Austin, TX - Media Review Quotes
The one previous time I saw Def Leppard it was a professional obligation and I was fully prepared to hate it. Yeah, THAT band, those kings of melodic hard rock radio-friendly enough to be unthreatening to your high school girlfriend. But that time I happened to be sitting next to some high school-aged girls who were positively thrilled, and I couldn't help but watch the show through their young, uncritical eyes. This time what really stood out were the songs. Go ahead and laugh, but "Bringing on the Heartbreak" and "Foolin'" and "Rock Of Ages" and every other hit that MTV played way, way too many times have more hooks than your great uncle's tackle box and they stand up, a point made most emphatically during an acoustic mini-set, where it's impossible for a weak song to hide behind stomp box fuzz. Also standing up nicely is Joe Elliot's voice. Anybody looking to build an outfit of moderately heavy hitmakers should study these guys.
By Austin Americn-Statesman 2014.
Read the full review at - statesman.com
By Luke Winkie
I wish I was in Def Leppard. I also wish I wasn’t caught up in the useless pontificating that causes people to look down their nose at a Def Leppard and Kiss double bill at a racetrack – the one Saturday night at the Circuit of the Americas.
I wish I bought kettle corn and munched through “Love Bites.” I wish I got to spread my arms open toward the sky at the end of “Pour Some Sugar on Me.” I wish I was opening for Kiss.
I wish I could disarm the jokes about these decades-past-their-prime hard rock acts who are selflessly donating proceeds from this tour to the Wounded Warrior Project. I wish I wrote “Hysteria.” I wish I could wear leather pants like Def Leppard bassist Rick Savage.
By Austin Chronicle 2014.
Read the full review/5 photos at - austinchronicle.com
By Doug Van Pelt
By the time the band rolled into their own song, “Let It Go,” I realized I was flat-out giddy. I felt like a kid at a metal show again. Forget that I had my daughter with me, who may or may not enjoy what she was hearing, I had goose bumps and an undeniable sense of heavy metal energy. The boys are back in town and their bringing it down!
Fortunately, for a band like Def Leppard, they have plenty of hits to fill their set up with. They started rolling ‘em out with little to no fanfare, save for a few polite and chatty comments from frontman Joe Elliot: “Animal” and then “Foolin” and it was easy to feel like the band could do no wrong. Fortunately, they did no wrong and it was a delightful, energetic and crowd-pleasing show. “Love Bites” slowed things down just a little bit with their big chorus melody and the band was accompanied by massive video screens directly behind the stage with images and words that relayed the song’s theme.
“Let’s Get Rocked” pumped the place right back up. Then Elliott showed up front and center with an acoustic guitar, and Phil Collen and Vivian Campbell did the same. Elliott invited the audience to sing along to “Two Steps Behind,” which the crowd kinda failed to do. Then they segued into the great, churning and burning ballad “Bringing on the Heartbreak,” which felt all wrong to me. ‘Wait a minute!’ I thought, ‘they can’t play this song without electric guitars blazing away at the end. Fortunately, right on cue (where Elliott screams, “NO! No-oh!” the electrics come out and Collen and Campbell cut loose. This long solo then transitioned into their cool instru-metal “Switch 625,” which extended the rocking just the right amount.
“Hysteria” added a nice touch with a lot of vintage photos of the band in its heyday, including plenty of shots that include the dearly departed founding guitarist Steve Clark. It felt like a smart idea that really seemed to work. You know, if you’re looked at as some sort of nostalgia act this late past your prime, you might as well own it and hit the audience with some feel-good visuals while you play one of your hits from your biggest-selling album.
“Rocket” had a cool video screen backdrop of lots and lots of television sets – many with individual images and some working together to show larger images from multiple small windows. It was a fun visual to watch. Vivian Campbell was brought out front and center for a direct introduction and a nice announcement about him sporting a brand new wedding band. He intro’d the song “Armageddon It,” which featured a ton of social conscious messages and images during the tune. The band ended the set with “Pour Some Sugar On Me,” which was a highpoint that had almost 100% crowd participation, which is always fun with that many people (10-15,000 people? I don’t really know, but Austin’s 360 Amphitheater looked packed).
The night wasn’t over for Def Leppard, of course, because they hadn’t played a couple of must-plays. Sure enough, for an encore they laid into “Rock of Ages,” which drummer Rick Allen introduced with his faux German. They finished things off with “Photograph,” which sounded great and also sported lots of scrapbook-style photos on the big screen. I need to also mention that two large screens also stood on either side of the stage, which primarily ran live footage edited on the fly of the musicians performing, along with many excited crowd shots.
By HM Magazine 2014.
Read the full review/19 Photos (all KISS) at - hmmagazine.com
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