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Tuesday, 1st December 1987
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Tacoma, WA - Media Reviews

Def Leppard Was Ordinary, But The Tight Security Wasn't By Gene Stout

Def Leppard fans faced some of tightest security ever for a local rock show last night at the Tacoma Dome.

The security measures probably seemed like overkill to the approximately 15,000 fans in attendance. But Dome officials weren't taking any chances with the first major rock show since October's tumultuous Motley Crue concert.

At the Oct. 15 show, one fan died of an apparent drug-related heart attack and dozens of fans were treated for heat exhaustion or overconsumption of alcohol.

Def Leppard fans last night passed through visual-electronic and voluntary pat-down search areas, fenced lines and "pinch points" to control the flow of ticket holders. Inside the Dome, movement between reserved-seating and general-admission areas was restricted.

But at the end, paramedics characterized the evening as "a piece of cake."

The problem some bands suffer is acute for heavy-metal bands, which must maintain a tough musical stance and still take responsibility for the mayhem they incite.

Opening band Tesla walked this fine line by keeping enthusiasm high with a tight set and anti-social behavior to a minimum by admonishing wrongdoers with harsh put-downs.

The California heavy-metal quintet played with plenty of bravado and flash, offering several recent songs and a couple of stirring solos. Their show was enhanced by a circular stage positioned at the center of the main floor.

Def Leppard's use of the circular stage was more involved (though all the high-tech equipment, including lasers and elaborate lighting, didn't live up to advance hype). Huge black curtains kept the stage hidden while band members prepared for their grand entrance.

When the curtains dropped, the four-member band took the stage in a puff of stage fog.

After a couple of opening songs, lead singer Joe Elliott stopped the show and pleaded with fans to step back from the stage to avoid crushing those in front.

Elliott, dressed in fashionably tattered jeans, remained firmly in control from that moment on, leading the band through a selection of songs that began with the group's first album in 1980.

Drummer Rick Allen performed impressively in cutoffs and bare feet on a revolving platform. His missing left arm, a grim reminder of a New Year's Eve that got out of control, didn't slow him in the least.

Guitarists Steve Clark and Phil Collen offered solid work but few surprises, except for an interesting acoustic solo by Collen.

Overall, the 90-minute set was typical of many big-bucks heavy-metal shows - lots of noise, lots of color and special effects, and some fine playing.

But there was little to take the show beyond the ordinary.

By Post Intelligencer 1987.


Def Leppard @ Tacoma Dome By Seattle Times

Concerts in the round may be fine for Kenny Rogers or Frank Sinatra or any other kind of sit-down-and-listen type of show, but they just don't work for rock and roll.

That was demonstrated once again last night at the Def Leppard concert at the Tacoma Dome.

The hard-driving British band on tour again after four years off the road, tried hard to make the unusual staging effective, but the show never quite came together.

That's because the five guys in the band were all over the stage at once, trying to keep every side of the audience happy, the result was an unfocused, diffused performance that had no center.

Usually the lead singer is the focal and unifying force, the one who brings the audience and band together.

But that communion couldn't happen because lead singer Joe Elliott was in effect playing to four separate audiences at once, just when he had one section of the crowd going, he had to jump over and concentrate on another.

As a result he couldn't build any momentum or even establish a pace for the show.

It didn't help that there was a surprisingly small crowd of only about 6,000.

If the place had been full, the band could have worked to broader sections of people at once, but as it was they had to fix on smaller knots of fans.

The many empty seats didn't help acoustics either: Never has the Tacoma Dome sounded as echo-y.

Possibly because of the ineffective staging, the old familiar songs from 1983 smash album 'Pyromania' went over best, especially 'Foolin;', 'Rock Of Ages' and 'Rock! Rock! (Till You Drop)'.

The Tacoma Dome crowd - you know, the Satanists, murderers, drug dealers, perverts and other assorted feral youth that the Tacoma policeman are so afraid of - raised their arms in the air and sang along to the familiar lyrics.

The band recreated the songs almost exactly as they are on the album, which was disappointing.

At this late date, they could have played with them a little and surprised us.

The centerpiece of the set was a couple of anti-war songs off the new album 'Hysteria' and 'Armageddon It' were presented with warlike special effects, including President Reagan intoning 'We went in and did what we had to do' amid the sounds of gunfire and explosions, with laser lights ricocheting off the stage like bullets.

It was an effective piece of theater.

The show was the first using 'beer' security - i.e. young men and woman patrolling the crowd, as has been done for years in Seattle - since Tacoma police have refused to work Tacoma Dome rock shows.

Everything seemed to work out fine.

By Seattle Times 1987.

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