Philadelphia, PA - Media Reviews
Beer through a straw: Whartonites rock to "Def" By Ethan Prater
The 1980s were the glory days of arena metal, the high school glam rock of teased hair and ripped jeans. As with any pop trend, most participants were mediocre one-hit wonders of dubious talent and even gender - how did mascara and hair spray ever become general indicators of masculine prowess? Poison, White Lion, Europe, Winger - these flashes in the pan and their ilk were wiped out when the grunge meteor struck Seattle in 1990.
Only the two top bands survived the market shakeout, adopting different strategies to appeal to the changing tastes of the world's teenagers. While Bon Jovi hardly missed a beat, consistently turning out hit albums and top-grossing tours, British rockers Def Leppard made several missteps before returning to their patented formula of highly polished Led Zeppelin riffs combined with massive vocal overdubs learned from Queen.
Having confirmed in March that Bon Jovi is playing better shows than ever, the Wharton Journal dispatched this correspondent last week to the First Union Spectrum to check the pulse of Def Leppard. Of course the task was too important to be performed alone - yours truly was fortunate to accompany first-years Bronco Svec, Jed Howbert, Jon Patty, Jeremy Butteriss, Tony Hsu, and Scott Matthews to the concert. And while yes, the new album X is a dog (or cow - which is the bad quadrant in the BCG matrix?), and the first half of the show comprised a fair amount of undistinguished and indistinguishable material from that issue, the band did play all of their hits in generally recognizable forms.
Although X is technically the band's ninth release, for all practical purposes this is a three-album band: the defining 1980s titles Pyromania and Hysteria, trailed by 1999's Euphoria, a surprisingly listenable return to form.
All of us in the rather sparse audience - the Sixers sold out the adjacent First Union Center, while we had the freedom to sprawl across multiple seats - were of course waiting for the defining arena rock anthem, "Pour Some Sugar on Me." Unfortunately guitarist Phil Collen, who has performed this song thousands of time, started off in the wrong key, perhaps a tuning problem with his instrument, and never got it together. Def Leppard work best in the studio, where the incredibly high vocal lines are layered with abandon. This trick doesn't translate well to the concert hall, making it difficult for talent and taste-challenged Wharton MBAs to sing along.
Wharton students bow to few in beverage consumption, though, and your representatives from the Financial Times' top business education program competed well with the friendly fellow fans over from New Jersey. Beer at the First Union Spectrum is served in paper cups with plastic lids. What better way to enjoy a Miller Lite than sipping it through a twisty straw? During some of the slow songs Jeremy developed a marketing plan to introduce this method of beer drinking when he returns to Canada this summer.
The band ended the show with an encore of "Love Bites," which in 1988 was their first number one hit in America. Darker than your typical power ballad, and the only time the band's trademark layered vocals really came across, the song was a poignant end to an enjoyable but troubled performance. Def Leppard first played the Philadelphia Spectrum in 1983, opening for Billy Squier. While Bon Jovi will play the Vet on July 27, and has sold out Giants Stadium on two nights in August, somehow Leppard frontman Joe Elliott's strident assertions that his band will return to Philly seemed like special pleading.
There are business lessons to be learned from the ongoing popularity of Bon Jovi and Def Leppard, that being the biggest gives you an edge in a market downturn. But just like in Markstrat, to remain on top a firm must deliver consistently over the long term. While we're probably all better off without the likes of Twisted Sister and RATT, in 2003 the arena rock industry is becoming a single-firm market, as the boys from New Jersey are delivering the goods over their peers from Sheffield, UK.
By The Wharton Journal 2003.
Do you wanna get rocked? By Scott Hamilton
The Spectrum rocks once again to the sounds of Def Leppard - It was time to hit the way back machine on April 8, 2003 at the Spectrum in Philadelphia. Not just because I was there to see classic rockers Def Leppard but also cause I was in the Spectrum. Ever since the erection of the First Union Center right next door, I haven't had the pleasure of being in the Spectrum except for a few nights here and there. Just walking in, I could feel the same feelings as I did for my very first concert back on April 28, 1995 when I had the pleasure of seeing Collective Soul open for the Mighty Van Halen, on their last tour with the Red Rocker Sammy Hagar, but I digress.
