Milwaukee, WI - Media Reviews

Def Leppard revives its ’80s rock ’n’ roll glory days By Jon M. Gilbertson

Rock 'n' roll was never really meant to encourage dignity in either its players or its fans, and the 1980s subgenre unkindly, accurately tagged "hair metal" was especially silly and, three decades and more later, has aged like spray cheese.

Yet Def Leppard carried itself with some pride onstage at the Marcus Amphitheater Wednesday night, and with some right to, because it was never entirely soaked in hair metal's mousse and held onto the more rigorous and bracing braggadocio of harder rock.

Some of the U.K. quintet's best songs happen to come from its era of greatest success — from 1983 to 1992 — and while some of those songs also happened to get the best responses from the crowd, they stood upright without the crutch of nostalgia.

"Foolin'," for example, retained its palpable tang of desperate lust, which lead singer Joe Elliott was still able to evoke 33 years after the single parked itself on rock radio and fueled countless late-night calls flooded with manfully tearful begging.

For another example, "Animal," from 1987's blockbuster album "Hysteria," hadn't lost any of its summer-affair evocations even when Elliott's voice inexplicably wandered a half-step above or below the melody line.

Other songs, like "Armageddon It," also from "Hysteria," survived more on good parts, such as Elliott's low-register insinuation that the lyrics were somehow dirty, than on the overall setup and follow-through.

The newest songs, from last year's "Def Leppard," were made up almost entirely of slightly modified good parts from older songs, with "Dangerous" so close to the chugging drive of the 1983 LP "Pyromania" that it could have been mistaken for a B-side or outtake from that time.

Whatever the quality and durability of each set-list selection, Def Leppard's musicianship was mostly steadfast: Despite Elliott's occasional slips, he could wail when necessary, and drummer Rick Allen was a portrait in beat-keeping reliability behind a kit that looked about one-quarter Dalek.

Bassist Rick Savage rarely got to step forward, but he made a distinctive go at the lope of David Essex's "Rock On," and guitarists Vivian Campbell and Phil Collen — the latter as shirtless, ripped and moist as Iggy Pop — didn't extend their solos too far past the pithiness of, say, George Harrison's solos with the Beatles.

The audience, which filled the place to about 90% of its capacity, behaved with controlled mania, which is to say with remarkable decorum. By rock 'n' roll's fist-pumping, headbanging, woo-hooing standards, that is.

By Journal Sentinel 2016.

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What I learned about Def Leppard at the Marcus Amphitheater By Bobby Tanzilo

Wednesday night, I took a leap back into the past. To the 1980s, basically. And while I spent nearly every waking second of that decade devouring music, I'd have been hard pressed to name a single song by the three bands on stage at the Marcus Amphitheater this night.

REO Speedwagon? I think I could hum one or two, but some of those might actually be Journey songs. Def Leppard? My mind stalls after "Pour Some Sugar On Me." Tesla? Nary a firing synapse. Surely, most of the 20,000-plus folks on hand could do a better job at this, but I'm the one tasked with it.

So, while I don't generally write reviews in the first person, I admit that this night of nostalgia – for everyone in the building but me – was, in fact, my intro to three hard rock bands that rocked the '80s, if you listened to commercial radio and watched MTV.

Songs by these bands were the soundtracks to the defining moments of millions of Americans: summers on the beach, the first kiss, the prom dance.

Clearly, my experience would be unlike most others' as British metal legends Def Leppard headlined Summerfest, with album rock stalwarts REO Speedwagon and California metal band Tesla warming up the crowd.

Tesla opened the night with a quick, seven-song set that included their biggest hits – the power ballad, "Love Song," "Modern Day Cowboy" and a cover of the Five Man Electrical Band's "Signs" – noting during the hackneyed between-song banter (yes, singer Jeff Keith actually said, "everything is so cool bitchin' and out of sight") that the hair band last played here in 1986.

REO Speedwagon, the pride of Champaign, Ill., still has some of its most recognizable members – Kevin Cronin, Neal Doughty and Bruce Hall, along with a couple guys who joined during the waning years of the '80s – and played the most material that sounded familiar to these ears.

Allotted enough time for 10 songs, REO had to jettison some hits, considering it charted more than a dozen into the Top 40. But, of course, the biggest hits were there: "Take It on the Run," "Can't Fight This Feeling" and "Keep On Loving You."

While definitely keeping a foot in the amorphous world of "hard rock," REO, unlike Tesla and Def Leppard, can't be described as metal in any way really, focusing its sights more on big, tuneful – if a bit overblown – ballads and memorable melodies than on blistering guitar solos and thumping bass and kick drum.

Which brings us to the headliner. Formed in Britain at the height of the punk movement, Sheffield's Def Leppard was filling huge venues in America just a few years later, after records like "High 'n' Dry" and "Pyromania" spawned numerous hits.

Over the intervening decades, despite a horrible accident that left drummer Rick Allen with one arm, and, later, the untimely death of guitarist Steve Clark, the band has soldiered on, releasing enough records that, on this summer night in Milwaukee, the 16-song set (including a two-song encore) didn't even touch on at least five of them, including the 1980 debut, "On Through the Night," 1996's "Slang," "Euphoria" from three years later, 2002's "X" and "Songs from Sparkle Lounge," released in 2008.

