1980s power-ballad acts make for nostalgic night
A review of Friday night's doubleheader concert with Def Leppard and Bryan Adams at Midway Stadium in St. Paul might read like the evening's weather report: pleasant, breezy, mild, lukewarm.
Two of rock's biggest hitmakers of the '80s — before being tossed aside in the '90s along with acid-washed jeans — pulled off something of a comeback. The concert drew close to 13,000 people, about 1,000 more than American icons Bob Dylan and Willie Nelson did three weeks earlier.
Both of Friday's acts were out to please their rediscovered masses in the easiest manner possible. That much was certain after they each wheeled out their ultra-sappy power ballads — you know, the kind of songs that every Top 40 rock band of the '80s put out to attract to teenage girls to buy their records. For Adams, it was "(Everything I Do) I Do It For You" and "Heaven." For Def Lep, "Love Bites." The key word here is "bites."