http://www.jsonline.com/onwisconsin/music/mar03/129762.asp

Def Leppard falls short of best efforts
By GEMMA TARLACH
Journal Sentinel pop music critic

Last Updated: March 30, 2003
Def Leppard doesn't just thrive on adversity. The band seems to need it.

The pop-metal pioneers battled to be heard in the early '80s - and won,
ushering in a new genre that paired hard rock's swagger with downright
pretty melodies. After drummer Rick Allen lost his left arm in a
near-fatal car accident in 1984, the band clawed its way back to the top
of the charts with its most successful album, the bazillion-selling
"Hysteria."

In August 2000, the last time Def Leppard was in town, a power failure
struck midway through its set at Wisconsin State Fair Park. The lads from
Sheffield, England were undaunted. Roadies rigged a generator for their
instruments and the band kept playing, on a dark stage, energized by the
newest challange placed before them.

Saturday night at the U.S. Cellular Arena, however, the strobe lights
fired on cue, the dry ice machine puffed the right amount of atmosphere
around Allen's drum riser and guitarists Phil Collen and Vivian Campbell
were t echnically proficient but tasteful, the band's trademark since the
days Collen shared the stage with the late Steve Clark.

Everything went right Saturday night. Maybe that's what was wrong.

Things started promisingly enough, with a rousing "Let It Go" off 1981's
"High 'N' Dry."

The quintet quickly lost momentum, however. Singer Joe Elliott in
particular seemed to be straining to hit the notes even in scaled-down
versions of "Bringin' on the Heartbreak" and "Hysteria."

Another problem: newer songs such as "Promises," off 1999's "Euphoria" and
nearly all the offerings from 2002's "X" feel rehashed, including the
ballad "Long, Long Way To Go," which Elliott dedicated "to the British and
A merican guys" fighting in Iraq.

Before some of the Def Leppard fans who held lighters aloft throughout the
near two-hour show pick up their pens to write an angry defense of the
band, hear me out: I've seen Joe and the boys eight times over the years,
a nd the ticket from Saturday's show isn't one for my scrapbook.

But kudos to Def Leppard for its choice of opening act: Ricky Warwick,
formerly of New Model Army and The Almighty.

The heavily tattooed Irishman alone onstage strumming an acoustic guitar
and growling about hard livin' in a voice somewhere between Shane MacGowan
and Joe Strummer wasn't what much of the nostalgia-hungry crowd seemed to
want. But Warwick had the fierce, punkish energy of a street busker who's
going to play whether you like it or not.

Songs such as "Tattoos and Alibis" and "Mysterioso" were equal parts
County Down and Johnny Cash, offering an arguably meatier set than the
evening's main course.

E-mail Gemma Tarlach at gtarlach@journalsentinel.com.

A version of this story appeared in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on
March 31, 2003.

Copyright © 2002, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel