home > tour history > 2011 > st. louis > Media Reviews

Wednesday, 10th August 2011
Back  

St. Louis, MO - Media Reviews

Def Leppard and Heart hold a Rock n Roll clinic in St Louis By Sean Derrick

There was a time when Guitar Gods ruled the world. In every music hall, theater, arena, and stadium there was a guitar hero striking classic poses, cutting hot licks, and shredding their own signature line of guitars. They were the front staple of a hard rock scene that stretched uncontested for two decades. Then their arch enemy, Grunge, hit the scene and strong armed the music masses into feeling guilty for the indulgence of guitar solos (or drum, and to a lesser extent, bass solos). For the past two decades the Guitar God has been in hiding, only popping its head out in rare situations.

Today, thankfully, the guitar solo is starting to make a comeback, via the mega hit video game "Guitar Hero" and "Rock Band", and forever young acts like Def Leppard, who made a return to St. Louis playing in front of a near capacity crowd Wednesday at the Verizon Wireless Amphitheater.

With the two-pronged guitar attack of "newest member" (as Lead Singer Joe Elliott calls him) Vivian Campbell (even though he has been in the group nearly 20 years) and Phil Collen, Def Leppard has been bucking the trend. For a while they were looked at as one of the dinosaur bands that were everything Grunge fans hated. Now they lead the resurgent and ever growing fan base that wants to see the return of the Guitar God.

Leading off with their latest single, the sports-anthem "Undefeated" Def Leppard quickly stated they were not going to rest on their laurels as a safety net. It was a great way to open the set which included a nice mix of songs from the band's30+ year career.

Touring in support of their newest CD "Mirror Ball" (a live CD plus three new songs) the band relied on its two-axed approach with guitar laden hits, but not all the same tracks that are on the CD, though mostly. They also threw in "Let it Go" from 1981's "High 'N Dry".

Their 3-tiered stage setup was full of today's technology, a wall of video on all three tiers, live video of the performance on giant screens and intermingled behind them, and even a micro camera utilized by Collen on the end of his guitar that appeared on the video screen. The band's show is the epitome of 80's hard rock: loud and bright with lots of smoke. The only thing missing were lasers.

Even though Elliot's voice has lost an edge over the years he is still the quintessential frontman, working the crowd into a frenzy, just as he has done so masterfully throughout his career.

What made this concert so different was the appearance of a bass solo from Rick Savage a nice 3 minute showcase of his talents before merging into "Rock On". It was a nice change of pace that was coupled with Collen and Campbell showing their chops on "Switch 625", a song they have mastered even though neither guitarist was in the band when the song was recorded in 1981.

If you are a fan of hard rock, a Def Leppard show has to be on your bucket list- as they seem to always put on a top rated show. Wednesday's performance was no exception.

Rock icons Heart co-headlined the show with a 1 hour 10 minute set that featured a wide range of songs from the band's nearly 40 year career. They came out with a nod to Led Zeppelin with "Rock and Roll" before hitting their timeless classic "Magic Man".

The Wilson sisters (lead vocalist Ann and guitarist Nancy) are currently one of the main focuses of an exhibit in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame- possibly a precursor to induction in the near future?? (It would be about time.) But artist snubs in the RRHOF would be for another article another day.

Ann's vocals were as sharp as ever as her golden pipes led the band through hit after hit, culminating in "Barracuda", while Nancy was as energetic as ever, displaying the choice chops that has helped define the group during its heyday in the late 70's and 80's.

The band has had a resurgence of late, and has been touring since their release of 2010's "Red Velvet Car", which they performed one of its tracks live - "WTF".

I have heard a few people question the combination of Heart and Def Leppard on a tour like this. To this I say there is no question. Those people must have never seen Heart live before, because they sure kicked it, and the entire crowd was rocking with them.

At least on this night guitars ruled supreme. Not the "let's see how fast you can play" style, but the classic "rock riffs that roll" style. Both bands ruled supreme. If you doubt this analogy, look no further than the number of tickets sold at Verizon Wireless Amphitheater this year. The three biggest concerts have all been from classic rock artists. Motley Crue and Poison, Journey and Foreigner, and Def Leppard and Heart; all three shows focused heavily on classic hard rock and just being Guitar Gods.

By Sean Derrick @ Examiner 2011.

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