Atlanta, GA, USA - Media Reviews

Def Leppard/Journey Atlanta, GA By Alice Barkwell

Out at Chastain Park it was a warm night for a sellout crowd of partying fans. Journey's singer Steve Augueri needed a replacement for throat reasons. The new singer was Jeff Scott Soto and he was quite good, and very enthusiastic! Of course what most people watch at a Journey show is Neal Schon, so the first thing we heard was his version of The Star Spangled Banner, before any of the rest of the band came on stage. Impressive! Found out Deen Castronovo, their excellent drummer can sing well too- and he sang several tunes himself! They played a great selection of Journey favorites, although there are so many they can never seem to get everyone's favorites- someone is always complaining at the end-they didn't play so and so. They only did two from their new covers album. Journey always sounds amazing to me!

The Def Leppard show was a full fledged arena size production. They brought their impressive light show and complained about having to keep the sound down for the neighborhood and curfew. The huge lighted Union Jack was behind the whole stage and the lighting was impressive. I was the only photographer there and was supposed to stand with the regular fans (no photo pit) and the fans up front were not having any of it-big guys who had been drinking for quite a while were trying to shove me out of their way. It was rough going, but I managed to get a few good pictures The show was very exciting and for the first time ever, I could actually see Rick Allen playing drums! That was really cool! The Def Leppard crowd seems just a big younger and a lot more rabid than the Journey crowd. The band is still fit and ready to rock. Phil Collen and Vivian Campbell still wear no shirt most of the time and look okay, if a bit white, that way. Their biggest hits still freak out the fans and sound mighty good in the process!

By Alice Barkwell @ Playgrounds 2006.

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