Tucson, AZ - Media Reviews

Def Leppard @ Community Center By Arizona Daily Star

It was heavy music, heavy metal, but it wasn't leaden.

It was exuberant and tinged with that sneakers-on-pavement rhythm and urban snarl that made it feel genuine.

Def Leppard certainly had the crowd in the palm of their music.

They had the whole place riveted, 'Another Hit And Run' featured a hot, powerful chorus of voices, and the intertwining, twisting guitars of Steve Clark and Phil Collen which every so often sliced through to the foreground for extra emphasis.

At times Allen made his drums sound like somebody was bashing on a door at the end of an airplane hangar.

It was serious noise, and with that song, most of the kid's fists were pumping the air and matches were lighting the darkness.

The energy, at least near the stage, was overwhelming.

So overwhelming it eclipsed Def Leppard's faults.

Things like some dumb lyrics about drinking a lot and women as objects.

Also that many of the band's chord progressions, solos and arrangements are just plain trite.

But even the energy couldn't mask a few glaring errors, like a couple of solos that went on too long and when Elliott spent too much time getting the crowd to yell 'I want rock 'n' roll' during 'Rock Of Ages'.

And also during 'Rock Of Ages' came Elliott's most unforgivable moment, when ,in talking about El Paso the night before, he described it as 'that place with all the greasy Mexicans'.

Many in the audience applauded merrily.

Great.

By Arizona Daily Star 1983.

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