Tampa, FL - Media Reviews

Def Leppard and Journey wow 17,500 Tampa fans at sold-out Amalie Arena By Gabe Echazabal/Todd Fixer

A Saturday night rock show is a place to let loose and forget all about the prior work week. It’s a place to lose your inhibitions and get lost in the lights, sounds and the vibe.

If there’s a better arena band than Def Leppard to epitomize that scenario, I haven’t seen it yet. The veteran British outfit got its start towards the end of the 1970s and, despite some hardships and losses, is still out there charging up its loyal fanbase and drawing audiences in record numbers. Add downtown Tampa’s Amalie Arena to the list of venues benefiting from the voracious ticket-buying demand for the band’s current tour.

For its latest jaunt, Def Lep is out on the road as co-headliners with another veteran FM radio rock band, Journey. In a curious scheduling decision, the band took the stage first on Saturday night, leaving the coveted headlining spot to Journey. But, that didn’t cause malaise or setbacks for Def Leppard. These rockers have been at it a long time and they know just how to engage a crowd regardless of where or when they’re to appear on a concert bill.

An uncharacteristically early and prompt start got the festivities going before the sun had set, but the dark coolness inside the arena set the tone for the hitmakers.

Steamrolling through a 90-minute set comprised of mostly hits, the noise and crowd response founding member and lead singer Joe Elliott was able to command was downright deafening. The spirited frontman has been at it for nearly 40 years and knows a thing or two about enticing and provoking an audience (and the sold-out crowd of 17,500 was more than ready).

With a massive, hi-tech stage replete with large video screens, mesmerizing lights, a huge platform at the rear of it and a frontstage catwalk, the scene was set for a big, over-the-top rock show. And that’s just what the band delivered.

Running through a hit list that contained rockers and ballads, Def Leppard threw in something for everyone no matter which era of its catalog was favored. For the early fans, a downright blistering version of power ballad “Bringin’ on the Heartbreak” followed by the heavy instrumental “Switch 625,” (as the songs are sequenced on the band’s sophomore release, 1981’s High ‘n’ Dry) brought back lots of memories of junior high hijinks for the '80s kids who are now eligible for AARP membership. An acoustic version of another ballad, 1993’s “Two Steps Behind” turned into a lively sing-along.

But there were plenty of rockers too. Relying heavily on its best-selling, gargantuan album, 1987’s Hysteria, the band played plenty of the hits from that record. “Animal,” “Armageddon It” and the main set-closing favorite, “Pour Some Sugar on Me” sounded fresh and inspired and kept the rapt audience on its feet and still singing.

Perennially shirtless lead guitarist Phil Collen, who has been with the band since 1983, showed off his muscular physique as well as his guitar muscle. Switching off on a variety of colorful and flashy guitars, the axe man sounded sharp and precise throughout the set. The still youthful-looking bassist, original member Rick Savage, played and cavorted around the stage with the spark of someone half his age. And the band’s other original creator, Rick Allen, continues to dazzle and inspire as rock and roll’s only one-armed drummer who cleverly uses pedals and a specially-designed kit to make up for the limb he lost during a 1984 auto accident.

Plenty of memories were conjured during the band’s set. Elliott, who seemed elated by the loud and proud Tampa crowd, fondly recalled the group’s New Year’s Eve performance at the USF Sun Dome at the close of 1987 and asked who was there. Vintage band pictures (including some with late original guitarist, Steve Clark), flashed on the huge screens during the first song of the band’s encore, the glam rock-inspired favorite, “Rock of Ages.” A different series of photos were beamed onto stage screens earlier in the night during a particularly enthusiastic performance of “Hysteria.” The song took on a sentimental feel, too when Elliot inserted a line from David Bowie’s anthem “Heroes” at the tail-end of the song and then motioned up to the heavens, as if saluting the deceased rock hero who has provided plenty of inspiration for this band.

The set-closing, powerful pop rocker “Photograph” sent the crown into yet another frenzy and elicited, arguably, the strongest ovation of the night.

“Don’t forget us — we won’t forget you,” Elliot sincerely declared at the end of the triumphant set and, as the band walked offstage, it seemed that Joe wasn’t ready to call it a night. Def Leppard could have easily played another hour’s worth of material, and the audience and the band would have been equally elated. As fun and exciting as the performance was, it sure left me wanting more of the crunchy, melodic rock the band knows just how to pump out.

