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Thursday, 28th August 2014
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St. Louis, MO - Fan Reviews

Fan Review - By Curt Taft

Hard to believe it was a little over 18 years ago that I walked into Riverport Amphitheater for the very first time to see my very first concert… Def Leppard, in support of the “Slang” album. It was a life changing experience.

Now here I am, seeing Def Leppard for the 36th time. The venue is now known as the Verizon Wireless Amphitheater, but it’ll always be Riverport to me.

I’ve seen more concerts at this venue than any other. And I’ve seen a ton of shows with my girlfriend of more than five years… So it was strange that this was our first trip to this venue together. Having been here so many times, I’ve had some rough experiences. No riots, or anything… But I’ve been through extremely strong thunderstorms that flooded the venue, the thickest fog I’ve ever seen, and even tornado warnings.

So it was fitting that our first trip to the venue was bogged down by storms that delayed the opening of the venue and flooded the parking lot.

Gates opened roughly 15 minutes late, so we headed in and found our seats. They were literally the first row outside of the roof, so all of the water running off the roof was pouring down on us. Not only that, but a confetti cannon belonging to KISS was directly next to my seat. I looked inside and the confetti was basically a giant, watery mush. I expected the cannon to essentially function as a giant spitwad shooter.

I wore my Ded Flatbird shirt to the show and got mixed reactions… One person shouted “LAS VEGAS!” at me and gave me a high five, but another was flat out confused when I tried to explain to him exactly who Ded Flatbird is (was?).

Perhaps I should have kept it short & to the point by saying “the best fucking band in the world, that’s who.”

Due to the delay in the venue opening, The Dead Daisies took the stage at 7:20. They were pretty good once again. I had been standing up against the pillar and felt a tap on my back. It was an older woman and she asked me if I could sit down. I asked her to clarify: “You want me to sit down… At a concert???”

Who are we here to see, Tom Jones?

If she was already asking me this during The Dead Daisies, she was in for a rude awakening when EVERYONE would be standing for Def Leppard and KISS.

The Dead Daisies played their full set. The rain had pretty much stopped, but water was still falling from the roof. Apparently this is what happens when I don’t splurge for the good seats, especially in St. Louis.

The entire evening’s schedule was running late, so part of me worried about Def Leppard’s setlist being shortened due to the 11:00 curfew.

Finally “Won’t Get Fooled Again” started and before I knew it, Def Leppard took the stage with an always impressive scream from Mr. Joe Elliott. After closing out The Who classic, they kicked into “Let It Go” and we were off.

The crowd was great from the get-go. The sound problems experienced in Chicago a couple of weeks ago were nowhere to be heard, thankfully. Joe’s scream at the end of “Let It Go” immediately made it clear that he was in fine voice for the night. Sometimes he takes a song or two to get going but he nailed that scream and held it for a long time.

“Animal” followed and kept the crowd going. Then came old stand-bys “Foolin’” and “Love Bites.”

There were no surprises in the set. There haven’t been all year long. But I wasn’t worried about it. I’ve enjoyed this tour for what it is and the band sounded fantastic. I’m sure that what this year’s tour lacks in the setlist department will be rectified next year with new material and a potential return to Las Vegas.

So the hits kept on coming. Joe kicked off “Let’s Get Rocked,” the crowd went crazy, and something happened in my mind. Some music that you don’t hear on a daily basis tends to take you back to a certain time in your life when the song was new or prevalent in your life. That doesn’t happen to me much with Def Leppard because I’ve heard them on a near-daily basis for my entire 27 years of life.

But tonight, it DID happen. There was something about “Let’s Get Rocked” that took me back to being a five year old kid when the song was brand new. A song like that has major appeal to a five year old, and suddenly I had this care free mindset where I was enjoying the song just as much as I did back then.

I never thought I would say this, but “Let’s Get Rocked” was the highlight of the night for me.

The unfortunate thing is that the high didn’t last long as “Two Steps Behind” came next. 36 shows and I’ve only been excited about that one twice: at my very first show in 1996 and at my fourth show, in late 1999. If I’m being quite honest, I don’t know why it has had such a consistent life in the setlist. Sure, it was a hit chart-wise, but is there really a lot of demand for this song? It was the bathroom break song of the night for the crowd and the change of pace was unwelcome for me after enjoying “Let’s Get Rocked” so much.

