Salt Lake City, UT - Media Review Quotes
By Bryan Schott
When lead singer Joe Elliot told the crowd the show was a "fucking great way to kick off the tour," he wasn't kidding. He and his mates opened up a can of musical whupass on a near-capacity crowd. Smoothly moving between songs, the group did not disappoint as they hammered their way through a nearly two-hour set. Longtime fans had little to complain about as the band served up a heaping helping of their hits. "Rocket"? Check. "Foolin'"? Yep. "Pour Some Sugar on Me"? "Photograph"? They were all there and then some. Hitting those musical highlights allowed them the leeway to sneak in a couple of new songs and some more obscure tunes they don't normally perform.
In what proved to be a nice break from the musical blitz, the five musicians sat atop a lone equipment trunk to perform stripped-down acoustic versions of some numbers, including "Two Steps Behind" and "When Love and Hate Collide."
By Salt Lake City Weekly 2012.
Read the full review/5 photos at - cityweekly.net
By David Burger
Once Poison finished its 50-minute set in front of a surprisingly packed amphitheater, Def Leppard took the stage with a solid confidence that differed from Poison’s party-hardy anthems of youthful decadence. In comparison to Poison, Def Leppard seemed almost cerebral.
Note: That will be the last time "Def Leppard" and "cerebral" will be used in the same sentence. It is impressive that the British band’s frontman Joe Elliott can sing, with a straight face, lyrics from "Pour Some Sugar On Me: such as:
But the band sells it with a militaristic approach despite two decades without a hit, and thousands didn’t seem to care Wednesday night. And with impeccable background singing (which is no small feat, and underrated), layered guitars, electronically programmed drums, the quintet was précise with its catchy, twin-guitared songs that included the best parts of glam and what was once called the New Wave of British Heavy Metal.
It was good night for big, dumb rock. And with songs such as "Unskinny Bop" and "Armageddon It," brainless chewing gum never hurt anyone. But it certainly doesn't produce any thought bubbles.
By Salt Lake City Tribune 2012.
Read the full review/1 photo at - archive.sltrib.com
Def Leppard/Poison, USANA 6/20 By Pat Reavy
Phil Collen impressed with both his guitar playing and chiseled 54-year-old frame as he and bassist Rick Savage moved about the bi-level stage. Guitarist Vivian Campbell also appeared to be enjoying himself (when he wasn’t arguing with a stagehand whom he eventually flipped off) with a bevy of solos of his own. Rick Allen was solid all evening behind the drums, impressing with both his hand and footwork.
Def Leppard reached into the archives to pull out 'Let It Go" and 'Brining on the Heartbreak/Switch 625" off the High 'N' Dry album. Their most recent single, "It's All About Believin'" off the Mirror Ball album sounded decent in concert. Elliot noted to the crowd that 70 percent of the live Mirror Ball CD was recorded in Utah.
The big 3 songs from Pyromania were in the set list - "Foolin'," "Photograph" and "Rock of Ages" - with "Rock of Ages" finishing out the evening.
After 30+ years of packing stadiums, arenas and amphitheatres all over the world, Def Leppard are showing no signs of slowing down. After Wednesday's performance, it wouldn't surprising if Def Leppard continue to tour Utah for another decade.
By Deseret News 2012.
Read the full review/3 photos at - deseret.com
By Doug Fox
Immediately following "Gods of War," the band slipped into its popular mid-set acoustic breakdown -- a standard section of the past several tours. But that was where the band dramatically switched things up again. Instead of the "Two Steps Behind" into "Bringin' on the Heartbreak" acoustic treatment of recent memory, the band instead played a five-song medley featuring, as Elliott noted, "Some songs we haven't played in a long time and some songs we've never played."
The acoustic set exuded an extremely casual vibe, starting out with Elliott at the end of a ramp jutting about 10 rows deep into the audience sitting on a tour equipment storage case. He was subsequently joined, one by one, by the rest of the band, until everyone was parked on the rolling tour case playing acoustic guitar, except for drummer Rick Allen, who was shaking maracas. The just-under-10-minutes medley included parts of "Where Does Love Go When It Dies," "Now," "When Love and Hate Collide," "Have You Ever Needed Someone So Bad" and "Two Steps Behind." Elliott remained on the ramp alone to finish the latter song as the others repositioned themselves to play the traditional electric treatment of "Women."
One other deviation, albeit a return to norm, was a switch back to the full electric version of "Bringin' on the Heartbreak." As mentioned, the band had been giving it a mostly acoustic treatment for a half dozen years and it was nice to see the group's first hit return to its roots, followed, naturally, by its album segue, the instrumental "Switch 625."
Guitarists Phil Collen and Vivian Campbell, of course, are a big part of the Dep Leppard sound and live experience. Their styles complement each other nicely, with the shirtless Collen being the more flashy of the two and Campbell, with his cadre of sparkly Gibson Les Pauls, a bit more understated. The two effortlessly jumped back and forth between lead and rhythm roles -- often in the course of the same song -- and some of the evening's best highlights were when the pair teamed up on melodic doubled guitar solos before venturing off into their own separate lines.
By Herald Extra 2012.
Read the full review/11 photos at - heraldextra.com
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