Santa Monica, CA, USA - Media Reviews

Ted Nugent/Def Leppard @ San Antonio Convention Center Arena By John Shearlaw

Thank you thankyouthankyouthankyouthankyou...San Antonio!!!.

"Are you ready for some of that good 'n' loud old dirty rock 'n' roll?" Screeches, yells, whoops and hollers and, somewhere in the balcony, a firecracker or two.

"Can you feel your heart beating?. Can you feel your body twitching?" (Yeah! Screech! Holler!).

"Can you?".

Too late, they're off. Ted Nugent, bulldozing his way into his Texas stronghold for the second time this year, isn't prone to wait for a response, he knows is coming.

Feed the troops, feed 'em meat, and feed 'em as loud as they can stand it.

All the boys who can't can go home and watch TV. All the girls who can't can come round and collect a backstage pass if they're pretty enough.

Those that's staying around - a mere 20,000 or so - can feast and gorge on Nugent's unique, and occasionally, ridiculous, rock 'n' roll version of a jungle feast.

Enough screams and feedback to launch a dozen horror movies, enough athleticism to fuel three circuses, and enough beautifully meaningless heavy metal flying through the speakers to demolish intelligent criticism for at least three hours.

The Ted Nugent Show, Nugent sharing the singing with guitarist Charlie Kuhn, Dave Kiswiney plugging in on bass and drummer Cliff Davies artfully (and often humorously) altering the pace, doesn't invite cliches...rather it invents them.

Nugent swings in clutching a rope "vine", all but bare-assed under a leather loin cloth, screams the fire alarm scream and signals the start; basically a well-engineered attack on whatever the acoustics happen to be.

Bot good sound, not bad sound, just sound that gets through regardless.

On the back of 'Scream Dream' (a fitting climax, as it more of less describes Nugent's voice), they hit up the banshee dance of the 'Wango Tango', fire up the pussy with 'Violent Love' and 'Hard As Nails' and stungun with 'Stormtrooin', 'Paralysed' and 'Cat Scratch Fever'.

Nugent himself adopts the limelight amidst his dressed colleagues, looking under the spotlights and the perspiration like a cross between a guitar hero modelled out of marble by Rodin and a wet polar bear with a big stick.

But that, of course, you know already. Loveable, loud and laughable and guess what fans?.

What with the new album, and Ted singing so many more songs than usual, the 'Wango Tango' tour has more power punch, short and sharp, then ever.

Why, it's nearly rock 'n' roll.

For the rest, Def Leppard, happy enough to be on a tour where the massive audiences are polite enough to see the whole show, give out 35 minutes of hard rock that could turn out to be their version of a pools win.

Their youthfulness, oddly a barrier in England, is ignored by Texas, their recognisable songs are given rodeo receptions, and their next star lesson is completed.

While the Scorpions, old hands in comparison, give the Madman a traditional run for his money with a set of Teutonic solidity.

The right songs, the right staging, and a fitting finale with an orgy of mike stand throwing and strapless guitar swinging leave them with encores, fans and good ol' Southern acclaim.

Now let's see...was it the tigers who came on before the trapeze artists?.

Or did the clowns come on in between?.

By Record Mirror 1980.

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