Tampa, FL - Media Reviews

Kiss, Def Leppard embrace rock 'n' roll excess at Tampa's MidFlorida Credit Union Amphitheatre By Jay Cridlin (+ 6 Photos)

Kiss plays to the front of the house like few bands before or since, mercilessly mugging for the cameras, unfurling their bloody, lascivious tongues, wiggling their sequined moneymakers and offering front-row fans tasteful glimpses of chest sweat and buttcheek.

But bands don’t make the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame merely by titillating the haves.

"Everybody here deserves a front row seat at some point during the show!” singer-guitarist Paul “Starchild” Stanley squealed during Wednesday’s explosive concert at Tampa’s MidFlorida Credit Union Amphitheatre. And so he gave it to them, gliding out on a wire to a rotating stage in the center of the shed, where he danced beneath a disco ball to the endearingly silly Love Gun.

After 40 years, Kiss is having a moment in 2014. It’s not just that they finally made the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, or the cover of Rolling Stone, or this summer’s blockbuster tour with equally epic hair-bangers Def Leppard. Wednesday’s show drew a surprising number of younger fans no doubt seeing Kiss for the first time. “We've been playing here for longer than some of you have been alive here in Tampa,” Stanley reminded the house early on.

And at 62 and 64, respectively, Stanley and the Demon himself, Gene Simmons, don’t seem to care for the roles of dignified elder statesmen.

The unpainted Simmons we see on TV – the unctuous, soulless mogul with an ATM slot where his heart ought to be – still gives it up as the Demon, flicking that legendary licker, bellowing out anthems like the swampy War Machine and the delightfully sleazy Calling Dr. Love, and popping fake blood capsules during a bone-crunchingly heavy bass intro to God of Thunder.

And Stanley, well, he’s still quite the little jumping bean, isn’t he? Flouncing and wagging his fanny in fringe-bedecked platform boots, he never lost an ounce of energy during the concert. From the streamer- and pyro-laden opener Psycho Circus to confetti-clouded closer Rock and Roll All Nite, the sprightly Starchild was our spirit animal, instructing us to live in the moment (“Let's have a night tonight where we don't care about tomorrow. It'll be there,” he promised) but reminding us to say our prayers before bed (“I like to say, ‘God, thank you for giving me this amazing life,’ and I hope you do the same thing”).

And not to minimize the contributions of guitarist Tommy Thayer and drummer Eric Singer, but after Simmons and Stanley, the star of Kiss’ show was the stage itself, a gargantuan spiderlike rig that lifted band members up and down on little risers, and a deafening array of fire, sparks and explosions that blasted in perfect synchronicity with the music. Kiss diehards will defend the band’s music until the end of time, but nothing they’ve done would be anywhere near as effective without such spectacular stagecraft. In rock ‘n’ roll, as in fine dining, sometimes it’s all about presentation.

Compared to Kiss’ orgiastic display, Def Leppard kept things relatively simple, even though they’re more than capable of headlining the Amphitheatre in their own right.

Though he called this "one of the hottest gigs we've ever played," singer Joe Elliott held up pretty well for most of their 75-minute set, limiting himself to one change of sweat-soaked blazer and even hitting some of those fist-pumping high notes on encore closer Photograph.

But as (mostly) good as Elliott looked and sounded, Def Leppard’s secret stars were, as always, its sleeveless string section, guitarists Phil Collen and Vivian Campbell and bassist Rick Savage, who spun around Elliott like a heavenly hair-metal chorus, whoa-oh-oh-ing while twiddling out squealing, spiralling, roller-coaster solos. They may have looked like Spinal Tap caricatures of aging '80s excess, but musically? Every song sounded like it could have been pumped in from SiriusXM's Hair Nation.

It was a hit-packed set, one that kept the focus squarely on Def Leppard's robust catalog, from randy buzzsaw boogies like Rocket and Let's Get Rocked to all-time lighter-lifters Love Bites and Bringin' On the Heartbreak. That last one started out acoustic, then exploded into a full-band rock-along, and if there'd been a pole on the Amphitheatre's lawn, all 14,500 of us would've hopped right up on it.

One thread that united both Kiss and Def Leppard on Wednesday: The Who. Def Leppard entered the stage by performing a snippet of Won’t Get Fooled Again, and Kiss riffed on the same song during Lick It Up.

Pretty soon, The Who will embark on a 50th anniversary tour. Fiftieth! God help us all if Demon and Starchild are still spewing blood and swaying from wires 10 years from now, when both are in their 70s.

But if they are, can you even imagine the view from down front?

By Tampa Bay Times 2014.

