Montreal, QC, Canada - Media Reviews

Media Review - Def Leppard, with Poison and Lita Ford, at the Bell Centre; July 16, 2012 By Jordan Zivitz | Link 2

Being the frontman of a band isn't all about the adulation and the first pass at the craft-services smorgasbord. It's also about shouldering a disproportionate burden of success. So no matter how polished the rest of Def Leppard sounded at the Bell Centre on Monday, there was still the matter of the voice.

Or the lack of one. It took just two songs to realize that Joe Elliott was struggling not to buckle under the strain of his band's songs, many of which were written without regard for future wear and tear on vocal cords. When he sang Rocket in 1987, Elliott slid up and down its sleek surface. On Monday, he dropped out of the mix whenever he stretched for the ceiling.

It could have been a case of Elliott needing to limber up, but it wasn't. The lead vocals on Animal and Love Bites (yes, this was a typically Hysteria-heavy set) were far less flashy than the singer's bejewelled mike stand, with chunks of the former being sustained almost entirely by his bandmates. Indeed, the premium Def Leppard places on golden harmonies was both a salvation and damnation for Elliott: those harmonies prevented the songs from crumbling, while shining a light through every crack in his voice.

If the rest of the group helped stabilize the show, so did the multi-level future-age presentation, with Rick Savage, Vivian Campbell and perpetually shirtless Phil Collen joining Elliott in making excellent use of the space. (Although it was more than a little silly for bassist Savage to leave the stage after Let's Get Rocked, only to return moments later for Gods of War on the same riser that helped him and Elliott make their initial dramatic entrance.)

When Elliott stayed in his husky lower register, his shortcomings disappeared. The party-prepped reading of Let's Get Rocked (knowingly hammy even in 1992) has endured, Pour Some Sugar on Me swaggered as always, and he earned his prizefighter's strut in the opening Undefeated, a studio track from last year's mostly live Mirror Ball collection. Still, when Def Leppard dubbed this the Rock of Ages Tour, the implication is that this is the We Know You Don't Want to Hear the New Stuff Tour. If the 9,368 in attendance had been asked their preference between the pristine run-through of the prosaic It's All About Believin' and the scratchy Women (okay, we get it - Hysteria has sold enough copies to bury entire villages), a show of hands would have clinched the result. And considering how forgiving those fans were on Monday, their opinion mattered: the audience deserved all of Elliott's genuine praise, lifting the show far higher than it would have gone otherwise.

The mid-set acoustic breather was an undeniable highlight, with all five band members perched on a road case at the lip of the catwalk. Sections of Now, Have You Ever Needed Someone So Bad, Two Steps Behind and others were stitched together so artfully, the patchwork transcended the mechanical nature of medleys. It wouldn't have outlasted its welcome at twice the length, especially since Elliott was a rock throughout. Later on, even when he faltered (and not just in terms of technical limitations - the entire quintet snoozed through Hysteria), the sheer number of blockbusters in the home stretch was a reminder of the catalogue's strength.

Whether Elliott's voice is shot or whether he was having a rough night is a question for someone who has seen multiple dates on this tour. Judging by a perceptible improvement late in the set and the fine performances preserved on Mirror Ball, I'd lean toward the second option. All the same, there was an unfortunate poignancy to Photograph, with snapshots of Def Leppard from years past playing out across the screens as Elliott sang about trying to get a hold on the intangible.

Not quite an opening act - but not quite not an opening act, either - Poison was clearly an attraction for a sizable portion of the audience. (Let's give the band an automatic credit for the cowboy hats and bandanas peppering the Bell Centre.) His glammy L.A. heritage notwithstanding, there was more than a little of the prototypical Vegas entertainer in Bret Michaels, who glad-handed his way along the catwalk and played the crowd like a pro. And judging by Monday's 50-minute set, that's exactly what he is, despite critical consensus and whatever shenanigans have blackened his record offstage (and sometimes onstage).

