Def Leppard Atomic Mess News

Sex appeal and musicianship abounded as veteran band Def Leppard took the stage in their twenty-seventh year together. Headlining a triple-billed concert with Foreigner and Styx, Def Leppard clearly knew what they were doing and had a hell of a time doing it.

A packed audience, peppered with Union Jack t-shirts, nearly exploded out of the arena as the British metal band took the stage for only the third night on a tour that will last until October. Lead singer Joe Elliott honestly looked better than ever and his voice, sans for one omitted high note in "Photograph," matched his outer appearance. His voice had power and range and it clearly evoked plenty of emotion from his band members and from the audience alike. Opening with "Rocket," followed up by "Animal," Def Leppard played all of the hits they are famous for, even throwing in "Mirror, Mirror (Look Into My Eyes)" and "Another Hit and Run," from their 1981 album "High and Dry," which Elliott proudly announced that they hadn't performed since 1983. They didn't pull out any brand new songs but instead chose to let the audience reminisce about the 80s and 90s, times when Def Leppard were at the height of their fame and most of the audience at the height of its youth.

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Cheesy. Gooey. Crunchy. Corny.

These are not just words that could be used in Taco Bell or Frito-Lay ad campaigns. They're also accurate descriptors for Def Leppard, which just about packed the Marcus Amphitheater Friday night.

"Dated" could also be added to the list of adjectives: The British metal quintet had its heyday in the 1980s, and not much mainstream culture from that decade has dodged the tang of mousse or the painful memory of acid-washed, pre-ripped jeans.

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Last night, Def Leppard kicked off their Downstage Thrust Tour 2007 in Cincinnati, Ohio. For a first night, there were few - if any - noticeable flaws.

The Brits opened their show with "Rocket," and continued with "Animal" and "Excitable."

"Foolin'" came next, and then lead singer Joe Elliot asked guitarist Vivian Campbell to join him on the catwalk.

Vivian obliged.

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Let us state, for the record, that rock bands from the 1980s have a right to exist.

Even when principal players are missing, hits sound dusty with age, trends have passed them by and new songs just don't cut it anymore - well, who would be arrogant enough to proclaim that nostalgia acts need to call it quits?

And why would musicians want to shut down such lucrative time machines?

Hardcore fans still come out to their concerts by the thousands, even if shows are held outdoors on chill, rainy weeknights in November.

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It's no secret the Top 40 chart heydays of Journey and Def Leppard are long in the rear-view mirror. While both bands have had brushes with invading the zeitgeist again recently — Journey with its associations with the 2005 White Sox and the Fox TV show "The OC"; Def Leppard with a successful Greatest Hits CD last year — neither is making MTV's flavor of the month sweat the Sunday song countdowns.

However, in the concert arena, it's quite another matter.

Both bands proved they've still got the goods during a high-energy, three-hour plus show Friday night at The Mark of the Quad Cities. Girded by a bevy of familiar smashes from Reagan era, still performed with the vitality of yesteryear, the groups thrilled a crowd of roughly 8,000.

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The '80s loom large. And why not? For anyone in their mid- to late 30s, this was the decade when so much was decided. Political awakenings. Perhaps the genesis of a sense of family and love relationships. But God forbid that your taste for music was forged during the Reagan years. Drum machines for drums; arms for hostages; big hair for talent - it wasn't the friendliest of times for anyone who believed in the promise of the '60s. Though Def Leppard started out in Sheffield, England, copying the twin-guitar harmonies of Thin Lizzy and the angular muscle of Judas Priest and Black Sabbath, the music Wednesday was of a different stripe. This was "pop metal," a friendlier version of the sound that was electrifying Britain and haunting independent record stores in this country, circa 1980.

Def Leppard pulled a large crowd to Darien Lake, and there's no doubt that co-headliners Journey had something to do with the number of people willing to brave the cold. But clearly, it was this British fivesome - unchanged, pretty much, save for the loss of original member and guitarist Steve Clarke - that was responsible for bringing metal to the folks who would've never been receptive to it. Def Leppard played a close to flawless show to an audience ranging in age from 15 to 50. The group pulled from throughout its career, and there was, as a result, an interesting mix of music. The blatant AC/DC-infused hard rock of "Let It Roll" sat snugly against the post-Mutt Lange mega-overdub choir of vocals informing "Women."

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Journey began its career as a '70s prog-rock band with epic guitar solos, hippie-dippie lyrics and deep roots in the classic Santana lineup. Def Leppard came to the fore as part of the New Wave of British heavy metal, alongside such other manic stalwarts as Iron Maiden.

Both went on to became among the major pop icons of the '80s, and both appeared Saturday night at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center in a double bill that promised memories of senior proms, battles of the bands and late nights cruising with the radio on.

And the show made good on that promise — at least in part.

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Before the 2006 version of Journey emerged, the P.A. system played, not so coincidentally, a 35-year-old song by the Who: "Won't Get Fooled Again."

