Louisville, KY - Media Reviews

Def Leppard showers crowd with classics By Jeffrey Lee Puckett

When Def Leppard launched into "Rock of Ages" for its encore Sunday night at Freedom Hall, they provided the theme song for an evening of classic rock -- and classic rock 'n' rollers.

The multiplatinum English band was joined by Foreigner and Styx, bands whose resumes date back to the 1970s. They played to a nearly full house of fans who also had resumes dating back to the '70s, if not earlier, and they were treated to a loaded jukebox worth of vintage hits.

Def Leppard headlined the show, the rare Kentucky State Fair finale dedicated to rock instead of country, and delivered a strong set of its trademark deeply layered, highly catchy music.

Def Leppard essentially defined hard rock in the 1980s with its "Hysteria" and "Pyromania" albums, and the band cherry-picked the most popular songs from those albums. The last 30 or 40 minutes was one huge song after another starting with "Bringing On the Heartache" and pile-driving through "Hysteria," "Armageddon It," the brilliant "Photograph" and "Pour Some Sugar on Me."

Joe Elliott, Rick Savage, Phil Collen, Rick Allen and Vivian Campbell seemed to be having a blast -- there was a lot of shirtless rocking going down -- and so did the crowd. The biggest hits were massive singalongs, with fans jacked up on nostalgia and a very present energy.

Both Foreigner and Styx took identical approaches: Play the hits and nothing but the hits. With only around 45 minutes to perform, they didn't want to waste any time.

By Courier-Journal 2007.

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