But the second half of “Bringin’ On The Heartbreak” righted the ship and we were back on course from there on out. “Switch 625” sounded amazing as always, and Rick got quite the ovation at the end.

The crowd ate up the string of hits that followed and was singing loudly.

Before I knew it, the show was over, and as far as I was concerned, so was the tour. No more shows for me this year and I’m not sure when I’ll be seeing them again. It was a great show. They sounded fantastic as always and there was no stressing about the set. Las Vegas 2013 changed things, and now I can enjoy every show so much more because of it.

To borrow from Phil (I think), if Def Leppard is “Star Wars for the ears,” then KISS is “Transformers for the eyes.” A bunch of flashy crap with no real substance. But, we can all shut our brains off from time to time and enjoy things like that, right? I had even purchased one of the 174 KISS best-of compilations since my last show and given into the fact that they have become somewhat of a guilty pleasure band for me. I’ll even give them credit for having some legitimately ‘classic’ rock songs from the 70’s. “Rock And Roll All Nite” might be the most cliché song in rock history, but there’s no denying its place in that history.

But anything and everything that came after “I Was Made For Loving You” is certainly worthy of the guilty pleasure category.

They took the stage with the itsy bitsy spider and “Pyscho Circus,” which… I previously stated was mediocre, but to be honest, it has grown on me. Well, the studio version has at least. KISS had nowhere near the sound quality of Def Leppard, which was immediately apparent. Add to that the fact that the band isn’t on the same level as Leppard talent wise and I once again had to think that I would enjoy KISS more if they weren’t following Def Leppard.

While “Psycho Circus” has grown on me, “Deuce” still hasn’t and never will.

“Shout It Out Loud” followed and I noticed the same thing I noticed in Chicago. The crowd was singing and dancing for Def Leppard, but standing and staring for KISS. Just a different type of show I guess.

I had come into this show wanting to enjoy KISS more now that I knew what I was in for and had even been listening to them, but I had the opposite experience. Paul had sounded pretty good in Chicago, but tonight, he sounded pretty rough. On top of that, he was barely even audible throughout the entire show. I don’t know if that was intended or not, but considering I’m there to hear live music more than anything else, it hurts my enjoyment of the show and no amount of pyro or moving pieces of scenery are going to distract me.

Having listened to more KISS since the last show, I did enjoy some things more, such as “War Machine” (with its 1989 computer graphics on the screens). But it also made it more apparent how poorly some songs translate live, such as “Lick It Up.” It’s an extremely simple song to begin with but it just comes off awkward live, in my opinion.

Not to mention KISS playing a snippet of The Who’s “Won’t Get Fooled Again” in the middle of it seems really, really stupid after Def Leppard played nearly the exact same snippet two hours before. Is that the only classic rock song that can be worked in? Perhaps the worst part was hearing Paul Stanley’s extremely poor attempt at the Daltry scream that didn’t even come close to what Joe Elliott did.

I won’t give Paul too much shit about having a bad voice, because the man is in his 60’s and has been screaming for 40 years. No rock singer is going to be perfect, especially at this point in their career, but that doesn’t change the fact that screeching like a pubescent 12 year old boy doesn’t suit the songs very well.

I started losing interest when the demony bass solo started (who doesn’t love a bass solo?), but hoped to get back into it when “Hide Your Heart” was played. I wasn’t familiar with this song going into the Chicago show but it has grown on me quite a bit. Having said that, it was another song that didn’t quite hold up for me live.

Leppard has spoiled me, and when you choose to follow them, you’re going to be criticized for not sounding as good as them. Simple as that.

We stuck it out through a few more songs, but never really got back into the show. It didn’t help that I’d had water dripping on me for several hours by this point. Then Paul made the faux pas of strumming “Stairway To Heaven” prior to “Black Diamond.” Has he never seen Wayne’s World?

So as "Detroit Rock City" started, my girlfriend and I called it a night and left. Which helped spare us hours trapped in the parking lot, as this venue is notorious for the chaos that ensues as thousands of people try to leave. Leaving early also spared me getting shot in the face with that 30 pound spitwad.

On paper, this wasn’t the greatest tour in the world. But Def Leppard clearly has a renewed fire in them that I can’t wait to see carry into next year with a new album and potential return to Vegas. It’s an exciting time as a fan of Def Leppard, and who knew that would be the case after 37 years?

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