Wantagh, NY - Media Reviews

span class="uplink">Def Leppard @ Jones Beach Concert Review By Stone

So there are concerts and there are life-changing experiences. When a British powerhouse, packing the biggest nitrous punches of the stadium 80s and encompassing the kind of arena capacity charisma that seems lost with the glitter 70s, delivers a high-voltage performance three shows into a new tour, only a dolt wouldn't get down.

Relentlessly, the Lep constantly burned the house down with show stopper ("Gods of War") after obscure stunner (Sweet's sterling "Action") after infectious anthem (Archies update "Pour Some Sugar on Me"). The quintet has a tendency towards ballads ("Two Steps Behind"), but since punk rock reemerged to chomp at the heel of hair metal, Lep never let the pace slacken through their taunt set, exemplified by the serenely acoustic to savagely electric "Bringin' on the Heartbreak."

Then, "Photograph" was followed by "Rocket," while "Armageddon It" and "Sugar" prefaced the "Rock of Ages" set climax, apparently leaving the boys high and dry. But the Lep came back, not once, but twice. Few bands celebrate their influences so unabashedly; and what heady heroes they have: Bowie lyrics slipped into the climax of "Hysteria" while the name drop-kick "Rocket" mentions Elton, Lizzy and Queen.

Thus, the second encore consisted of "a man we've listened to all our lives; whose band was the first to sell out Broadway for a week." Ian Hunter, in all his matter-of-fact glory, strolled on stage for "All the Young Dudes," and the bubble gum metal machine will never be the same.

By Cheap Trash NYC 2000.

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