Tonight I was there to see one of the biggest rock bands of the 1980s, Def Leppard. Everyone has seen the VH-1 Behind the Music, the movie and every other special on the band so I do not need to get into it here; I am here to find out one thing - does this band still rock?
The lights go dark and the curtain drops to a strobe light going off on the drum kit with a backdrop featuring the CD cover for their latest CD, X. I was more than a little surprised that the band was not already in place when the curtain dropped; in my mind I pictured a 'Do you wanna get rocked?' as the curtain dropped and the band exploding onto stage with their classic Let's Get Rocked. But that did not happen as the band walked onto stage to and proceeded to rip through the first five songs (in order) of 198's High 'N' Dry - opening with Let It Go.
One of the nights finest moments occurred as Joe Elliott (singer) started to say that the next song, current single Long Long Way To Go, was dedication to the British and American troops fighting in Iraq. Almost on cue, someone threw a small American flag onto stage which Elliott hung from his microphone stand, Steven Tyler style The biggest surprise was the reception the band got when it launched into the song that helped bring Def Leppard back to the mainstream, Promises, off of 1999's Euphoria.
With a furry, the band ripped through Rocket, Photograph, Animal, Armageddon It, Pour Some Sugar On Me and Rock of Ages before exiting the stage. As if the hits couldn't get any better, the band came back on the stage for a two song encore of Love Bites, and Let's Get Rocked.
With over 20 years in music, Def Leppard has not lost a thing live. The band sounded tight as ever and Phil Collen and Vivian Campbell broke off some killer guitar solos. I try to criticize at least one thing in every show I go to but I really can not for this one. It was a fun night with some great music that brings you back to the times of when you first heard each song. The new songs prove that the band has been able to maintain their sound and stay true to what they know, of course other than 1996's Slang. Of Course it didn't hurt that Vivian Campbell was sporting a T-shirt for one of EmpyreLounge.com's favorite bands, rubyhorse.
Scott Hamilton 2003.
Def Leppard transcends fashion By Patrick Berkery
The British hard-rockers soared with their hits, showing that they are more than an '80s relic - It didn't take much sleuthing at Def Leppard's show on Tuesday to realize it wasn't the big '80s anymore.
The British hard-rockers' elaborate in-the-round staging had given way to a traditional end-stage set-up. Singer Joe Elliott was carrying some extra baggage around his middle. And those giant black drapes covering the upper levels of the First Union Spectrum weren't there just to make things more intimate.
The tunes were an entirely different story, one that sounded surprisingly inspired - especially during the latter part of the two-hour show, when the veterans played an extended stretch of pop-metal confections from their mega-platinum Hysteria and Pyromania albums.
Unlike most hits of that vintage, which have aged like rotting Swiss cheese, Def Lep's Reagan-era anthems went down like a finely aged wine. "Photograph" and "Animal" were majestic, all soaring hooks and scrappy riffs. The big-bottomed "Women" still sounded like a futuristic Led Zeppelin song. And the jaunty shuffle "Rocket" and the foursquare boogie of "Armageddon It" displayed the band's glam-rock roots in fine fashion.
The early part of the set didn't lack firepower either, as drummer Rick Allen, who lost his left arm in a 1984 car wreck, played an acoustic kit hot-rodded with electronic triggering devices, and the twin-guitar burn of Phil Collen and Vivian Campbell ignited the opening salvo of "Another Hit and Run" and "High 'n' Dry (Saturday Night)."
Away from the arena's bright lights and loud amps, Def Leppard might seem like a relic hopelessly out of fashion. But in its natural habitat, it does what greats such as AC/DC have done for decades: flush the fashion and deliver the rock.
By The Inquirer 2003.
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