Las Vegas, NV - Fan Reviews
Fan Review - By Curt Taft
It's funny how time works. The days leading up to a show go by extremely slowly... And yet, this whole week seems to have flown by in hindsight.
Today was no different, as I waited and waited and waited for my third Viva Hysteria show to begin.
I made it to my seat around 7:05 PM. I was in section 3, row DD, but the fact that there was no row AA and the curvature of the row put me basically in a second row position.
As the wait for the show dragged on, I got to meet Dustin, better known as DLManiac, and chatted with him for awhile. And I had to be amused by the kid that couldn't have been older than 10 years old that wound up sitting next to me at the show. I was nine at my first Leppard show back in '96, so props to this kid for his taste in music.
Finally The Who's "Won't Get Fooled Again" was blasting over the PA, the lights went down, and we were off.
Of course, there was a lot of anticipation at that point since the band had supposedly been rotating openers, and this time I was able to recognize "Good Morning Freedom" as soon as it started. Even having seen it once already, it still blows my mind to witness it being played live. For years, I just hoped the band would sneak "Wasted" into a show so I could see something from the first album. Never, ever would have expected them to play something like this.
All those years of hoping for something from the first album were further rewarded with the next song, "Rock Brigade." It was yet another song I'd never seen before, and it sounded amazing. Viv quickly noticed my Thin Lizzy shirt and gave me a thumbs up for it.
"Slang" followed and is always welcome, since it is the lone survivor from my favorite album of all time. The lights stayed down afterward for "Too Late For Love."
At the end of "Too Late," I spotted Joe making his way off the catwalk and over to Sav. They exchanged some words about who was doing what and where for the next song... So I immediately knew I was in trouble.
Joe headed back down the catwalk to do the introductions of 'Ded Flatbird' after that, and he did them in a different order than normal, leaving Sav's "Fleetwood Beck" for last, which all but confirmed my suspicion...
And I was right. "Rock On" followed, and I'm told it was the first time it had been played during this Vegas run. It's amazing how it can be held off until I'm there! The three songs I've complained about the most through the years are "Two Steps Behind," "Make Love Like A Man," and "Rock On," but in a setting like this... With sets like the ones that have been played... Who am I to complain about something like "Rock On" being played? I was actually able to enjoy it thanks to the other rare songs, plus I hadn't seen it live since 2011 in Kansas City. The break from it helped!
Once again, my good karma was rewarded with the next song. It's one that my friends from the UK could probably care less about, but it was one of the highlights of the night for me. Joe introduced the Vault album, then the band went into "When Love & Hate Collide," yet another song I had never seen live before. That also checked the last box for me in terms of seeing at least one song live from every album.
I expected "Promises" to come next, but was once again pleasantly surprised by "Wasted," played in its third different spot in three shows. I went 30 shows without seeing anything from the first album performed live, and now I had seen three songs from that era, including "Wasted" three shows in a row? Unbelievable. I was also quite amused by the little kid next to me rocking out to "Wasted." Little dude doesn't know how spoiled he was to see that song at such a young age. I had to wait 26 years and see 31 shows to finally see "Wasted" live!
The band once again closed the main set with "Let's Get Rocked," which meant seven of the first eight song had been rotated from the previous show on Wednesday. And who would have thought "Wasted" would be the lone constant throughout the three shows I've seen so far?
The intermission passed quickly, then the Hysteria flowed and went over pretty well. I have to say the crowd tonight wasn't nearly as good as the previous two, so I'm really hoping that Saturday's crowd really comes through for the final show.
The obvious highlights of the Hysteria set were "Women," "Gods Of War," "Don't Shoot Shotgun," "Run Riot," "Excitable," and "Love And Affection." Joe even noticed my Lizzy shirt during "Gods Of War" and also gave me a thumbs up.
I think of the 'forgotten three' Hysteria songs, "Don't Shoot Shotgun" has been my favorite at these shows. It's just catchy as hell and the guitar work, especially the solo as played by Viv, are fantastic.
There was a quick encore break, then the standard encore of "Rock Of Ages" and "Photograph." The show ended as quickly as it began, which is how I'm going to feel about this entire trip after tomorrow night.
Hopefully there will be a few more surprises in store for me yet.
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