Tucson, AZ - Media Reviews
Def Leppard @ Tucson Community Center By Arizona Daily Star
Attired in uniforms of tatty jeans, turn T-shirts, long manes, and a little leather and lace, the faithful encircled the altar of rock.
Which boiled under red flames of light and spewed evil green lasers across the congregation.
On stage, members of the hard rock band Def Leppard exhorted their 8,100 followers to 'Rock Till You Drop' and intone 'I want rock 'n' roll'.
The head-banging underworld obeyed.
Despite the fears of some elements in the American conservative climate, Wednesday night's 110-minute Tucson Community Center concert by Def Leppard bore only surface resemblance to a devilish ceremony.
Like most heavy metal shows, Def Leppard's first Tucson concert in four years embraced not the devil but rock 'n' roll abandon.
A teenage wasteland, rebellion without a cause.
The writhing expanse of upraised arms looked like a huge, moving sea anemone.
Individual fans jerked and twisted like a huge, messily losing their teenage aggression and hormonal overstock.
They weren't praising hell, they just looked silly as hell.
Many songs from the Leps' latest album 'Hysteria' anchored the show.
But it was buoyed by dynamic renditions of old hits such as 'Photograph', 'Foolin'' and a semi-acoustic arrangement of 'Bringin' On The Heartbreak'.
During which the audience assisted singer Joe Elliott on the chorus.
Of the newer songs, the latest single 'Animal' and the new album's title track seemed too sweet compared with the brawny numbers, which were full of football-cheer choruses and appealing melodies.
But 'Women' also from the new LP, came off extremely well, with Elliott vocally achoing guitarist Phil Collen's banshee scream lead.
Intolerable, though, were the tedious instrumental sections, especially the militaristic sound effects of 'Gods Of War' and the frequent, overindulgent guitar solos.
In these moments, Def Leppard was content to use the basic thud and bluster of most metal bands.
This was disappointing, because Def Leppard is a band that doesn't normally subscribe to arena rock metal pretensions.
Unfortunately, the band's egotistic grandstanding proved a touch boring, not to mention borish.
By Arizona Daily Star 1987.
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