home > tour history > 2003 > san antonio > Fan Reviews

Friday, 30th May 2003
Back  

San Antonio, TX - Fan Reviews

Fan Review - By Cindy

DL DEFinitely rocked San Antonio Friday night! The mid-90 degree heat didn't seem to put a damper on the band's enthusiasm....the majority of the crowd may have been affected tho, because Joe kept having to ask the upper decks to stand up. I know that the crowd down in the front areas didn't sit the down throughout the whole concert....as it should be! From my 7th row vantage point the venue seemed about 80 percent full. The sound quality was a little muffled...maybe if I wasn't right under the speakers, but rather, up higher, it would have been clearer. Sometimes I thought that if I wasn't already familiar with the melody and the words, I may have been a little lost. But the music was LOUD ENOUGH that's for sure! All the band looked to be having a great time up there! I for one, really got into the High n Dry set. It was hard from where I was to tell how the crowd reacted to it. Joe's arm seemed to be bothering him a little bit...but shouldn't that be expected?

I was successful in getting Sav's attention by wearing a Sheffield Wednesday Owls soccer jersey. He did his famous pose and smiled/pointed at me...made my night! I also got the attention of 4 blokes from Sheffield that were in the crowd and came down after the concert to chat (who, by the way, obtained tickets that day and still were down in the front section)..what's up with that? My friend and I stayed after a bit, but were unsuccessful in meeting the band, since we didn't have "sticky buttons" on and it's really hard to find the bus at this particular venue...oh well.

HAD A GREAT TIME ALL IN ALL! (and my ears are still ringing today!).


Fan Review - By Lisa

We arrived at the arena just in time to hear Ricky play a song or two during his soundcheck. Love this man! Missed DL's soundcheck though. The doors opened really early because they were giving away a Harley Davison motorcycle at the show. So what do you get when you mix bikers/rock fans with beer starting at 530pm (and the concert doesn't start until 730)? Drunken brawls, idiots jumping onstage, and sex in the front row!

We saw Ricky behind some speakers before the show so we waved. He waved back and turned about 3 shades of red! Poor thing! He didn't realize there was going to be a couple of nuts in one of the sections! We stood up and whooped and hollered for him during his set. The guys in front of us joined in too! Ricky was smiling and blushing for the better part of 30 min! Poor baby! I scared him as he started up on one song. He missed a beat or something and had to restart the song real quick when I screamed and clapped! Oops!

DL took the stage at about 830ish. They did their HND set. I've now been to 6 shows on this tour and have yet to hear anything but the HND set! They did Slang at the shows right before and after this one! Sheesh! I WANT SLANG!

Let's start with the clothes for the sake of the ladies out there: Joe wore his usual leather pants with that long sleeved black (ugh! it was a thousand degrees that day!) shirt with the faces or whatever on it. Phil was nekkid as usual! Sav wore these brown and tan patchwork pants with an olive green shirt that said "glam" on it. Rick was in shorts, sandals, and a t-shirt (couldn't see what was on it) Viv was wearing a Hello Kitty shirt when he went on for his one song with Ricky. Can't remember what he wore during DL's set, but I did notice that he got nekkid for the encore!

Highlights of the show: Someone flashed the guys while the camera guy had her on the jumbo screen. I could have done without seeing that thank you very much! Some drunken idiot got onstage and grabbed Joe from behind and tried to get his mic. Security was quick to get him off, but all we could think was OMG! Joe's shoulder! Poor thing! I hope he's okay. He never missed a beat though, just kept right on singing! He's such a trooper! There was a couple in the front row practically having sex during Love Bites! Can you imagine telling your kid, "Honey, you were concieved at a DL concert in the front row with the band and about 6000 people watching! Now isn't that special?" Sav looked at me after the encore and said "ready?" and threw a hand full of picks towards me, but I didn't get one. One landed on the floor in front and there was a fight on the ground between a couple of guys trying to get it. Chairs were getting knocked around and stuff. Got kinda scary for a second there.

The guys sounded awesome. They were all real energetic and, as far as I could tell, there were no sound problems. Viv does this thing where he throws a pick into the air and catches it. He never missed once! I'd think it'd get lost in the lights, but he caught it every time! We had at least 3 cameras between us, but no pics were allowed unless it was a disposable camera. We only had 35mm and digitals and didn't want them taken away. Security was pretty tight, so sorry folks, no pics this time! All in all, the crowd was having a great time. It started out kinda slow with the first 5 rows or so in the center section sitting down! Around the time they started into the Pyromania stuff everyone was on their feet and having a blast! Joe made references to the basketball game that the San Antonio Spurs had won. That got the crowd going as they obviously love their Spurs! Joe did Sweet Home Alabama during the acoustic part of the show with the crowd helping him out by singing along. He didn't seem to be having any trouble with his shoulder although I did notice that he kept a hold on his right pant leg with his right hand as a way of reminding himself not to swing that arm. A small piece of Whole Lotta Love made it in there somewhere, but for the life of me, I can't remember when it was. What else can I say? It was an awesome show as usual!Here's something of a setlist. It may not be complete and it may not be in order, but it's pretty close.


Fan Review - By Carlos Gonzalez

Well, the trip for the concert began very early for me. At 7:00 am I was in the Guadalajara, Mexico, airport to take my flight to Houston and then to San Antonio.

