Baton Rouge, LA - Media Reviews

Def Leppard @ Assembly Center By Baton Rouge Advocate

To the audience at the concert in the round, the Def Leppard could do no wrong.

There were many of the same people who bought the records which made the British band the first group to ever sell six million copies each of two different albums in the USA.

Michael Jackson and Whitney Houston are the only other acts to ever do that.

Onstage, Def Leppard possesses a certain charisma.

They prance around with all the right moves to create a frenzy within the youngish crowd, that makes up their primary audience.

An impressive laser show flashed random designs on screens before finally spelling out the word, 'Hysteria', the title of the band's most recent album.

But go beyond the light show, the strutting about the stage and the volume and what do you have?.

Not much, really.

There's little substance as far as lyrics and melody.

And although the musicianship is adequate, there's little imagination or innovation in the end product.

At one point, guitarist Steve Clark was given the chance to play an extended solo.

Running from one corner of the stage to another, the solo was a rambling affair with little apparent purpose.

Just when it seemed that he was using the meandering technique to build to something which carried more musical weight, it was over.

To their credit, having the stage in the middle of the arena was an ambitious idea.

Most bands rely on eye contact and body language during a concert.

How the Def Leppard members kept track of the stage locations of the other members, much less keeping track of the music, was fairly amazing.

By Baton Rouge Advocate 1988.

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Def Leppard @ Assembly Center By State Times Advocate

At one point in Def Leppard's Baton Rouge concert Thursday night, lead singer Joe Elliott engaged fans in a competition to see who could scream the loudest.

The understanding was that the loudness equals quality.

Not necessarily so.

Mega-volume was apparently enough to satisfy the willing audience that packed the LSU Assembly Center to see Def Leppard flex its amplifiers.

But at times, the earth-shaking sound system seemed to drown out the band's ability to showcase its technical proficiency.

The band has such skills, as evidenced by its recent album, 'Hysteria'.

The album, a well-received piece of handiwork, has found about five million buyers and risen to the top of Billboard's LP charts.

'Hysteria' places Def Leppard in line to assume the reign of heavy metal rock once held by Led Zeppelin.

In spite of impressive studio work, though, Def Leppard doesn't yet have the dynamic energy in live performance that has characterized its most successful heavy metal predecessors.

Though Def Leppard lacked the intensity of the best heavy metal bands and its execution often strayed down blind corridors, no one could fault the group for lack of effort Thursday.

The band, led by the frenetic Elliott, hopped around the stage with the kind of feverish calisthenics that heavy metal fans have come to expect.

By State Times Advocate 1988.

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