http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/entertainment/5928899.htm

Posted on Fri, May. 23, 2003
Act of the Week
Leppard still has some bite
By Stephen English
Star-Telegram Staff Writer

If I were a young rock star of today, I'd . . . well, there's a lot I'd do, but
one thing would be to take a look at why it is that Def Leppard, which formed at
the tail end of the first British invasion, is still recording and touring. In
retrospect, they probably didn't deserve to be totally shunned by the cool kids
of the mid- to late '80s, but they're surely not Aerosmith-level icons.

Could it be the songs? The first Leppard tune to pop to mind, Pour Some Sugar on
Me, is hardly a well-knit pop-rocker, but it does have one key element missing
from hard-rock outfits today -- exuberance. Now it's all about pain, and not
even the kind Trent Reznor used to ooze all over his discs -- more like the pain
of having your Playstation 2 give out in the middle of Grand Theft Auto III.

Def Leppard's songs weren't perfect, but they were pleasing -- seven songs off
1987's 12-tune Hysteria became singles. Plus, the band managed to sell 6 million
copies of Adrenalize in 1992, the year Nirvana supposedly ended the hair-metal
era.

So, I would say, practice your sign-of-the-devil making and head-banging in the
mirror, then go to this thing. The only way it's going to fail is if Joe
Elliott, Rick Allen and crew get the idea that they're somehow still relevant
and forget that people are just there for the old stuff.

-- Stephen English

Def Leppard
8 p.m. Sunday
NextStage
Grand Prairie
$43-$53
(972) 647-5700