Cleveland, OH - Media Reviews

Efficient, streamlined classic rock from '80s By Anastasia Pantsios

Music from the 1980s just won't go away. To the perhaps 5,000 fans who turned out to hear Def Leppard at Gund Arena last night, that's a good thing. The British quintet was always one of the most workmanlike of '80s hard rock bands, less flashy and less trendy than most of their counterparts, less metallic and more melodic.

That style made it one of the biggest bands of the '80s, peaking in 1987 when it had three hits in the top 10. Its 1987 multiplatinum album "Hysteria" produced six top 20 hits altogether. And though it never reached that peak again, it continued to produce mid-chart hits into the '90s.

An unannounced short acoustic set by an Irish singer/songwriter whose debut CD is being produced by Def Leppard vocalist Joe Elliott (and whose name was never announced clearly), was followed by a blast of Queen's 'We Will Rock You' and Gary Glitter's 'Rock and Roll.'

A curtain fell and Def Leppard sauntered on stage without any elaborate ceremony.

Elliott, bassist Rick Savage, drummer Rick Allen and guitarists Viv Campbell and Phil Collen are all still lithe and slender and - except for the close-cropped Collen - sport enviable though not excessive heads of hair.

Elliott looked boyish in black leather pants and pullover.

The stage set was not particularly grand. A three-tiered drum platform flanked by short rows of Marshall stacks and nice colored lights was the extent of it. It matched the band's unpretentious performance of a set that was based upon old favorites from the '80s, such as 'Hysteria,' 'Photograph,' 'Rocket,' 'Animal,' 'Armageddon It,' 'Pour Some Sugar on Me' and, of course, the lush, tear-jerking power ballad 'Bringin' on the Heartbreak,' amply adorned by the thick, pretty vocal harmonies that are a band trademark.

These were sprinkled with selections from the group's 2002 release "X." Its cover art was reflected on the banner hanging in back of the stage as well as the bass drum head. The pretty ballad 'Long Long Way to Go' and 'You're So Beautiful' dovetailed nicely with the older material.

All were performed in the band's efficient, streamlined classic rock style. Elliott, who was never one of the most show-stopping, high-note screamers to begin with, is still able to hit with ease all the notes he hit 20 years ago.

The band threw in a few odd little treats in the two-hour show: Elliott paid tribute to Cleveland by performing a few lines of Ian Hunter's 'Cleveland Rocks' before the band joined him to sit on stools and do its acoustic version of 'Two Steps Behind,' a song it did for the film "Last Action Hero." Elliott joked about the stools, "It's not a sign of age - it's what's known as a balancing act."

The group also did an energetic version of the Sweet's '70s power pop tune 'Action.'

By Plain Dealer 2003.

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