San Diego, CA - Media Reviews

Def Leppard @ San Diego Sports Arena By San Diego Union

Def Leppard certainly came well-armed to its concert last night at the Sports Arena.

With its comeback album, 'Hysteria', nearing the top of the charts, the band is again on a roll.

And last night it rocked a nearly full house.

This time around, performing 'in the round' the band was obviously in command of its material (however uninspiring it might have been).

On songs such as 'Another Hit And Run' and 'Too Late For Love', the band matched crunching riffs with strong, simple harmonies to great effect.

Often, as on 'Women', the effect was to come perilously close to duplicating the sound of superstars Bon Jovi or, more appropriately, Van Halen.

(That's the current, Sammy Hagar version of Van Halen - no one in Def Leppard has anywhere near the personality of a David Lee Roth).

The group has made itself into a reasonably good facsimile of a heavy-metal band, but Def Leppard tipped its hand whenever it performed a ballad.

It showed its pop leanings on a slower song like 'Hysteria' that, played with an amount of control that belied its title, had just as much impact as any of the rockers the group played.

The band's musicianship was uniformly solid, with the guitar solos being notable for their welcome brevity.

It would be hard not to also single out Allen, if only for the novelty aspect.

But Allen did more with one arm than most metal drummers could accomplish with the full compliment.

The band's risky stage setting in the center of the arena could also be singled out.

However, the uses it was put to, especially the noisy but tired sound-and-light, 'Apocalypse Now' simulation, were far from subtle.

By San Diego Union 1987.

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