I arrived early to the venue. I was wearing a black Slang T-shirt with a yellow photo of the members of the band in the front and the Slang cover on the back and it says "Mexico 1997". There were a lot of “bikers” (that’s the way we call people that use to hang out with their Harley). A lot of these “bikers” wore a KZEP (the SA classic rock station) black T-shirt. I was worried because the audience was small even during the opening act. Ricky Warwick was a pleasant surprise, by the way. I enjoyed "Nothing Is Real" and the one that he played with Vivian. I’d actually like to buy his CD. The lawn section was closed. I thought about “die hard”, because he said that he’d be in that section.

At this point I was thinking: maybe people will arrive right after the opening act, but that it didn’t happen. In the meantime, it was very nice to meet some folks from the official forum. You know who you are guys!

It was 10 minutes before the concert and a lot of people was still arriving or more worried about buy beer (don’t get me wrong, I love beer). I commented this “audience issue” with some fans like “austinrockbrigade” and he was worried too. It was until the last minute, and I mean it literally, when people really started to come. Disintigrate began on the PA and a lot of people didn’t recognize the song so they were still on their own business (buying beer or food). I remember that the band hit the stage and started to play “Let it go” and it was in this moment when people finally arrived or finally realized that the concert had already started. So, 2 minutes before the show nobody could really tell if the seats section would be sellout. For some people, It took all the first song to find their seat and begin to enjoy the show. I don’t know if this is common in San Antonio, but definitely is not common where I live. I have gone to concerts in stadiums, arenas, forums, theaters and even bullrings (I saw the chili peppers last year in one of these) and this never happened before.

The seating section of the venue was almost full, only a few empty seats in the upper deck. I think there was 5,500-6000 people. And, as others have mentioned, the lawn section was closed.

The "High n’ dry" set list was played. The highlight of the “high n’ dry” set was "bringin’ on the heartbreak" in regards of people’s response. As it has been reported from other reviews from other shows, at the end of "Switch 625" Joe said: "We've just done the first side of the High N Dry album. Now, we're gonna move on to Pyromania…”.

"Make love like a man" had a little solo voice from joe. I am very glad that they played "Hysteria", because that’s my favorite song ever. I love the little intro for this song. I saw a girl from the “Staff event” dancing during “hysteria” in a such sensual way!... oh well… In fact, this girl seemed like “cloned” from a ex-girlfriend of mine, and since this song is my favorite, this produced a big visual “flashback” in my mind while I kept listening to the music. But I really mean that this girl was a clone of my ex. As others have mentioned, LLWTG is much better live, it’s raw and more guitar oriented and I loved the Viv’s background vocals on this tune. Joe dedicated LLWTG to the San Antonio Spurs. He said: “well, how about the spurs, huh? (people screaming) It was fucking crazy last night”.

Maybe our American folks at the show missed this, but there was a guy in the crowd wearing the Guadalajara’s soccer team jersey. I’m from that city and I flew from Guadalajara to San Antonio that morning just to see this show. So, this had a meaning. I’m not a fan of that team, my favorite soccer team is another one, but this had a meaning, believe me.

About the wasted guy that hit the stage, this is what I saw: The guy was just two seats left from mine. He arrived early with his wife. He was wearing a “Euphoria tour” T-shirt which leads me to think that this was actually a core fan and not only a “casual listener”. He drank a lot of beer, a lot. I drink beer, I love it. But it was obvious how he was more drunk everytime he went to buy another drink. In fact, this was a little annoying for me, because he made me move to let him pass everytime he wanted to go buy more beer (this happened almost every single song). So this guy was really drunk. During "Now" he stood in the stairs and began to smoke. His wife remained seated. She noticed that he was pretty drunk. She went to talk with him. Tried to take him back to his seat. They had an argument. Suddenly, he went away. I thought he was going to buy more beer. In this moment It began "Women". And coming from nowhere he hits the stage and tries to take the mic and say something. He didn’t grab to Joe too strong. He wanted to take the mic. And then, security took him away. When we all saw this, I turned to see his wife and she was moving her head like when you say “no, no, no”. And she was very disappointed and had a very sad face. She asked to a staff event girl what to do. And then she went to where she was told. That’s what I can testify.

Some highlights for me were the guitar battle in "Rocket". It was awesome!!!! A lot of people recognized "Promises" when it was played. I think this is very good. The people in the first rows were standing. In the center rows half and a half. In the back rows majority was seated and some standing. But there were moments where everybody was standing. I saw some people singing along “Now” and I was glad for that. Four Letter word had a good response. The best response in all the show was, as usual, for Pour Some Sugar on Me. I saw people of all ages 30’s somethings, young people, older people, couples, “bikers”, white people, Hispanic people, fans with their sons, etc.

The directing of the video showing in wide screens was good. It had a lot of close ups. Not to mention some girls flashing her boobs or the lesbian scene (some beautiful blonde girl touching another’s girl boobs)… oh well… I liked the lightning.

"Rock of Ages" was another highlight. I noticed that even some "staff event" girls were claping.

When the band did the encore Joe said: "see you next time, and it will be a next time. Don't forget us, we won't forget you". This was my 2nd Def Leppard concert. Peace.

Back

share this page:



get def leppard news

Stay in touch with the latest updates.




explore def leppard tour history
All News
Tour News
Album News
All Tours