http://www.charlestoncitypaper.com/music.html

Def Leppard
Tues. April 22, 7:30 p.m.
$35-45
N. Charleston Coliseum
554-6060
www.ticketmaster.com

Leppard's New Spots
Def Leppard's sound moves with the times

By Jeremy Brown 

If a band's success is measured solely by the sheer number of times it has
overcome adversity, then Def Leppard is one of the most successful rock
bands of all time. During the '80s, their glossed-out production and
two-fisted rock anthems with party-hardy lyrics made them the kings of
glam rock.

After drummer Rick Allen lost his arm in a car accident in 1984, the band
soldiered on, releasing Hysteria, still their most successful album. When
the '90s arrived, the band faced the alcohol-related death of guitarist
Steve Clark and the rise of alternative rock, which lumped the band in
with the hair metal contingent.

"In the 90s, we were fairly despised by a lot of the newer acts," says
guitarist Phil Collen. "But you stick in there, and it comes around."

Stick in they did, clinging to the notion that whatever didn't kill them
would only make them stronger. "Most of the bands that end up splitting
up," says lead singer Joe Elliot, "split up because the singer hates the
bass player's wife, musical directions, or 'I don't like this bread. I
want this bread.' These trivial little things pale in comparison to what
we've had to deal with. If you can survive what we've survived, there's
not really much out there that can actually destroy us."

Today, the band is celebrating the success of their ninth studio album
(10th if you count the greatest-hits collection Vault, according to
Elliot), X. Since the record's release, the band has been out on the road,
supporting it with a multi-country tour that arrives at the North
Charleston Coliseum on April 22. "We've had so many people on this tour
say 'I've seen you 15 times, and this is the best tour I've ever seen,'"
says guitarist Phil Collen.

With X, the band took a bold step in a new direction, abandoning the
overdubbed harmonies, layered guitars, and electronic drums that defined
their last effort, 1999's Euphoria. "Every album is almost a reaction to
what you did before," says Collen. "With Euphoria it was really us trying
to make a pastiche of our career. It was a bit of High 'n' Dry, a bit of
Hysteria, a bit of Adrenalize. We'd done it very mathematically, and I
didn't really like the process. I liked the way Euphoria turned out, but I
definitely resented the process."

Unlike its predecessor, X is a more organic album, with acoustic textures,
stripped-down guitars, and less emphasis on the bawdy lyrical themes that
crept into earlier albums. "It's hard, when you're in your early 40s, to
make an album that sounds fresh," Elliot concedes. "If you try and make
one that sounds like you're 20, you're gonna sound ridiculous. If you make
one that sounds like you're trying to be old, you'll sound old. So there's
a really fine line where the credibility falls. You have to rock out in a
different way than you did when you were 21."

For Collen, the album represents a new phase for the band. "On this
record, we wanted to better ourselves; that's why we used the three
different producers," he says. "It wasn't just us sitting in a room
playing the same old crap over and over again. I read a Bob Dylan article
years ago and he said, 'Everyone writes about five songs and you keep
rewriting them,' and you do. If you can get beyond that, which we really
did on this album, that's great and it becomes inspired."

That's not to say the band has completely abandoned their signature style,
as evidenced by the new single, "Long Long Way To Go," a power ballad that
ranks with some of their '80s classics like "Love Bites" and "Bringin' On
the Heartbreak." Elliot admits there's a certain amount of theatrics that
goes into those songs. "You get into character for each song," he says.
"When I'm doing 'Long Long Way to Go,' I've got to be the heartfelt
down-on-one-knee kind of guy. So it's like acting."

As for the perennial "hair-metal" label that Def Leppard are so often
tagged with, both Elliot and Collen see it as a by-product of their
success more than a reflection of their sound. "When one band is
successful," Elliot explains, "the unfortunate thing is, every A&R man at
every other label goes, 'Sign me a band that sounds like them.'"

Collen cites other examples of artists who suffered the same fate.
"Imagine what Kurt Cobain must've felt like," he says. "He was going
against the grain, and then there's all these bands coming out with the
calendar, the poster, and all the stuff that he was against. And Alanis
Morissette, there's 20 artists who came out and actually burned her sound
out for her. We were just one in a long line of many successful bands that
have had their sound burned by someone else's commercial success."

For the live show, the band is pulling out all the stops, delivering a
setlist that is tailor-made for longtime fans. "You obviously have to play
'Pour Some Sugar On Me,' 'Photograph,' you know, the odd hot chestnut,"
says Collen. "But it's cool to throw in some album tracks that were pretty
popular and the odd single. Some nights we just play side one of High ' n'
Dry back to back without a break."

After so many years together, Collen says the band also wanted to
recapture the kinetic energy and spectacle that made their earlier tours
such a success. "We're using our old lighting guy who actually did the
High ' n' Dry, Pyromania, and Hysteria tours," he says. "It's just having
a bit of pride in what you do out there. It's very important."

With almost a quarter-century under their belt, Def Leppard have gone with
the ebb and flow of the musical tide and managed to keep their heads above
water. Collen says it's this notion that keeps him going. "I get very
upset about the state of the music industry," he says, "how it's so
corporate, and all this stuff. Then you go, 'Wow, you know it's really
cool, we're around 20 years after we had our first big album, and people
are digging it."

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due or late payments, please e-mail me at mesaliba@yahoo.com. Thanks for
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