Bristow, VA, USA - Fan Reviews

Fan Review - By Carol

YEAH! YEAH! YEAH! Flew in from Florida to see both the Bristow and Virginia Beach shows from front row center and it was AWESOME. Joe, Phil, Viv, and Sav were ALL OVER that stage the entire set and in VERY FINE vocal and guitar form. Rick was in excellent form as well and all looked like they were thoroughly enjoying playing the music and the crowd.

The new singer (Jeff Soto) for Journey did a really good job and worked the crowd quite well - even jumping down off the stage to shake a few ladies hands.

All in all a WONDERFUL way to spend the weekend! Can't wait to catch them closer to home on Tuesday in Tampa. My only wish is that they shorten Journey up a little and let the Lep ROCK ON into the night some more!

Fan Review - By Marni

Well, I left work an entire hour earlier this year to get out to Bristow than I did last year, because last year it took me almost 3 hours to get there in that horrible traffic (a distance less than 40 miles, if you're curious), and I didn't get there until halfway through Bryan Adams' set. Didn't want the same thing to happen again, so I allowed an hour extra for drive time...and I got there even LATER than last year...total time from office to pavilion this year, 3 1/2 hours. Then I was parked in the farthest parking lot ever, so it took me another 20 minutes or so to walk from my spot to the venue. I was pretty upset, because I'd spent almost four hours to get there, because I'd missed five or six Journey songs, and because I nearly broke my ankle multiple times trying to walk through that giant rock field that they were using for a parking lot in shoes that were clearly not meant for walking through rock fields! However, I was very entertained by the drunk girl who was walking near me, and kept asking me if it was Led Zeppelin or Journey playing right now. Led Zeppelin live in 2006...now that would be a neat trick (but a very cool one)! At last, found my seat, and my poor concert buddy, who'd been sitting there for three hours while I was trying to get there.

The show itself was amazing. Can't comment on Stoll Vaughan, since I missed him altogether (at least, I think so...he was there, right?). But Jeff Scott Soto did a really great job singing for Journey, and made it so that the drummer didn't have to sing lead vocal at all. I've seen Steve Augeri live without throat infection, and thought he was fabulous...but the replacement guy sounded fabulous too, and he was really good at working the crowd. The band seemed to be having a lot of fun with him, too...the chemistry was great...and at one point, he even lowered himself onto the floor and started walking around in the front row of the audience. They also changed the set list a lot from the earlier shows where Augeri was singing. Only one song from any of the post-Perry albums was done, and it was sung by Jonathan Cain. They took out a couple of the lesser-known songs they had been doing, and replaced them with a couple more well-known ones that they hadn't been doing, and Jeff Scott Soto handled them all beautifully. So the part of their set that I actually saw was awesome...I hope I get the chance to see the songs I missed when I see the show again in Chicago in a couple of weeks.

And then there was Def Leppard. There aren't enough words to describe how happy I was when they took the stage...nor enough to describe how sad I was to see them leave. Same comments everyone has been making about their time being way too short and DL being worthy of a lot more...but what can you do? Joe looked and sounded amazing (well, they all did), hit lots and lots of high, long, and difficult notes, and hit them all perfectly. Sav's solo was so much fun to see and listen to...and Phil, Viv, and Rick were captivating throughout the night, as all five of them always are. The new stage setup was great, and I loved how well the guys used the entire space as they were entering the stage and as they were running around during the songs. The guys seemed to be in very good spirits, and Joe was very enthusiastic about the fact that there were so many more people there than had been there last year at the same venue (house was absolutely packed...I've seen a few concerts at that venue, and I have NEVER seen that many people there!). It was nice to hear Promises again, but I enjoy hearing Make Love Like a Man live, too (love the part where Phil sings and the long, drawn out acappella part Joe does at the end!), so I would have probably been happy either way. Wished I could have heard Hell Raiser like the people at the beginning of the tour, or some of the songs that were played in Europe but haven't been in the U.S. so far this tour...but 20th Century Boy was wonderful, and it was nice to see the smile on Joe's face when he saw some of us singing along to it and the other Yeah! songs and pumping our fists in the air to them just as much as we did for the hits.

Some people weren't as enthusiastic as me...there was a whole section of people a couple of rows behind me (I was 16th row center), who must have been there for Journey, because they didn't stand once during the entire time DL was on, not even during Pour Some Sugar On Me. Well, they were sitting, but at least they didn't leave altogether! And some people were way TOO enthusiastic, like the two girls a couple of rows in front of me, who kept standing on their chairs, making it so that us people behind them couldn't see at all. The girl right in front of me was very tall and made it hard for me to see at times, but at least she was considerate of those behind her and moved when she saw that I was trying to take pictures and stuff. The hardest part was figuring out where to focus during the visually stimulating show...the stage, the background screens (so cool!), the side screens, or my camera lens...feel like I missed a lot because of that...I've never wished I had four pairs of eyes so badly! Took two rolls of film, but don't have a digital camera, so it may be a little while before I can see how they turned out. All in all, amazing show, just wish I could have seen it from the front row (16th is the closest I've ever been, sadly)!

After the show, my concert buddy and I tried to go to the buses, but they were behind a big wooden fence, with a gate guarded by pavilion staff. We did see the buses through the fence...so close, yet so far away. Oh well...maybe someday.

Spent about a half hour wandering around the parking lot, trying to find my car (no section or row markers at all in that lot, had to estimate where I was parked based on the distance from the trees at the edge of the lot, and apparently I didn't estimate very well!), then another hour after that trying to get out of the lot. By that time I was exhausted and frustrated, and just wanted to get home...and got a speeding ticket in the process of trying to do so. All I have to say, is thank goodness the show was so great, because the before and after parts stunk!

Well done, boys...well done. There has never been and will never be another band that I get more excited about seeing live than Def Leppard.

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