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Thursday, 30th May 1996
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Singapore, Singapore - Media Reviews

Concert Review For Def Leppard Slang World Tour By Adrian Kang

The concert that I will be reviewing was held in May 1996 by the renowned rock band external link Def Leppard at the Singapore Indoor Stadium. The concert was entitled the Slang World Tour after their latest album then. I have always been an enthusiast of concerts and may they be rock concerts, choral recitals or orchestral performances, I will try to attend one on a regular basis. I have also been to numerous live rock performances including gigs by local musicians, an album launch party by guitarist external link Steve Vai as well as a major concert performance by heavy metal band, external link Metallica. Hence, it seems strange that I would want to review a concert that was held five years ago. The rationale was that it was the most impressionable rock concert I have attended because the drummer, Rick Allen had lost his left arm in a car accident. Rick Allen is a legendary drummer for his determination to continue playing the drum set despite his disability and he has also inspired hundreds of handicapped people to learn and play the drum set.

I was with four other friends and we had gotten tickets for the freestanding area. In order to ensure that we will be standing directly in front of the stage, we had queued up rigorously for six hours outside the gate prior to the official start time. We wanted the best experience possible in attending a live concert and certainly did not want to feel as if we were just watching a video of their live performance by saving on tickets. When we were finally inside the indoor stadium, the concert has not commenced because it is common practice for rock concerts to start late. It gave me the opportunity to look at the artistes' equipment that was left on the stage. Having played in a rock band as a rhythm guitarist before I was not new to the instruments and equipments but because of the scale of the performance, the equipments were a lot more elaborate and I was clearly impressed. Def Leppard is made up of one vocalist, two guitarists, a bassist and a drummer. By looking at the instruments and equipments on the stage, I could already conjure up the amount of technology that went into making the performance possible.

At the back of the stage were 16 external link Marshall speaker cabinets stacked in pairs. Each speaker cabinet consists of four 12-inch speakers and the speaker cabinets were powered by an amplifier (also known as an amphead). These were for the two guitarists. In the middle of the stage were six external link Trace Elliot bass speaker cabinets for the bassist. All these speakers were mainly for the amplification of the instruments sounds to the audience. At the front of the stage, there are four personal amplifiers (also known as PA) for the performers to listen to themselves and each other. These amplifiers were angled at 45 degrees facing the back of the stage. On the floor, there are numerous boxes of varying sizes with interconnected wires. These are the foot controllers for the digital signal processors (also known as DSP and were not visible to the audience) and also effects pedals (also known as stomp boxes) which would produce common guitar effects such as "Wah", "Flanger" and "Pitch Shifter" among others.

Most importantly, in the middle of the stage was the external link famous drum set for the legendary "One-arm Drummer". I did not really notice anything unusual relative to normal drum sets except that it had an assortment of levers and cables around it. I had read that in order to perform like a normal drummer, Rick Allen uses foot pedals which triggers the sounds that most drummers make with their left arm. In addition, he also employs many technological types of equipment like external link DDrum and Acupads, next to regular acoustic units such as snare drum, bass drum and cymbals. Rick Allen's set can sound like a regular acoustic drum set by using samples which were recorded with an actual acoustic drum set, while it is also able to create the more "less natural" futuristic sounds and entire loops, triggered by one hit.

As all the audiences were sitting down on the floor waiting for the concert to begin, a group of reporters from the television station approached us for a brief interview, asking us questions such as "How long have we been fans of external link Def Leppard?" and "How long have we queued up for the performance?" among others. They also request my group of friends to pose for a group video shot. The delay was probably also to allow the media to set up their equipment and to interview the band at the backstage.

It was almost 40 minutes into the official start time when the lights began to dim to complete darkness. The crowd was in a frenzy knowing that the concert was starting. There were chants of "Def Leppard! Def Leppard!" echoing in the stadium. Suddenly, the lights came on and pyrotechnics exploded. I was momentarily blinded by the sudden flash of lighting. Then, the music came on and although it was just rock music and not heavy metal, I was deafened by the guitar sounds emitting from the speakers directly in front of me. That is price we had to pay for being in the first row of the freestanding area. It was a few minutes before I got accustomed to the volume of the music. Despite the barricades and the bouncers who were between the audience and the stage, we were so close that I could almost touch the guitarist, Phil Collen when he moved to the edge of the stage. As I was a fan of Def Leppard, most of the songs they played were familiar to me and I headbanged fanatically to the fast paced music. It is also common practice for rock musicians to play songs that were fast paced and loud at the start of the concert. The objective is to liven and stimulate the audience who are a little restless after the long wait. I noticed that there was a deliberate effort to dim the lights to complete darkness before the pyrotechnics and flashing lights came on. This was really effective in creating the high-energy atmosphere that is synonymous with rock music.

