http://www.courant.com/entertainment/music-reviews/hc-defleppardrev.art.artjul09,0,10747.story

Then Is Now, With Def Leppard In Command

By THOMAS KINTNER  Special to the Courant
July 9, 2009

Def Leppard is more than two decades removed from its most popular records, but 
its accessible rock has aged well enough to keep the group impressively popular 
over the years. The group came to the Comcast Theatre in Hartford Tuesday night 
as the headliner on a three-act card, where it powered through a typically 
slick rundown of hits that began on a pleasantly cool summer night and ended in 
a torrential lightning storm.

After beginning the show with a video presentation that ran quickly through the 
band's history and claimed, "that was then, this is now," the band spent its 
time almost exclusively on then. Only one of its 16 tunes was from its current 
album, as the group focused instead on the likes of "Rocket" and a slithering 
rendition of "Rock On."

Always able to do impressive things with meticulously polished studio work, the 
band didn't always translate them to the stage in ways that measured up, as in 
an "Animal" ill-served by the raw edges in its chorus. Singer Joe Elliott's 
haughty bark was augmented by processing on many tunes, including "Foolin'," 
but not so much that it sounded false.

The five-piece group's dual guitar sound remains its strongest card, as Vivian 
Campbell and Phil Collen, who may not own any shirts, worked out in 
complementary fashion at every turn, and powered the raucous instrumental 
"Switch 625." Their licks inflated the appeals of "Armageddon It" as drummer 
Rick Allen thumped out its pulse on a kit specially designed for his 
single-armed playing method, and ranged to flashy solos as Elliott howled the 
punishing "Photograph."

The night's biggest blowout came when Def Leppard offered up its friend to 
catwalk prancers across the land, the ultra-grabby anthem "Pour Some Sugar on 
Me." The throbbing finale " Rock of Ages" was equally energetic but not nearly 
as fun, and an encore of "Let's Get Rocked" was thunderous, but hardly 
comparable to the lightning that crackled outside the venue as a late show 
downpour soaked people on the lawn.

In an evening built around nostalgia, it was difficult to generate much for 
second-billed Poison, which trudged through an assortment of pop rock numbers 
whose dullness has not faded with time. In the vein of Motley Crüe without the 
enticing menace, the five-man group specialized in songs that weren't 
distinctive the first time around, from the nondescript drive of "Look What the 
Cat Dragged In" to the repetitive emptiness of "Ride the Wind."

Poison singer Bret Michaels, best known these days as the centerpiece of the 
reality show "Rock of Love," shouted bluntly as his group bludgeoned every song 
and cliché it touched, among them the lowest hair-band denominator "Unskinny 
Bop" and the chugging but character-free "Talk Dirty to Me." An encore of 
"Nothin' but a Good Time" was offered with typical exuberance, which came in 
service of nothing about which to get excited.

Leadoff act Cheap Trick had to work for every response it received from the 
largely ambivalent crowd, but their rock had some juice in it, whether the 
insistent romp "I Want You To Want Me" or a bounding trip through "She's Tight" 
in which the ever-quirky Rick Nielsen splashed rumbling swatches across it from 
a two-necked guitar designed to look like him. It nodded to its recent project 
of live performances of the entire Beatles "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club 
Band" album with a puffy, swaying take on "A Day in the Life," into which 
singer Robin Zander coolly poured vocals that would soon after stretch into a 
sharp yelp when he rolled out the punchy "Surrender."

Def Leppard's show Tuesday included the following songs: "Rock! Rock! Till You 
Drop," "Rocket," "C'Mon C'Mon," "Animal," "Foolin'," "Love Bites," "Rock On," 
"Two Steps Behind," "Bringin' on the Heartache," "Switch 625," "Hysteria," 
"Armageddon It," "Photograph," "Pour Some Sugar on Me," "Rock of Ages," 
(Encore) "Let's get Rocked."

Copyright © 2009, The Hartford Courant