From: "Mike N. Reinemann" Date sent: Fri, 25 Aug 2000 18:06:01 -0400 Subject: Def Leppard pours it on at Grandstand Published: Friday, August 25, 2000 Def Leppard pours it on at Grandstand -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------ JIM WALSH POP MUSIC CRITIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------ Spinal Tap, the fictitious hair band depicted in Rob Reiner's 1984 mock rockumentary, ``This is Spinal Tap,'' is said to be reuniting this year for a tour and album. Someone beat them to the punch. Def Leppard, the biggest hair band of the '80s, kicked off the State Fair's Grandstand lineup Thursday night with a set that was as big and dumb and fun and forgettable as any kid's first 3.2-beer hangover. And while the calendar read 2000, Lep provided a trip back to the days of Reagan- Thatcher, and a soundtrack that launched countless backseat romances in the '80s. Just as it's hard to argue the weird appeal of watching Princess Kay of the Milky Way get sculpted in butter, it's hard to resist the spectacle of five Brits on a summer night in Middle America, clanging power chords that sound like FM radio epitomized, coming through 36 Marshall stacks (OK, so most of them were props), and leading a crowd of 11,423 in a fist- pumping chant of ``I want rock 'n' roll/Rock `n' roll will never die.'' And rock `n' roll -- or some whitebread version of same -- was what the crowd got. Throughout their 90-minute show, Def Leppard carried no rock star misdeed, but instead came off more like the regular blokes in ``The Full Monty,'' had those lads chosen bubblegum pop metal instead of stripping. Every metal trick in the book was used -- cowbells, dry ice, strobe lights, plenty of wheedle-wheedle guitar solos drenched in effects, canned stage banter designed for maximum crowd response, and hooks that went down like Slimfast (in and out). Singer Joe Elliot was clad in black-leather pants (and a tigerskin fur coat for the first three songs), and bassist Rick Savage was in gray parachute pants, further contributing to the time warp. Much like the excessive, vapid, head-in-sand decade they ruled, Lep traffics in bombastic ballads and huge, anonymous anthems about love, lust and partying, with such populist themes as ``Rock, Rock,'' ``Everybody Wants a Piece of the Action,'' ``Two Steps Behind,'' ``Armageddon It,'' ``Rocket,'' ``Animal,'' and the crowd's favorite ``Pour Some Sugar on Me.'' At one point, a massive British flag unfurled behind the band, but somebody apparently forgot to bring the miniature Stonehenge. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Pop music critic Jim Walsh can be reached at jwalsh@pioneerpress.com or (651) 228-5553. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- © 2000 PioneerPlanet / St. Paul (Minnesota) Pioneer Press - All Rights Reserved copyright information