After two songs were performed, the lead vocalist, Joe Elliot started talking to the audience, thanking us for our support over the years and encouraging us to "let go" and enjoy ourselves. It certainly helped when the performer communicates with the crowd. The performers-audience interaction makes the difference between watching a video and a live performance. The guitarists threw guitar picks to the crowd and moved to the edge of the stage to let the audience touch their guitars during the performance. This really added on to the "live" ambience because there is physical contact with the performers in addition to the visual and audio experience. In the next few songs that followed, I noticed that instead of having cables that run directly from the guitars to the amplifiers or foot controllers, the cables were linked to a wireless system pack affixed on the performers clothes. This allows the performers to move freely around the stage and their movements will not affect the sound produced, unlike running direct cables that may cause undesirable feedback noises from the amplifiers. The guitars were also electric solidbodies manufactured by either external link Gibson or external link Jackson Guitars.

The drummer Rick Allen was indeed a fascinating sight to behold. His entire body was rocking tremendously to the drumbeats and his singlehanded drumming was certainly impressive. If I were a layman listening to an album, I would never have realized that someone with a disability produced the near perfect drumming techniques. It was both technique and technology complimenting each other to great effect. Every member of the band were in tune with one another and moved in motion which rocketed the audiences' audio and visual senses to greater heights.

After four songs into the performance, the lights dimmed again and amidst screams and cheers from the audience, the stage lighted up in a warm glow of purplish lights. Def Leppard had returned with an acoustic repertoire playing pieces such as "Two Steps Behind" and "Miss You In A Heartbeat". Many members of the audience including me took out cigarette lighters and swayed along to the slow rhythm. I had brought along a cigarette lighter especially for this purpose because I am not smoker. As with conventional acoustic performances, all the performers sat on high stools and the guitarists had switched their electric solidbodies for acoustic guitars. Unlike their electric solidbody counterparts, acoustic guitars are used mainly for softer songs having a slower tempo. In a more enclosed area such as a pub or cafe, acoustic guitars can be played without the need for amplification because the sound vibrations from the strings are naturally amplified by the air within its hollow body. This style of playing is also termed "unplugged" based on the fact that no amplifier cables are plugged into the guitar to amplify the sound. In between the pieces, there was more interaction with the audience when guitarist Vivian Campbell made a dig at a then popular commercial outfit by playing a few chords from its song and mockingly saying, "Nah!" before moving on to the next song.

The lights dimmed once again into complete darkness and after five minutes of waiting and the impatient audience sensing that the performance had ended, began shouting, "encore". It was another five minutes later and the band returned once again with another repertoire of fast paced songs such as "Action" and "Pour Some Sugar On Me". The stage was again lighted up with flashing lights. Throughout the concert, one of my friends was busy taking photographs with a disposable camera which he had smuggled into the stadium. Some of the photographs which appeared on this page are were taken and contributed by him. Two more songs later, Joe Elliot signaled the end of the concert by thanking the audience and telling us we "had been great". Despite repeated chants of "encore", the band did not return. Everyone had enjoyed the concert tremendously and reluctant to leave until all the lights came on and the technical crew started clearing away the instruments and equipment. When the concert had ended, I was still very energized despite the ringing sounds in my ears and the stiff neck from headbanging. I took a last look at Rick Allen's external link unique drum set before moving out of the stadium with the crowd.

What can I say about the performance? The music would never have been possible without the aid of technology. From the fundamental sound distorting effects and amplification systems to the specialized drum sets and wireless systems, every sound produced was the result of technological innovation. What can I say about the experience? Although I was standing directly in front of an guitar amplifier and as a result could only hear the overall musical effect partially, I felt that the sole purpose of attending a live rock concert had been fulfilled. The ticket price could almost buy me four hours of music on compact discs that I can replay over and over again but I would never have experienced the sheer intensity and energy of the performance. The experienced have only strengthened my belief that a television screen can never replace the experience of being physically at the rock concert, regardless of how capable technology is to reproduce it. I hope that I have clearly illustrated the capabilities and limitations of technology and its effects on music through this concert review.

By Adrian Kang @ National University Of Singapore 1996.

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