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By Rick Gershman

The catch is that Def Leppard and super-producer Mutt Lange, who co-wrote much of the band's music before moving on to wife-to-be Shania Twain, knew it was silly. And while other groups of the day actually took themselves halfway seriously, these Brits were just having a blast.

And while the Forum was at half-capacity, give this to the band: They had just about every member of the crowd standing throughout the first half of the show. They play great, and they looked pretty good, too. Eliott still looks presentable in black leather pants, and shirt-bereft guitarist Phil Collen was nothing short of buff. He was pale, but come on - he's British. The group stuck to its hits but deviated here and there, including entertaining-though-rote covers of Badfinger's No Matter What and David Essex's Rock On. The audience played along, even when the group followed up its power ballad Love Bites with its puny ballad Two Steps Behind just one song later.

Gods of War, an antiwar rocker, was one of Hysteria's lesser cuts, but it stood out with its machine-gun special effects and some Dubya-bashing video footage. But many in the crowd grabbed a break during the dull ballad Have You Ever Needed Someone So Bad? from 1992's Adrenalize. Regardless, the boys put on a solid show, sounding like a still-vital group after all these - can it really be that many - years.

By sptimes 2005.

Read the full review at - tampabay.com

By Curtis Ross

Def Leppard delivered the hit-filled goods Tuesday night during a satisfying performance before a St. Pete Times Forum crowd of 9,576.

Beyond that, the show was built around the hits that solidified the band's standing in the 1980s: "Foolin'," "Love Bites," and "Armageddon It" among them. The band opened with "Action," a song by The Sweet, a 1970s outfit that combined hard-rock muscle and relentless pop hooks, a model for Def Leppard if ever there was one. The midtempo "Hysteria" highlighted the band's keening high harmonies and also some sharp twin-guitar work by Vivian Campbell and Phil Collen. "Rocket" proved to be as fine an arm-pumping arena-rock anthem as any.

By TBO/Tampa Tribune 2005.

Read the full review at - tampabay.com

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