Salt Lake City, UT - Media Review Quotes
By Matt Rushton
Finally Poison finished (after making us suffer through Every Rose Has It’s Thorn) and Def Leppard took the stage. Def Leppard's stage was huge and beautiful. It was triple-tiered and the two lower steps were fronted with video boards that worked in tandem with a giant video screen behind the band. Def Leppard's guitarists, Phil Collen and Vivian Campbell, bass player Rick Savage and drummer Rick Allen played beautifully. They even played Switch 625 which is one of my favorite hard rock instrumentals of all time. The band really sounded great and they looked great too. They were all in good shape and very active onstage.
Which brings me to singer, Joe Elliot. I love Joe's voice and it's one of the most unique and best hard rock voices all time. That being said, he really struggled with the singing on this night. His voice was hoarse and he really had a hard time hitting the high notes. His voice cracked many times and he did a lot of falsetto singing. He also used the crowd to sing the high choruses on songs like Photograph. I have to give him credit because it was obvious that he was struggling but he made no excuses and did the best he sounded capable of. I'm sure that the constant touring and singing songs that he powered out in his 20's is hard on his vocal chords. He still put on a very good show.
Overall, Def Leppard sounded and played the best of the night in terms of the music and the mix. How they got their bass frequencies to sound so good at Usana Amphitheater I do not know but it really sounded great and I felt it rattle my chest. My awards for the night are: Best singer – Robin Zander of Cheap Trick, Best Guitarist – C.C. DeVille of Poison, Best Overall Show and Production – Def Leppard!
By Live Musician Central 2009.
Read the full review at - livemusiciancentral.com
Hard rockers please USANA crowd By Pat Reavy
The main act of the night, veteran rockers Def Leppard, opened in vintage Leppard style with a driving "Rock, Rock Until You Drop," nicely inserted back into the set list after not being played for a couple of tours.
The Leppards were backed by their typical extravagant stage show, complete with lights from every corner of the stage, two levels of risers and a giant screen in the rear that spanned almost the entire length of the stage. Def Lep even added a catwalk onto the USANA stage that stretched eight rows deep into the crowd.
Guitarist Phil Collen, going shirtless and looking to be in the best shape of his life, shredded through lightning guitar licks all evening.
Songs like "Rocket" and "Animal" off the landmark "Hysteria" album and "Foolin" were crowd pleasers.
By Deseret News 2009.
Read the full review at - deseret.com
By Doug Fox
The clear stars of the evening, however, were headlining British rockers Def Leppard, who ripped through a 90-minute set of hits with all the aplomb and ease of a band that has been performing to packed arena-sized venues for more than 25 years now.
The show opened with drummer Rick Allen standing behind his kit with one arm -- considering he only has one arm -- raised in salute to the crowd as the intro tape blared out the beginning strains of "Rock! Rock! (Til You Drop)." The full band joined him moments later and the show was off and rocking.
Def Leppard is a band in constant motion live, with guitarists Phil Collen and Vivian Campbell, bassist Rick Savage and lead singer Joe Elliott working the crowd continually from a variety of locations throughout the stage -- including a catwalk that extended several rows into the seats. The catwalk was put to good use during a mid-set breather for "Two Steps Behind" and "Bringin' on the Heartbreak" -- which saw Elliott, Collen and Campbell all out at the end of the ramp playing acoustic guitars.
Elliott took the opportunity to give a congratulatory shoutout to Poison -- a band he publicly feuded with last year -- and McDonald for his last-minute, pinch-hitting assignment.
"Ten minutes before the show, he stepped to the plate with big cajones," Elliott said of McDonald. "He came here for free beer and ended up playing bass."
By Daily Herald 2009.
Read the full review at - heraldextra.com
By Tom Wharton
The highlight for most of the fans was the final act, Def Leppard, who used the wildest video screens this side of a U2 concert to amazing effect. Though lead singer Joe Elliott seemed slightly off on the acoustic "Two Steps Behind" and "Bringing on the Hearbreak," the crowd seemed to enjoy every second.
The audience got a chance to sing happy birthday to guitarist Vivian Campbell before Def Leppard really got things rolling with "Pour Some Sugar on Me," a song some say is the world's most popular song for strippers -- something emphasized by the exotic dancers on the video screen. And no one was sitting for "Rock of Ages," and the encore "Let's Get Rocked."
By The Salt Lake Tribune 2009.
Read the full review at - sltrib.com
By Ben Hansen
With 30 years of classic rock anthems, radio mega-hits, and fan favorites, the band's available catalogue was very deep. True to their fans, they delivered a mouth-watering set list which spanned their careers, including Bringin' on the Heartbreak and the instrumental Switch 625 from the 1982 High and Dry album, following all the way through with C'mon C'mon from last year's album Songs from the Sparkle Lounge. Mega hits like the number 1 main-stays Love Bites and Pour Some Sugar on Me from the Hysteria album made their way into the set, along with a heavy helping of Pyromania favorites, including the set finale Rock of Ages.
Time seemed to vanish while watching the band perform, and before we knew it, the band had exceeded the curfew time limit for the venue. True to their fans as always, they were not going to end the night without an encore - they returned to the stage and performed the first track off of the Adrenalize album Let's Get Rocked.
Guitarist Vivian Campbell's birthday was only one reason to celebrate the evening. Def Leppard continues to find a way to remain timeless yet relevant, providing a performance solid enough to have me shuffling through my iPod as soon as I got to the parking lot. It's ironic that one of their most popular song lyrics states, "It's better to burn out than fade away." They have done neither.
By Salt Lake City Globe 2009.
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