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Kiss, Def Leppard bring on the rock By Rick Bennett (+ 2 photos)

They may want to rock and roll all night and party every day. However, work, kids and age has caught up with the capacity crowd at the MidFlorida Credit Union Ampitheatre, causing many of us to rock until 11ish before worrying about how we will feel tomorrow.

For a few hours, though, tomorrow seemed far away as Kiss and Def Leppard brought their biggest hits to Tampa.

Behind the makeup, pyrotechnics and dragon boots, Kiss is fairly pedestrian, which should be expected when a band qualifies for Social Security.

Surprisingly, the sound quality for the opening songs of the Kiss set was muffled, which didn't take much away from the opening song, “Psycho Circus,” a fairly weak start to a show filled with mugging for the camera and bragging about how the band is now in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

“Shout it Out Loud” was an early favorite before Gene's big fire spit during “Hotter than Hell,” an appropriate song for this night and an impressive feat in the humidity.

The crowd enjoyed the show, but Def Leppard's songs moved the crowd more. Joe Elliot may not hit the high notes as well as he did in Def Leppard's glory days, but the well-preserved band gave nostalgia a good name.

Foolin' was a reminder that behind the '80s production there was a talented group of songwriters. Another huge hit, Hysteria, was accompanied by MTV-era videos and pictures meant to remind concert-goers of their own youth, but it more reminded us of how much better the guys in Def Leppard have aged than the rest of us. It was followed by some of their biggest hits - “Rocket,” “Armageddon It” (sadly, the Brits don't always have better grammar than Americans) and “Pour Some Sugar on Me,” a dirty song that sounds positively quaint in the era of “Blurred Lines.”

By The Tampa Tribune 2014.

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Def Leppard Delivers Hysteria and Pyromania Live in Tampa By William Clark (+ 7 photos)

As part of this summer's acclaimed tour celebrating the four decades which KISS has spent filling arenas across the world, Def Leppard arrived at the Midflorida Credit Union Ampitheatre in Tampa, Florida, prepared with a fan favorite set and formidable levels of nostalgia.

A full house of energized classic rock fans was also gifted a memorable performance, from heavy metal act Kobra and the Lotus, a Canadian-based band which Gene Simmons notably discovered and, perhaps not coincidentally, serves as the 'special guest' on this summer's North American trek.

Considering the all-star bill, having a band which boasts an alternative style proved to be a good decision, as the members of Kobra and the Lotus cranked out forty minutes of non-stop operatic vocals and pick-grinding guitar work.

The Who's "Won't Get Fooled Again" served as the curtain call for Def Leppard, and keeping in mind the song's near-universal acclaim amongst rock fans, brought the entire crowd to its feet.

Our British hard rockers kept the energy blasting and as the backdrop with their DF insignia lowered, the group stormed the stage while performing a final run through the chorus.

Not wasting any time, the band immediately launched into their catalog of originals, and much to the delight of the audience, exploded into the instantly recognizable guitar riff of "Let it Go" from 1981's High 'n' Dry.

Keeping in mind their short running time on the shared bill, Def Leppard kept the audience at a fevered pitch with some of their well-known anthems from Hysteria , including a crowd favorite, "Animal".

The majority of songs which appeared during the concert were selected from Def Leppard's diamond-certified studio albums, Pyromania and Hysteria, a classification presented when a band achieves the feat of moving more than ten million copies of one particular release. While some diehard Def Leppard fans may scoff at relying solely upon songs which happened to hit high on the charts, there weren't any complaints as the band moved through "Love Bites" and "Foolin'".

One particularly standout moment arrived when the members of Def Leppard sat down for an unplugged set comprised of Retro Active power ballad "Two Steps Behind" and "Bringin' on the Heartbreak". The latter incorporated a chilling conversion to a crushing distortion, courtesy of lead guitarist, Phil Collen, while frontman, Joe Elliott, belted out some very impressive blood curdling primal screams.

Following the final chord progressions to "Pour Some Sugar on Me", the Floridian audience were on their feet and demanding an encore. Def Leppard was more than courteous to oblige, and returned onstage to the familiar gibberish which preludes "Rock of Ages".

"We've got something to say!" Joe Elliot proclaimed, above the roars of the crowd. After a few near ear shattering cymbal crashes, the show could have easily and smartly ended. But the rock icons had more as they unleashed a second helping of "Photograph".

The members of Def Leppard offered a standout performance during their appearance as part of this summer’s KISS 40th Anniversary tour, and that was only half the evening.

As for KISS?

They couldn't have been any better, from the conclaves of bombastic and deafening pyrotechnics to the inclusion of such rarities as, "Hotter Than Hell", "Calling Dr. Love" and "Hide Your Heart".

By Guitar International 2014.

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