dry album than I do the billion selling pop masterpiece Hysteria. It still sounds funny referring to an 80's band as old school though. When I first started listening to the new brand of British heavy metal that these boys were selling, they weren't yet old enough to drink in the bars they were playing. Now look at them. Almost a hundred million albums sold worldwide, and celebrating their 25th anniversary as a band. Well done.
I never did get to see the Leppies in their prime, back when Steve "Steamin'" Clark was still stalking the stage like Jimmy Page's fair haired apprentice, and Rick Allen still had both of his arms to pound the skins with. Just when I thought the summer concert season was over at the Nissan Pavilion along comes Def Leppard with this mid-October show. Knowing that my wife was a big fan of the band, I snagged a couple of prime pavilion seats the day they went on sale. Now wasn't she ever pissed when our babysitter fell through and she had to graciously let me go with a co-worker. I guess I owe her one.
Thanks to the Nissan Pavilion only being accessed by a single two-lane road, me and about 5,000 other people arrived late since it took about an hour to travel the last three miles to the damn parking lot. Bryan Adams was already about half-way into his set when we entered the amphitheater, and it became apparent that just as much of the crowd was their to see him as they were Def Leppard, since almost everyone was on their feet partying. I was expecting a small crowd for this show, since neither band has exactly been in the limelight lately, so I was pleasantly shocked to see the place so packed. The huge initial sales figures of their recently released Rock Of Ages anthology proves just how popular Def Leppard still are.
Article comments
1 - Guppusmaximus
Dude, you should've let your wife go and you stay home with the kids...I mean it's not like you would've missed out on much and you would have scored MEGA BROWNIE points!! Great Review, but I think you're right about excluding the more heavier tunes.That set list sucked(They must change the set list every night....)Them soccer moms ruin it every time especially with "Pour Some Sugar...." I hate that F*cking song with a passion...
Rock On!!
2 - Paul Roy
She insisted. Really. Besides, I'm taking her to see King's X to make up for it.
3 - Russ
The reason why they included all of the cover tunes in concert, is b/c their new studio CD is an album of covers.
4 - Paul Roy
Only one, "Rock On",was from that new album though.
5 - Chris Beaumont
I would have loved to see them again, I saw this tour back in July. See my coverage HERE.
6 - Paul Roy
Chris, I remember your great review. Cool pictures too. It got me thinking about the band again.
7 - Harold C
I bought 2 Def Lep Cd's off Amazon, and bought my wife the book she wanted and she was cool with both. I don't know how old you guys are, but I am 37 and I especially enjoy all the older stuff. Hello America, me and my wine, rock brigade, let it go, switch 625, Die Hard the Hunter(one of the best riffs to ever exist, its on the DVD), Stagefright etc...
I am listening to my DVDnow after working all night. It is what I like to hear. I also love J.P., but Def Lep Kicks ass!
8 - Alicia
Dear Mr. Negatvity, I am so sorry you sound displeased with the performance of Def Leppard recently. You had more negative comments than positive ones. You may have stopped to think; maybe the band wanted to try something different with their song lineup for a change. I have been a Def Leppard fan for 25 years. As sad as I am, even today, of the band loosing Steve Clark, I still commend them for beating the odds and continuing to fight for what they beleive in. That is; ROCK AND ROLL!!!!!!!
9 - Paul Roy
"(they) wanted to try something different with their song linup for a change"? Is that why that played nearly the exact same setlist for the whole tour?
10 - hugoton ks
some people say bands like the stones are the worlds greatest band, myself i think those people are DEAD WRONG. def leppard is the worlds greatest band, and thats all there is to it.
11 - hey
def leppard is fuckin awsome! if you dont like them its your problem
12 - dee
def leppard is wonderful, and as i see it, they can do no wrong. Musically speaking, that is. These guys have been playing wonderful rock n roll for 20 years for all of us to enjoy. Anyone who wants to complain about them, i suggest you try to do the same things they have done! Ric savage is one of the most driven people i have ever seen, no one else would have the drive to play after an accident like that! They healed together after the passing of 'steamin' and went on to make more albums! They are courageous, talented, and dedicated! What more could anyone ask from mere humans!
