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Still much more than hair
Def Leppard unloads an arsenal of old Top 40 hits plus some new tunes

MELISSA RUGGIERI
MUSIC CRITIC
Jul 31, 2003

PORTSMOUTH Some things are still best done the traditional way.

Like a set list taped to the stage floor by a scruffy roadie - who trotted back
out to change it with a black marker, not the click of a mouse.

Like pump-the-crowd pre-show anthems from Queen ("We Will Rock You") and Gary
Glitter ("Rock and Roll Part 2").

Like a band from Sheffield, England, that knows how to administer an
old-fashioned butt-kicking without the aid of pyro, video screens or anything
much more glamorous than a few racks of colored lights.

Yeah, Def Leppard sported its share of fluffy coifs in the'80s. But a hair band?
Hardly.

The band's tragedies are legendary - drummer Rick Allen's loss of an arm in a
car crash on New Year's Eve in 1984, the death of guitarist Steve Clark after
the landmark "Hysteria" album. But as familiar as Def Lep is for its
misfortunes, it's also a cautiously respected rock band with 15 Top 40 hits and
the type of fans who don't abandon ship with the next musical trend.

Though the band's most recent album, the solid, if not astounding "X," bowed
almost a year ago, the Leps are still working behind it - and at Sunday's Harbor
Center show, the work came in the form of sweat-drenched members proud to unload
a 23-year-old arsenal of material.

Despite a small paunch, singer Joe Elliott - who turns 44 tomorrow - still fills
his leather pants well. He is also a thick-lunged howler who knows how to work a
crowd, and the shirtless guitar duo of Phil Collen and Vivian Campbell almost
matched his energy.

Interestingly, the band opened its 2 1/2-hour rock party with "Let It Go," "Another
Hit and Run," "High 'N' Dry (Saturday Night)" and "Bringin' on the Heartbreak" -
a succession longtime fans will notice as the first side of 1981's "High 'N'
Dry" album.

By the way, for you kids who think Mariah Carey's current take on "Bringin'" is
the real deal . . . um, no. Elliott's defining "No-oh!" is the cry of 1,000
heartbreaks. Carey's is the whine of a diva with a reduced bank account.

Speaking of kids, while the audience of about 5,000 contained mostly'80s
holdovers in washed-out Def Lep T-shirts, a healthy showing of older teens who
like their rock catchy and melodic were on hand. These pockets of younger fans
not only air guitared the majestic acoustic opening of "Foolin'," but they also
knew every word to the time-machine "Rocket" and the super-sexy "Women," which
found Elliott's voice floating on a cool echo effect through the welcome breeze.

The adrenalized Elliott hit the brakes for a few minutes to discuss the band's
trip that day to Oceana Naval Air Station in Virginia Beach with Strike Fighter
Squadron 87, where the gang practiced with a flight simulator.

For months on tour, Elliott has dedicated the new "Long Long Way to Go" to
American and British troops in Iraq, but Sunday, he turned it into a personal
prayer to the Norfolk crowd, sending the ballad to "everybody who's still doing
the job and anyone out there waiting for a swift and safe return."

Along with a smattering of new tunes dotted throughout the show came as a
surprise with "Slang" -the only keeper from that otherwise lousy album and the
closest the Leps have stepped toward electronic rock - and the soaring
"Promises" from 1999's "Euphoria." That song is every bit as good as "Armageddon
It," but because Def Leppard isn't deemed hip anymore, radio shamefully ignored
it.

Watching human drum machine Allen play on "Promises" was particularly inspiring;
even when a customized foot pedal fritzed, he never missed a beat.

Those who have attended past Lep fests likely mourned the band's signature
in-the-round stage setup, but this hits-stocked set list couldn't have been
better.

Elliott shrieked so hard during the first two hours of the show that
"Photograph," "Animal" and "Pour Some Sugar on Me," a song forever ruined by
radio oversaturation, found his husky vocals rasping and straining to hit the
notes. Good thing bassist-chief harmonizer Rick Savage stepped up to patch the
rough spots.

As the band proved relentlessly Sunday, rock classics done right never fade. So
some might consider Def Leppard has-beens. They would be wrong.

. . .

And now, a word from our readers.

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about boorish concert behavior and, as expected,
heard from many of you with similar complaints about those
rude-cell-phone-waving-beer-spilling yutzes who never learned basic decorum.
Most of you agreed with me. Some did not. Read on.

Your article on rude concertgoers was right on. I cannot believe people pay all
that money for a seat and then choose to stand for the entire concert! Don't
they get tired? If you had to stand for the whole concert, people would be
complaining because there was nowhere to sit. . . . I have also been to concerts
where folks end up in a huge fight because someone behind the "continuous
standers" finally gets tired of it and says something only to receive profane,
rude comments and eventually a fist in their face! Of course, the "offenders"
will never read this article, but thanks for addressing the issue.

- Teri Royall

OK, I agree with most of your rules for concertgoers, but I have to take
exception with the "no standing" rule. A rock concert is an
audience-participation sort of event. Singing, dancing and screaming at the top
of your lungs are all part of the experience.

Sorry, but just because the rest of your section is lame (I'm speaking
figuratively, of course) and sits lethargically throughout the show shouldn't
mean you have to follow suit. At the Springsteen show in Greensboro, N.C., my
section sat down for almost the entire show. SITTING DOWN AT A SPRINGSTEEN
CONCERT! Talk about disrespectful to the artist!

If you want to watch a rock concert sitting down, rent the DVD when it comes
out. Of course, if Bruce is on the TV and you're in my living room, you will be
required to stand.

Stand on, Standing Lady, stand on.

- Tracy Moe

You should have been at the excellent Boston concert June 22 at the Virginia
Beach Amphitheater. A few morons on Row A - the front row! - stood throughout
most of the concert as if their bodies were transparent to the people behind
them.

But the "Most Nauseating Concertgoers" award goes to the couple - also in the
front section - who felt the need to "entertain" the crowd by showing us how far
they could stick their tongues down each others' throats. And no, they weren't
teenagers - they were in their late 30s-early 40s! Yuck!"

- Valerie Fulcher

I just read Melissa Ruggieri's "Mirror, mirror on the wall" column. This woman
really needs to find another line of work. Aside from the fact that she
obviously knows nothing about music (this was plain to see after her review of
the Eagles concert), she now thinks she can review concertgoers' behavior. She
gives new meaning to Richmond Times Disgrace.

- Karen Edwards

Your column . . . nailed it right on the head. Too bad the perps won't read the
article or recognize themselves if they do. At the John Prine show at the
Carpenter Center several years ago I had good seats on the aisle in the
orchestra section. Right in front of me was what my mother would have bluntly
called drunken trailer trash girl. Mid-30s and so sloshed her friend had to go
and get her more beer. In the middle of "Sam Stone" the girl is whooohooing,
stabbing her fist at the sky and shouting rock on. Everyone else is misting up
or crying and she is in boogie mode, shaking her . . . attributes. I hope she
had a wretched hangover.

- Charlie Ogden

Write to Melissa Ruggieri at the Richmond Times-Dispatch, 300 E. Franklin St.,
Richmond, VA 23219, call (804) 649-6120 or e-mail mruggieri@timesdispatch.com

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