Def Leppard & Styx concert review
By Nick Lewis
Published in The Calgary Herald on October 1, 2007
Considering it’s their best-selling album, one that sold 22 million copies and spawned seven hit singles, it was little wonder that Def Leppard’s set at the Saddledome Sunday night consisted primarily of material from 1987’s Hysteria.
In fact, they played seven selections off that album — almost half their set — kicking things off with three choice cuts from it, Rocket, Animal and Excitable. They balanced this out with older, rockier material from 1981’s High ‘n Dry and 1983’s Pyromania, and played nothing off newer albums Adrenalize, Slang, Euphoria, and X, and just one off their cover album, Yeah!
What this basically means is though the English band has been together for 30 years, we only heard 10 years worth of their material, the last two decades seeming like they never happened. While you’d be mad if Aerosmith did that, with Def Leppard it’s probably for the best.
Though they’re working on a new album with favourite producer Mutt Lange (High ‘n Dry, Pyromania, Hysteria), Def Leppard is, for now, a nostalgia act. And based on Sunday night’s show, not a very good one.
A boomer-heavy crowd of 11,000 took in the set and watched a hoarse Joe Elliott struggle with his voice through most of it — a shame considering how many people wanted this to be good. And even though the material was great, the execution was poor, making for a disappointing way to remember it. I mean, I’m not a proponent of lip-syncing, but here’s one instance where it would have helped.
In addition, there were mixing problems most of the night, which didn’t help versions of Foolin’, Mirror Mirror, Love Bites, Two Steps Behind, Armaggedon It and Pour Some Sugar On Me.
Opening for the Brit rockers was another nostalgia act, Chicago prog-rockers Styx. Lawrence Gowan spun, twirled and postured on stage with ‘80s moves as they opened with Blue Collar Man, before moving on to Grand Illusion and Too Much Time On My Hands. Come Sail Away and Renegade sounded best (if you have to rank them), but they didn’t play Lady or Mr. Roboto, the song that accounts for half the Japanese words you know.
In other venues, Foreigner was the third act on the bill, but not Calgary. It’s almost a shame — on a night that ran through a lot of retro rock radio highlights, I almost missed hearing I Want To Know What Love Is. Almost.