13 - Carl from Tennessee
Roy, I disagree with several of your opinions about Def Leppard's songs, and you don't exactly seem like a fan of the band (not that you have to be)...but I appreciate the set list. Your review kinda has a feel to it like all the proverbial Rolling Stones album reviews over the decades that start with: "These guys again? Why?". And the idea that Joe isn't a strong singer is rather silly. He does a vastly better job of singing on key and maintaining vocal stamina than say, David Lee Roth is doing on VH's reunion tour. Also, denying your wife the concert was extremely lame! King's X makes up for it? (channelling the skit on SNL...) REALLY?? HUH...King's X in the same league as Def Leppard? REALLY??? Get real man. It's called having more than one babysitter to rely on, look into it...If she had been there, your review would have been more "glowing"...lol. Heck, even other people's wives chat me up at the concerts, and I know it's mostly not because of me!
As you all know by now, the 2005 tour was just the first year in a friggin 4 year long tour-athon for these boys that has been a long time coming! This given the fact that they're known to take 3 and 4 years off from touring. I have seen them 9 times now, the first 3 were on the hysteria tour. Yes the lasers were spectacular then, but there were no large video screens on that tour...I guess you can't have it all. I do notice most of the larger tours seem to rely heavily on a large and very wide screen behind the artist, and minimize lasers, nowadays. So I'm not sure Def Leppard are who we need to critique regarding set design...And I have read the designer (at least beginning on the '06 Leppard tour) worked on the U2 Vertigo tour, but I admit the look of U2's was better in some ways. Also, even the look of it evolved from the Chicago show on DVD to the "U23D" movie. Btw, "miss sarajevo" is just spectacular, isn't it?
For me, the highlights of the 2007 "quasi-extended-Yeah!" tour, were "mirror, mirror" (awesome psychedelic screen animations), "switch 625"...and let's not forget "another hit and run", and "excitable"! Maybe next time it will be "you got me runnin", "lady strange", "wasted", "don't shoot shotgun", and oh yea, "LOVE AND AFFECTION". Or how about even revisitting the "TRAVELLING BAND" cover? Fingers crossed! Best of all would be some really cool Zeppelin cover as yet not done by Leppard, like maybe going from their usual medley of "rocket", "whole lotta love", and even transitioning that into some John Lee Hooker the way Zeppelin did, just as an homage to what they were known for in concert...and then into some Queen stuff...or The Who...Pink Floyd...The Beatles...ZZ Top, or even some other '80's to-the-present rock music, who knows...I can dream can't I? I do recall Leppard doing some cool Nirvana and Pearl Jam riffs on the 1992 tour, and I had no problem with that at all. Would some Nickelback, Coldplay, or other riffs-partial-covers be so out of place? Not with a band as pre-eminent as Def Leppard, they wouldn't!
The thing that sticks in my craw most about Def Leppard, is that we loyal fans of the music and the band, have to tolerate all these shitty cellphone-based videos of the concerts on youtube, rather than what is called for...A 4 DISC LIVE DVD CONCERT release spanning the 2005 through 2009? tours...My opinion as to why it's not happening, is because the band was pushed so hard in their earlier years to be anal about making studio albums perfect, that maybe they don't want a live release to receive the same scrutiny...I dunno, what do you all think? Their website has an uptight feel to it regarding live releases...
In any case, I came of age in the '80's, and I am generally saddened at the current state of today's popular music. Basically, country music took over and made rock music it's bitch by the mid '90's, and today's youngsters who don't like country, tend to favor rap. Rock is the malnourished stepchild in the 21st century, and it's a damn shame! In the 1980's, ROCK RULED! In the 2000's, downloaded music is free, and nobody really cares...not really. If it's free, then is it worth anything? And if rap and hip-hop artists are so great, why do they have to sample somebody else's music to get their lyrics over? And if the kids on American Idol are so great, why do they have to sing somebody else's music? And after they win and/or get the record deal, why does someone else have to write their songs? Where's the creative talent gone? To hell...that's where. Popular music is definitely NOT cool anymore.
Let's bring it back! I notice Def Leppard's new song will be featured on tv ads for basketball, so that at least gets them exposure. Then the performance on (lord help us) "dancing with the stars" on the 4-29-08 album release date. I call on everyone to request Def Leppard's new song "nine lives" at their radio station. Do it now, before the end of the world comes! Do it before David Hasselhoff and Simon Kowell start sampling songs off Pyromania for 14 year olds to sing all new rap mixes to, in the next Disney dance movie. AND HAVE THOSE BABYSITTERS READY THIS TIME...the adults need to ROCK OUT AND ROLL ON to some HEAVY METAL LOVE while we're still young! I'm gonna be young till I'm dead, how about you?