Camden, NJ - Media Review Quotes

By Gregg Xenakes

The trio of "Rocket," "Animal" and the rarely heard "Excitable" opened the show, but it wasn't until "Foolin'" that we could hear just how weak a link Joe Elliott has become as the frontman. Two years ago at Live 8 he sounded like he'd stayed up late and was yanked out of the gutter, but we attributed that to the band not having the stage and setup all to itself. At this gig the truth became more evident, given the echoes and distortion wrapped around his vocals to try to disguise his failing voice.

Looking as if he just stepped out of a 1985 photo shoot and nowhere near a half-century old, guitarist Phil Collen was four songs into the set and already bare-chested, taking some of the attention away from Elliott's frail singing. Fellow guitarist Vivian Campbell, the so-called new kid on the block after replacing the deceased Steve Clark in 1992, had his shirt open and blowing in the wind as well. Someone forgot to let bassist Rick Savage know that the days of androgynous hair metal were dead and buried, because he bore a scary resemblance to Ozzy Osbourne from the "Ultimate Sin" days.

"Mirror, Mirror (Look Into My Eyes)" and "Another Hit And Run," dragged out from 1981's "High 'N' Dry" album, were absolute gems, even though neither Collen nor Campbell were around to record the originals and few fans even recognized the songs. With hot mikes dotting the stage and the risers surrounding one-armed drumming wonder Rick Allen, everyone got in on the act of covering up for Elliott with their background vocals. Like an injured basketball player who refuses to step aside for the good of the club, Elliott could only escape his responsibilities for so long before it became obvious that the others were desperately trying to pick up the slack.

When he wasn't coaxing the crowd into singing some of his more famous lines, Elliott simply talked his way out of trouble by downplaying the bombastic eruption during "Bringin' On The Heartbreak," and the band opted for an acoustic version to lift some of the burden from his shoulders. For that song and "Two Steps Behind" the front line moseyed to the end of the stage with acoustic guitars in hand, where even more microphones had spontaneously sprouted. There must have been a buy-one, get-one sale going on at the equipment store, because there were more than enough opportunities to keep Elliott from being embarrassed.

By Blistering 2007.

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