Dallas, TX - Media Reviews

It's a nostalgic trip through arena rock hits By Darren White

It was like high school all over again. Well, not for me (Beck was on the radio when I graduated), but for the majority of the fans packed into the Smirnoff Music Centre to see Styx, Foreigner and Def Leppard on Saturday, it was a good, fun, old-school nostalgia trip. And the bands obliged, too. For nearly four hours, fans heard nearly nothin' but the hits, like Come Sail Away from Styx, Hot Blooded from Foreigner and Foolin' from Def Leppard. Truthfully, all three acts really seemed to put their all into the performance. Most of these guys are sliding toward old age, and they're still running across the stage with the best of them.

And then came Def Leppard. Say what you will about those Mutt Lange-produced, early '80s pop-metal records like Pyromania (and I have said quite a bit), those monster hooks, killer riffs and sing-along choruses are twice as fun live as a dour Pearl Jam performance.

There's a certain amount of cheesiness to Def Leppard, after all; and everyone, from the fans to most likely, the band itself, knows it. But as the Rolling Stones said, "It's only rock 'n' roll." The late '70s, early '80s arena rock songs that these bands have made don't stand on the artistic level of, say, a good Kinks song, or even a good Tom Petty song, but then again, that's not the point. Rock is supposed to be, above all, fun, and if a crowd of fans is having a blast singing songs that remind them of years gone by, what's so wrong with that?

By Star Telegram 2007.

By Mario Tarradell

Classic riffs: Styx, Foreigner, Def Leppard bring timeless showmanship to Smirnoff

Call them dinosaur rockers if you like, since these bands' heydays were a good 20 years ago. But there's no denying the showmanship of Styx, Foreigner and Def Leppard. Playing for 17,000 fans Saturday night at Smirnoff Music Centre, each group had its classic moment on the platform.

Finally, there's Def Leppard. The band headlined at Smirnoff last year and packed a sell-out crowd of 20,000. Twelve months later, they're down 3,000 attendees. Still, not bad at all for a so-called '80s band.

Anyway, deadlines allowed me to witness only the first hour of the Leppard's show. But it's doubtful they would have topped "Love Bites." That song is the sexiest heavy-metal ballad ever recorded. You had guitarist Vivian Campbell's sultry, piercing guitar solo and lead singer Joe Elliott's suggestive lyrics. Add in drummer Rick Allen's simmering beat and you got a memorable concert snapshot.

There's more to say about each gig. Styx rocked with youthful abandon during "Too Much Time On My Hands." Foreigner's "Urgent" was immediate, what with Tom Gimbel's rhythmic saxophone and Mr. Hansen's powder-keg potency. Def Leppard's intimate rendition of "Bringing on the Heartbreak" proved all consuming.

We're talking "wall of sound" here, folks. Styx, Foreigner and Def Leppard may be out of favor with hip-hop driven pop radio and young kids bent on the latest emo-rock releases. Yet when it's time for a trunk full of recognizable songs, old-school musicianship and the sheer personality to entertain a large crowd, the hotties of the hour can't get the party started.

By Dallas Morning News 2007.

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