But, alas, the stage was quickly cleared in order to make way for the night’s headliners. While sporting many of the members who made up the band during its most successful period, the mid-'80s, one couldn’t help feeling a glaring omission with the absence of Journey’s beloved lead singer, the animated and awesome Steve Perry. While Perry has been gone from the fold for many years, the group sought out the impressive Filipino singer, Arnel Pineda, who’s been part of the lineup for just over 10 years. Pineda is, at times, a sonic dead ringer for Perry. His vocal range is dynamic and his stage presence, filled with jumps and twirls, is magnificent. But the atmosphere just seems a little off with someone else taking over the spot that Perry curated and perfected for so long.

But the enthralled and lively crowd didn’t mind it one bit. As soon as those familiar, opening keyboard notes of 1983’s hit “Separate Ways (Worlds Apart)” flowed through the arena air, that’s all that really mattered for many in attendance. More jaw-dropping light displays and enormous video screens bathed the stage in the aura of a rock show and the band wasted no time in leading the already warmed and ready crowd to another time and place when rolling joints, drinking beers and cranking up the band’s seventh album, 1981’s Escape was the norm.

Musically tight and always meticulous, the band’s founding lead guitarist, Neal Schon, sounded fantastic. His razor-sharp licks were as spectacular as ever, especially on “Stone in Love,” one of the many standout tracks on Escape. Slick, keen and thunderous, Schon packs a mighty wallop in his playing. Drummer Steve Smith, bassist Ross Valory and keyboardist Jonathan Cain also sounded sturdy and solid.

Blazing through its own 90-minute set, the still-loved, California-based band provided plenty of highlights for its most devout fans. A moving version of 1978’s anthem and tribute to the band’s hometown of San Francisco, “Lights,” drew a request from Schon himself in asking that audience members take out their lighters or cell phones in order to illuminate the arena and, what followed, was a gorgeous display of what resembled stars in a night sky. The song also drew a somewhat poignant recollection by the guitarist when he referenced it as the second song he and longtime bandmate Steve Perry had ever written together.

A continuous string of hits and album tracks was plenty to thrill and entertain the packed house. Closing with two of its most popular songs, the ballad “Faithfully” and the karaoke favorite (and one of the most downloaded songs of all time) “Don’t Stop Believin’,” the band proved that it’s still making music for those who never stopped believing.

While a Def Leppard/Journey double-bill would have never been possible in the mid-'80s, when both bands were drawing concert audiences in record numbers, it makes perfect sense that now, it would become a reality.

Tapping perfectly into a demographic that still likes going to rock concerts and grew up on the sounds of both acts, it is clear why this particular tour is attracting such interest and generating very healthy ticket sales.

“Journey’s been my favorite band since I was 16,” I overheard a 50-ish gentleman mention in conversation a row behind me during the night’s intermission. Looking around, it was easy to believe that he wasn’t the only one declaring his ongoing love for the band throughout the jam-packed arena.

By Creative Loafing 2018.

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Journey, Def Leppard defy Father Time, thrill 17,500 fans at Amalie Arena in Tampa By Jay Cridlin

The inevitable question a double bill like Def Leppard and Journey begs is this: Which of the two classic rock hit machines, both well into their 50s and 60s, still rocks the hardest? Stick around, we'll get there in a minute.

First, though, can we take a second to appreciate a night like Saturday at Tampa's Amalie Arena? Two gargantuan bands from a time when rock bands could still be gargantuan, touring with classic lineups largely intact (save one obvious exception, and we'll get to that, too), and both happy to relive their glory days for an eager, sold-out audience of more than 17,500. Def Leppard played only one song written in the past 25 years; Journey didn't play anything post-1986. You can't say they're not out there giving the people what they want.

And boy, do they still want it bad. Journey's Jonathan Cain called Tampa "the largest-selling arena show of the tour," and good luck finding an audience more into it.

"Let's take a look at this place," Def Leppard singer Joe Elliott said as the lights went up during their opening set. "Holy s—, look at that! Not a bad way to spend a Saturday, what do you think?"

