Bloomington/Minneapolis, MN - Media Reviews

Def Leppard @ Met Center By Star Tribune

What makes Def Leppard so popular?.

The Leps play hard rock with melodic crunch and escapist themes.

So do many other best-selling hard-rock bands, including Bon Jovi, Whitesnake and Motley Crue.

But no other hard-rock or heavy-metal band can match the vocal harmonies of Def Leppard.

In many ways, the Leps are a corporate rock band for this lite-metal era.

The group sounds like a hybrid of the defunct Journey, the ultimate corporate-rock band of the late 1970s, and the late Led Zeppelin, the ultimate and prototypical heavy-metal outfit.

The Leps have enough machismo and guitar heroics for the T-shirt clad suburban guys in their teens and 20s and enough melodic crunch, romantic content and pleasing harmonies for young miniskirt-clad suburban women.

In concert, Def Leppard uses predictable hard-rock ploys - stage fog, laser lights, a rotating drum platform, mega-volume (though the sound last night at Met Center was clean and clear, devoid of the usual heavy-metal feedback), screaming vocals, and athletic energy.

The in-the-round format worked nicely, too, because the other four Leppards dashed about consistently.

The sound system was excellent, and the stage was decorated with colourful patterns and classy lighting.

By Star Tribune 1988.

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