Miserable sound mix mars Def Leppard show

Monday, September 13 - The Grand Rapids Press


If President Clinton's electorate were as forgiving as Def Leppard's
audience at Saturday's Allegan County Fair show, that pesky little
Monica Lewinsky matter would've gone away in a matter of days.

Despite poorly done sound mixing that reduced frontman Joey Elliot's
tigerish vocals to the mew of a crippled kitten, the sellout crowd at
Saturday night's show pounded its feet on the bleachers, begging for
more.

But then again, what ruined the evening was the sound mix, not the
sound itself.

Even Elliot's between-song banter was often a muddy murmur, and songs
such as "Hysteria" "Rocket" and final encore "Let It Go" were
unintelligible.

Sound quality did clear up in some of the ballads, including "Goodbye,"
an offering off the new "Euphoria" album that recalls the mock-rock
urgency of "Living On A Prayer" era Bon Jovi.

"Where would rock and roll be without the cheesy power ballad?" queried
my concert companion.

But even the crowd-pleaser "Love Bites" was bitten by the band's
obvious lack of preparation.  While the five-piece scarcely strayed
from album cuts throughout the night, "Love Bites" was one that
featured an extended closing.  Guitarist Phil Collen barely eked out
two chords while the spotlight showcased him during the tedious solo
segue.

Through the rest of the show, though, Collen was showy to the point of
upstaging Elliot.  Repeatedly, he continued his solos after the cue for
Elliot to sing, further muddying the already inaudible vocals.

Just over an hour into the show, however, Elliot received some of the
most heartfelt applause of the evening when he queried, "Does anyone
remember 1983?" and the group raged through "Photograph" with few sound
complications.

Having finally electrified the audience, Leppard kept up the pace with
"Rocket," a flawless, fiery "Pour Some Sugar On Me" and "Rock Of Ages."

Lest I imply the night's only saving graces were the cotton candy
vendor and Cassiopeia and other constellation clusters looming lovely
over the stage on the brisk pre-autumn eve, let me say the sound wasn't
sour all night.  Sound was crystal-clear, in fact, for openers Joan
Jett and the Blackhearts.

The Blackhearts sauntered onstage to a punk-rock rendition of "When
You're A Jet," from "West Side Story," on the loudspeakers, and the
band itself would later reinvent the sugary "Mary Tyler Moore Show"
theme song with a punk approach.

Jett disproved the theory that '80s rockers mellow with age with the
raunchy title song from her latest release, "Fetish," which shocks in
the '90s as the lyric "Do you want to touch me there?" did over a
decade ago.

The vampirishly pale Jett, looking like an S&M Annie Lennox with her
newly cropped bleached blonde "do" and clad in painted-on leather pants
and a vinyl halter-bra, was as sassy and sexy as ever as she bounced
around the stage belting out crowd-pleasing renditions of such songs as
"Cherry Bomb," "I Love Rock and Roll," "Crimson and Clover," and "I
Hate Myself For Loving You."

She even proved her dominatrix prowess by convincing the crowd to bark
and howl as the band covered the punk-rock staple "Now I Want to Be
Your Dog."

Such a strong, hour-long opening made the headlining performance seem
like a meek meow.