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Leaving behind the overstuffed Men's Room where guys were pissing in sinks and waxing poetic about erotic trysts, I re-beered myself and settled in for a set by one of the last classic glam bands around. For better or worse, Def Leppard are the torchbearers for T-Rex and Sweet, something the band themselves proved on their new, surprisingly good covers album, Yeah!, where they tackled Thin Lizzy, the Faces, ELO, and Roxy Music. Sounding less robotically processed than their Jeff "Mutt" Lange-produced heyday, today's Leppard is more relaxed -- almost as hip as illegitimate progenies like the Darkness and Eagles of Death Metal.
Having had my preconceptions shaken by Yeah!, I stuck around after Journey even though there were few bands I hated more in the '80s than Def Leppard. The band's meteoric rise during my high school years was a key motivator in my discovery of Black Flag, John Coltrane, and other music that was not like them in any way. Still, the covers revealed the band's root inspirations and threw their earlier work into a new light. At least that's what I thought...
Happy to offer a hit straight away, Def Leppard burst out with "Let's Get Rocked" as the Union Jack on the video monitor fluttered artfully -- their graphics a step up from the Night Flight-quality space rock stuff Journey used. All five guys seemed to be made entirely of erectile tissue, especially guitarist Phil Collen, who came out shirtless (he has nice abs for a dude in his forties). Their cross-stage stride was full of pride, their long line of sexual conquests and platinum records fueling a familiar brand of puffed-chest machismo. And perhaps their balls truly are just bigger than those of the rest of us ( unlike Journey's Soto, their trousers weren't tight enough for me to tell).
It took about 20 minutes for my initial hopes to be dashed. It's not that the band plays badly -- quite the opposite. They sound exactly as you remember them from videos and CDs. Eerily so. There's got to be a measure of electronic assistance to their creamy harmonies and thousand-layered guitar parts, but, for the most part, they reproduce what one heard on their old albums accurately -- with a lot more running about and fists in the air, of course. They were fully present, if overeager to pour some sugar on you. In other words, Def Leppard seemed to need the audience's approval in a way that Journey did not.
The first thing that wore away my good will was the realization that, if there are stupider lyrics than the ones to "Foolin'" or "Let's Get Rocked", they were probably still by Def Leppard. Take this, uh, timeless passage from "Rock! Rock! (Till You Drop)":
Hold on to your hat, hold on to your heart
Ready, get set to tear this place apart
Don't need a ticket, only place in town
That'll take you up to heaven and never bring you down
Anything goes, anything goes
Pure Poetry.
Singer Joe Elliott was often low in the mix, a tactic designed to hide the fact that his once Rod Stewart-worthy pipes aren't what they used to be. He can still sing -- as evidenced by the varied, satisfying performances all over Yeah! -- but live, he was straining for the high notes. They've always been a gang of vocalists, so it was easy to miss, especially with most of the crowd piping up, but things ain't what they used to be. Elliott did shine on the two covers -- Dave Essex's "Rock On" and T-Rex's "20th Century Boy", which played more to his current range.
It's a pity Def Leppard didn't take a page from Collen and Elliott's recent side project, the Cybernauts. That group found the boys collaborating with the surviving members of Bowie's Spyders from Mars and doing Ziggy-era tunes. The loose, garage-rock feel of that group is preferable to the roaming greatest hits collection Def Leppard is currently showcasing. The only real surprise from their back catalog was High And Dry's "Let It Go". I suppose most of those in attendance wanted to hear tripe like "Armageddon It" or "Rocket", but it shortchanges the band's talent to limit them to well-trodden fare.
In terms of straight-ahead, guitar-based rock, these guys hold their own with Cheap Trick, Aerosmith, and other long-running workhorses. But, outside of guitarist Vivian Campbell (a fleet-fingered delight since his days in Dio), no one on stage seemed eager to take any chances. In comparison to Journey, Def Leppard came off as timid and conservative. Maybe next time they should just play covers and laugh when they blow a line or stumble over chord changes. They are Def Leppard after all.
Check out an analysis of Journey's set.
— 22 September 2006
