Mountain View, CA - Media Reviews

Def Leppard / REO Speedwagon @ Shoreline (9/25/16) By Kevin

Def Leppard swung through Mountain View, CA last night in what seems to be an annual trek through the SF Bay Area. This year, the line-up consisted of REO Speedwagon and the return of Tesla who kicked off the evening. If the recent rumors prove true, they could be back in 2017 teaming up with Bret Michael’s Poison!

Tesla’s quick 45-minute set included fan-favorites “Signs” and “Modern Day Cowboy” and laid a solid foundation for the night to come. Next up, the perennial REO Speedwagon walked through the hits that made them a household name, and at one point, lead singer Kevin Cronin explained to the crowd how he woke in the middle of the night, ran to his piano and started drafting what would become their biggest hit single to date, “Keep on Loving You”.

And finally at 9:20pm, the band who the vast majority of the audience was there to see, Def Leppard took to the stage with the appropriately titled, “Let’s Go” which bled into one of my personal faves, “Animal”. The band sounded great and the stage show was something you’d expect from the over-the-top 80’s rock titans, with an impressive light display, hydraulic lift riser that rose directly behind the drum-kit, and an extremely impressive HD backlight wall that blended with another set of LEDs that at certain points throughout the show, pretended to be the guitar and bass amplifiers.

Besides playing their top hits like “Pour Some Sugar on Me”, “Love Bites” and “Rocket” among a host of others, the band had a great retrospective video montage showcasing moments and videos from their storied career spanning 36 years. During “Hysteria”, the video showed scenes essentially in chronological order over their career. And then during the closing number, “Photograph”, instead of the Marilyn Monroe tribute as I had traditionally understood the song to be, the corresponding video highlighted the bands’ longtime guitarist, Steve Clark, who passed away in 1991.

By sfbayareaconcerts 2016.

Back

share this page: