Spokane, WA - Media Review Quotes

By Dan Nailen

Three screens showing the action on stage so the folks in the back of the arena could see were among the few production bells and whistles; for the most part, the show was just the band on a sparsely decorated stage, kicking out classic songs, with perhaps a few lasers flashing in the background. Not many hard-rock bands feature four guys harmonizing together, but Def Leppard's vocal abilities help them stand out, and make already-huge-sounding songs come through all the more massive.

"Paper Sun" from the band's 1999 album Euphoria was a bit unexpected early in the set, but served as a reminder that the band has continued making albums semi-consistently since radio trends moved away from their style of hard rock; they have a new one coming this fall, although that wasn't represented during the set Wednesday. Instead, after "Paper Sun," it was pretty much non-stop massive hits that had the crowd on its feet throughout, screaming along with the band: "Love Bites," "Armageddon It," "Rock On," a solo Joe Elliott acoustic take on "Two Steps Behind," performed on a catwalk jutting toward the middle of the arena floor.

All told, the band delivered about 90 minutes of ear candy, all of it a vivid reminder of why these guys went head to head with Michael Jackson's Thriller at the top of the Billboard charts when they first broke through in America, and eventually sold more than 100 million albums worldwide — an absurd number back in the '80s, and an impossible one in the current music scene. They ran through "Rocket," "Bringing on the Heartbreak," "Hysteria," "Pour Some Sugar On Me," "Rock of Ages" and "Photograph" before it was all over and the crowd departed to the chilled night air outside the arena.

By Inlander 2015.

Read the full review at - inlander.com

Back

share this page: