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Thursday, 23rd June 2005
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Madison, WI - Fan Reviews

Fan Review - By C.J. in Pittsburgh

Deja vu. That's all I can say about this concert. From the opening band, Tesla, who sounded just as good as they did 20 years ago, to the energy and song selection of the Lep boys, this concert took me back in time.

While touring minor league ballparks with Bryan Adams this summer, Def Leppard somehow managed to cajole the Tesla boys to play a dozen or so dates with them re-incarnating the "Hysteria" tour. Lucky me. And the "Hysteria" tour it was. Tesla sounded as fresh and as energetic as they did nearly 20 years ago. As lead singer, Jeff Keith, pointed out " 20 years later and touring with Def Leppard again - they must be doing something right". They did a lot of things right, as the crowd sang along with the band's biggest hits "Signs", "Modern day cowboy" and "Love song". he crowd loved Tesla but it was obvious who everyone came to see.

Def Leppard kicked off their show with "Let it go". This was clearly a show to promote their new greatest hits album "Rock of ages, the definitive collection", as 17 of the 19 songs performed come from that album. Since most of their hits come from the "Hysteria" album, this very much resembled the "Hysteria" tour. They plowed through all 7 singles from that album, "Women", "Animal", "Rocket", Love bites", "Armageddon it", "Hysteria" and saved "Pour some sugar on me" for the encore. They also added the politically relevant "Gods of war". There was a smattering of songs from the other albums while "Slang" and "X" went totally unrepresented.

The crowd went nuts when the guitar riff for "Photograph" started and then again when the gibberish intro to "Rock of ages" was heard. When you play this many songs there isn't much time for talkin' and Joe Elliott kept the chit-chat to a minimum. The one surprising addition to the set was the David Essex tune "Rock on". Although a more laid-back tune originally, the Lep boys performed it faithfully up until they gave it a heavy metal ending with Elliott screaming "rock on!".

Rock on indeed! Although this show was a blast from the past, to me, it was also very much a statement that Def Leppard is not a fad or a novelty band but rather one of the best rock bands in history-period!

By releasing their new greatest hits album and their performance on this tour, Def Leppard just knocked down the door to the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame and screamed "WE BELONG IN HERE".


Fan Review - By Simon

To kick off the show with Let It Go in place of Action was a great trade off. During the entire show the audience was completely into it. There was no lull in the show for people not to be into it. (That could have happened if Two Steps was played instead of the band playing Have You Ever.)

From the sets that I have seen, I think this was the best set that they have played so far on tour. (Rock Brigade sounded great) I saw them during the X tour in Pittsburgh and Penn State a few years back. Those were good shows, but not even comparable to this show. The band always looks energized up on stage, but tonight it seemed that there was something different. I think they knew that they looked and sounded great. I was absolutely blown away by them.

I was not sure what my reaction would be when hearing the covers. No Matter What came off much better than what I thought it would sound. Rock On was absolutely incredible. Instead of the original, I have always had the sappy, poppy version that guy from a soap opera did in my head when I hear that song. The Leps version blew me away. The songs you thought you would hear, you did, but they still came off great. I loved the comic strip thing on the screens during Women.

Overall, I am hoping that they extend the tour and come back. Next time, 7th row is not going to cut it, plus my wife's in love with Phil. I've got to be closer to this incredible band.


Fan Review - By Billy

I will start this review off first by stating The Chevrolet Amphitheatre is by far the best place to catch a gig in Pittsburgh. Tesla came on and totally rocked, they did a great job, shame they aren't opening for the whole tour.

Now to Leppard we were on Viv's side and Lep was on, 'Let It Go' is such a great opener really gets things going. Then the highlight of the show 'Rock Brigade', the opening riff and I was in shock, never thought I would witness that one being played live and they nailed it. Rick Allen was in top form, as were the rest of the guys. More so than any other show I have seen, Viv and Phil's chemistry is awesome, those guys enjoy what they do and it shows. Being the diehard fan I am, I do wish they would throw in some tracks off of Slang, that is my only complaint. Great show tied with Velvet Revolver as the best gig of the year so far.

After the show we got lucky enough to meet Viv, first class individual very cordial guy. My girlfriend Angie was telling Viv how we cant wait to get YEAH! and he told us how fun it was to make and how it really set the foundation for the next studio album. I then said "I really would love to see you guys do a whole album in the vein of 'Worlds Collide' and got kind of a shocked look like "You know that one" to which Viv said the next one is going to be a lot more raw and up tempo.

AS we were getting ready to leave I asked Viv if 'Work It Out' will see the light of day this tour and he said if they extend the tour into the winter after Yeah! he said the set list may get interesting. All in all it was a great night. First class guys. Catch these guys if you can, you won't regret it.

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