As the band took the stage, Roger Daltrey sang, "Meet the new boss, same as the old boss," which was fitting but inaccurate.

Journey's original "boss" was lead singer Steve Perry, who was replaced in the late 1990s by Steve Augeri. In July, Augeri went on sick leave with a bad throat.

So the singer on this idyllic late-summer night in Bonner Springs was another new boss: Jeff Scott Soto, who used to sing for ace guitar shredder Yngwie Malmsteen.

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Def Leppard and Journey can't help it at this late stage in their careers: Their roots are showing.

While the 6,300 fans Thursday night at Hilton Coliseum in Ames wallowed in 1980s nostalgia - or imagined it in the case of the young college students wearing crisp, new Leppard T-shirts - the bands on stage channeled their own, earlier musical heroes.

Two of Leppard's finest performances Thursday were covers from "Yeah!," its current tribute album to the early-1970s English glam rock that inspired its melodic, inoffensive pop-metal. Guitarist Phil Collen grooved through a rendition of T. Rex's "20th Century Boy," while it was bassist Rick Savage who eased the band into the slow and slinky David Essex hit "Rock On."

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If Tuesday night at the Cricket Pavilion is any indication, old school arena rock is back, and back with a vengeance.

With cars backed up on the I-10 freeway and traffic on both 83rd and 75th Avenues slowed to a crawl well after opening act Stoll Vaughn started his short set, and lines of fans waiting to buy tickets and enter the arena (where only lawn seats were still available at the box office) it was clear that both Def Leppard and Journey are suddenly back in vogue.

The two bands that only a few years ago were thought of as also-rans as alternative rock eclipsed the hair bands of the '80s, were greeteed by 20,000-plus fans crammed into the arena on a steambath of an August night.

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Admit it, you've turned up the radio and sung along with "Pour Some Sugar On Me" or slow-danced at prom or homecoming to "Open Arms."

Wednesday night at USANA Amphitheater, a near sellout crowd relived some of those memories with a double-bill of two of the biggest acts of the '80s.

Def Leppard headlined with its typical high-energy, large bi-level stage production. Unfortunately singer Joe Elliot's voice stumbled out of the starting blocks with un-Leppard-like awful rendition of "Let's Get Rocked."

In fact, it took about four songs for his voice to really get warmed up, and those stratospheric screeching high notes just aren't happening anymore.

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You can almost visualize the guy who provides the voice of Jack FM — and when he crows about the station "playing what we want," you want to smack that smug smile off his face.

It's been 17 months since southern California was introduced to the radio iPod that is the Jack format, and KCBS' inaugural concert Saturday at the Verizon Wireless Amphitheater showcased bands that exemplify its notion of modern classic rock. No, that's not an oxymoron; it's what this DJ-free, focus group-approved format is all about.

Jack FM targets pop-rock fans who were anywhere from grade school to grad school during the Reagan administration. And if this were 1984, the lineup for Jack's First Show could have been billed as Cal Jam III: Def Leppard, Journey, Billy Idol, Cheap Trick and Violent Femmes.

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There was nothing wrong with the way Def Leppard performed. They rocked the house with their usual exuberance and commitment.

However, guys, you got beat Saturday night. It is difficult to write this. But, heck, it's true: Journey won this Battle of the Bands.

Def Leppard headlined the five-band mini-festival at Verizon Wireless Amphitheater. It was called "Jack's First Show," as it was the first concert the FM radio station has packaged and presented. Violent Femmes started the event, followed by Cheap Trick, Billy Idol, then Journey and finally Def Leppard.

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It felt like the '80s again Wednesday night at the Usana Amphitheatre, where Journey and Def Leppard evoked that big-hair and spandex era with almost three hours of bombastic ballads and deafening power chords.

But it's a fair guess that when Def Leppard played its monster hit "Photograph" back in 1983, fans weren't holding up cell-phone cameras to snap pictures of the band.

Journey and Def Leppard are billed as co-headliners of their joint 2006 tour, but there was no question Wednesday about who was the bigger and better live act. If this had been a battle of the bands, the British pop-glam-metal rockers would have blown Journey off the stage.

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Def Leppard sang "Let's Get Rocked" and the sold-out crowd at the DTE Energy Music Theatre did on Monday night, to the double-pronged attack of hit-filled sets from the British rock veterans and its similarly long-in-the-tooth tour partner Journey.

It was in some ways a case study of how the right summer pairing can be more than the sum of its parts. Both groups are well past their commercial primes of the '70s and '80s - when this kind of double-bill would have been a stadium-sized affair - but together they represent solid value and a strong hit-to-dollar ratio, even with top pavilion prices at $88.

And let's not forget the nostalgia factor for all those younger end baby boomers who were ushered into the arena rock world by Journey's "Wheel in the Sky" or Def Leppard's "Bringin' on the Heartbreak."

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