Kicking off the night with the immortally poetic salvo to Rocket ("Guitar! Drums!"), Def Lep clearly hasn't given up on the idea of big, dumb, stadium-shaking rock songs as lighter fluid for the soul. Even in their hair-metal heyday, they were kind of a band out of time — listen again to the utterly cheese-diculous Let's Get Rocked, and marvel that such a song was released into the world AFTER Nirvana's Nevermind — and that remains the case in 2018.

They still look like proper rock stars, all scarves and sequins and stringy hair, and guitarist Phil Collen, bless him, is still running around shirtless like a glistening, guileless god. And for the most part, they sound like them, particularly when it comes to the eternally pristine twin guitar assault of Collen and Vivian Campbell (always so much more than just a Steve Clark stand-in); and the stacked backing harmonies of Campbell, Collen and bassist Rick Savage. Put these guys and drummer Rick Allen to work on a chewy rock morsel like Bringin' On the Heartbreak or a cover of David Essex's Rock On, and it's hard not to get caught up and sing along.

Their precision — and let's face it, after playing all these hits a million times, they ought to be polished to a zirconium sheen — would be enough to cover up the missteps of any aging lead singer. But sneering and preening with his arms stretched out wide, Elliott did all right for himself. He ceded a few choruses to his bandmates and fans, instead hopping in with vocal fills as needed on Pour Some Sugar On Me and Foolin'. He strained for those last "getting its" on Armageddon It, but was hopping and punching like a whippersnapper at the end.

And by closer Photograph, Elliott was still pushing his cords as high as they would go, with Collen and Campbell always there to pick up any slack. At that point you'd bet on the Def Leppard machine humming along for years, cranking out time-immaterial versions of Hysteria and Animal and Rock of Ages well into the next decade. Maybe the next two.

The core of Journey, on the other hand, is longer in the tooth, with founding bassist Ross Valory staring down 70 come winter. Yet after last year's induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, they might be more popular than ever.

Three-fifths of the group – Valory, drummer Steve Smith and pianist Cain, who is married to former Tampa megapastor Paula White – is a tight but unshowy combo, content to play and that's it. Cain got a couple of moments to shine, like the twinkling ivories of Open Arms, and so did Smith, on the final closing rolls of Stone in Love and an extended solo later in La Do Da, with a camera close-up revealing some stylish slight of hand on the sticks and skins.

The case for Journey as rock gods really comes down to guitarist Neal Schon and singer Arnel Pineda.

Pineda's got the harder job, handling vocals for a group forever linked with Steve Perry. And the former YouTube star handles it well, acting the part by leaping and spinning and executing soaring split-kicks like a proper frontman. Journey fans may think they want a reunion with Perry, who just this week announced plans for his first new album in 24 years. Instead, they should appreciate Pineda for being a great rock and roll story in his own right, one that's still unfolding right before their eyes.

Schon, meanwhile, totally milked every solo, grinning wide beneath black shades and drawing each extended solo out to maximum shreddage, from Separate Ways (Worlds Apart) to Be Good To Yourself. He took several extended solos during the show, meandering and mugging it up as his fingers flicked across the fretboard. He put some honest-to-goodness heart behind the last one, just before Wheel In the Sky, as the band scrolled photos of the late Aretha Franklin on the screen behind him.

Put all the pieces together and Journey can get a crowd lost in a planetarium-ready trip like Escape, or simply keep 'em singing along to hits like Any Way You Want It, Wheel In the Sky or the undeniable Faithfully. And it's frankly unfair they get to close with Don't Stop Believin', otherwise known as America's Alternate National Anthem. Those opening piano notes and final soaring chorus, punctuated by blizzards of streamers and confetti, are trump cards few other bands can match.

Still, for all Journey's collective strengths, I'd give the night to Def Leppard. They make zero bones about who they are and what the audience came to see, and with everyone on that same dog-eared page, theirs was the set I'd be most eager to see again.

"Un-f—ing-believable!" Elliott roared as the band bowed over a deafening final ovation.

What's unbelievable is that after 40-odd years, time still hasn't caught up to Def Leppard and Journey. On nights like Saturday, there are no winners and losers. They're both playing with house money, and fans are letting it roll until the end.

By Tampa Bay Times 2018.

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