Michaels's attempt at a snaky hip shake during Ride the Wind was arthritic, as was the "old-school harp" wheezing through Your Mama Don't Dance - no less leaden on Monday than it was in 1988 - but he was a charmer through sheer enthusiasm. Would that the same could be said for guitarist C.C. DeVille, who remains one of the most cartoonish '80s-vintage rockers: with static-shock hair, gaping mouth and graceless careering, he is the yappy chihuahua of Poison.

"We got a lot of songs we wanna play for you," Michaels said early on. They could have squeezed in at least another two were it not for DeVille's formless five-minute blitz of nonsense and a drum solo from Rikki Rockett that won't have Neil Peart questioning his own existence. The latter could be charitably overlooked once Michaels announced Rockett"s father had just passed away; the former only served to make the ensuing Fallen Angel sound like an indispensable slice of pop-metal history by comparison.

Lita Ford drew a considerable crowd for the thankless 7 p.m. slot. The tough nostalgia of the new song Living Like a Runaway held up well against Close My Eyes Forever ("Ozzy's not here to help us sing it"), and she sold the "had to borrow 10 bucks from my old man" line in Kiss Me Deadly by upping her signature song's abrasion to a near-punk level.

By Montreal Gazette 2012.

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Def Leppard & Poison - Bell Centre - July 16th, 2012 By Uncle Ronny

"Let's Get Rocked" was an appropriate anthem for the 80s rock revival concert at the Bell Centre featuring Def Leppard, Poison, and Lita Ford. In a day and age where dance music and auto-tune have conquered the radio airwaves did nearly 9,400 people turn out to rekindle with music that was mainstream over 25 years ago. Def Leppard's frontman Joe Elliott was quick to point out that 2012 marked the 25th anniversary of their commercial mammoth Hysteria being released. Not surprisingly, the album had no fewer than eight songs featured during the show including perennial favourites Pour Some Sugar on Me, Animal, Loves Bites and Rocket. The latter, played immediately following opener Undefeated, started showing the singer's struggles with higher notes. It would continue throughout the evening but luckily the British outfit's core strength, the accompanying vocal harmonies by other bandmembers, provided a solid foundation for Elliott to fall back on even when he stumbled.

Regardless of Elliott's struggles, Def Leppard still knows how to put on a good rock show with the right dose of rock stances, visuals and audience interaction to keep the hordes satisfied. We even had the signature Union Jack curtain dropping at the beginning of the show and hydraulic rising platform for THE ultimate rock god intro thrown in for good measure. Even with all these theatrics, it was the stripped-down acoustic mini-set on the catwalk with all five members sitting on what looked liked a storage piece for equipment that gave us the highlight of the evening. The band seemed to be breezing though the Where Does Love Go When It Dies/ Now / When Love and Hate Collide / Have You Ever Needed Someone So Bad / Two Steps Behind medley, and Joe Elliott's vocal woes suddenly disappeared.

Other highlights included my favourite Def Leppard song Photograph with the backdrop depicting photos of the band throughout the years and Gods of War that provided the political statement moment of the night. The band was tight the entire evening and it's still quite remarkable to see drummer Rick Allen doing his thing after all these years with only one arm!

Poison, the poster children for the excessive glam metal 80s, did an admirable job opening up the show (sorry I missed Lita Ford's set) with their party music. Songs like Talk Dirty To Me and Your Mama Don't Dance had singer Bret Michaels and Co. running back and forth the catwalk and throwing every rock cliché at the fans. I never knew Michaels was so stiff on stage and relying mainly on finger pointing in the crowd and jock rock stances to generate a response. One questions remains however: did we really need solos from guitarist C.C. Deville and drummer Rikki Rockett in a fifty-minute set? How many times have we heard bands play Led Zeppelin's Moby Dick already? Nevertheless, I still had a good chuckle and the crowd seemed to be having Nothin' But a Good Time …

By Rontreal 2012.

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Rock In It's Purest By Sandra Godin | Original Link (French + Video)

"British cult band Def Leppard has injected his old powerful rock in the veins of thousands of fans gathered at the Bell Centre Monday night, celebrating the Quebec public with the 25th anniversary of the release of the Hysteria album, their album most popular career."

By Journel De Montreal 2012 - (Translated).

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