Instead, the band's longest-lived lineup (dating back to 1992) focused – unsurprisingly – on its blockbusters, playing a half-dozen songs from 1987's "Hysteria" and four from "Pyromania," released in '83.

Judging from the animated crowd, which mostly filled the Amp (though some of the upper seating sections were a little sparse at the edges, and the lawn didn't appear as packed as I've seen it), I'm the only person in America that doesn't know the words to songs like "Photograph," "Pour Some Sugar on Me" and "Love Bites," much less tunes like "Armageddon It" and "Animal."

But that doesn't make me feel too bad, really. All these years later, I'm mostly content with my musical choices in the 1980s, though some of them have surely failed to stand the test of time.

So what did I learn about Def Leppard Wednesday night?

Well, first off, this English quintet has most definitely stood the test of time for its devoted fans, who sang along with pretty much everything other than a couple tunes from last year's record.

They've got the skills. Even with what most would consider a disability, drummer Allen is thoroughly able, and the entire band is tight and dynamic. They haven't lost a step, nearly 40 years on. Heck, guitarist Phil Collen (pictured below) looks like he's in better shape now than 25 years ago.

Also, Def Leppard appears to be finding a new generation of fans, if singer Joe Elliott's informal poll of the audience members' ages is anything to judge by. The raised hands of fans born since 1977 certainly didn't match the number of hands representing those born earlier, but it was more than respectable.

Have I been converted into a Def Leppard fan? Not really, but I've found a new respect for this hard-working band that turned in a high-energy, roughly 90-minute, performance on night number seven of the Big Gig.

By OnMilwaukee 2016.

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Def Leppard, REO Speedwagon, Tesla and KIX at Summerfest in Milwaukee By Taylor Trixx

Billed as the “World’s Largest Music Festival,” Summerfest is a yearly affair that has become one of the premier attractions defining the city of Milwaukee. Located on a massive grounds area adjacent to Lake Michigan, Summerfest boasts a multitude of stages featuring national and local musical acts of diverse genres over a two week span. The lineup of July 6th proved to be a day dedicated to all things 80’s rock.

That particular Wednesday was a sultry, humid one, to say the least. Therefore, a day seeing bands, whose lyrics contained words like “hot” and “sticky,” seemed wildly appropriate. The oppressive heat was most noticeable in the afternoon. That’s when KIX took the stage over at the Harley-Davidson Roadhouse.

The weather had zero affect on their performance. A dismal early crowd slowly filled in as the set wore on. KIX continues to prove why they are one of the most criminally underrated bands of that period. While too many simply mail it in, KIX puts on a show. Singer Steve Whiteman is joy to be seen onstage. His movements and banter only add to the fun. The songs hold up as well. Feet stompers like “Blow My Fuse,” “Girl Money,” and “Midnite Dynamite” set the tone for the day. As evening approached, it was time to head over toward the Marcus Amphitheater for the big show.

Tesla was the first of this three-band bill. The crowd was just beginning to stream in as they plowed through their short 40-minute set. Their brand of blues rock fused with metal has unfairly placed them historically within the “hair metal” category. The vocals of Jeff Keith haven’t wavered one bit. Tesla‘s set wasn’t visually appealing, yet musically satisfying. The sparse audience joined in on hits such as “Signs,” “Love Song,” and the hard hitting “Modern Day Cowboy.”

As nightfall fell, the amphitheater reached near capacity and stayed so until near the end. REO Speedwagon were next in line. These rock veterans proved once again that this isn’t their first rodeo. The Illinois natives fed a hungry crowd full of monster ballads like “Can’t Fight This Feeling” and “Keep On Loving You.” REO‘s nearly one hour set was not without pitfalls, however. Singer Kevin Cronin‘s vocals are showing clear age, though he appeared to recognize his limitations. Bassist Bruce Hall sounded lifeless during his rendition of one of the band’s best songs, “Back On The Road Again.” Despite these setbacks, it was hard not to favor the tide of familiarity associated with the Speedwagon‘s setlist.

A shift in tempo occurred once headliners Def Leppard hit the stage. Visually and sonically, these British rockers were running on all cylinders. Everything seemed to turn up a notch. Leppard leaned heavily on material from their masterpieces, Pyromania and Hysteria. They only wavered in the early going to include two new tracks, “Let’s Go” and “Dangerous.” Joe Elliot was strikingly impressive from a lead vocal standpoint, playing to his strengths. The shirtless and ripped Phil Collen played at just the right pace and tempo. As far as Rick Allen goes, anyone doing a drum solo with one arm will always be inspiring. The show was enhanced by an array of impressive videography and imagery. This included a nostalgic montage of clips and pictures filling the landscape during their performance of “Hysteria.” The roof almost came off the joint as patrons united to belt out “Pour Some Sugar On Me.” The finale of “Photograph” and “Rock of Ages” struck just the right culminating note. Judging by the demographic of those in attendance, recent cries of “rock is dead” appear to be exaggerated. These people wanted to get rocked.

By Amplified Edge 2016.

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