Tampa, FL - Media Review Quotes

By Gabe Echazabal/Todd Fixer

Plenty of memories were conjured during the band’s set. Elliott, who seemed elated by the loud and proud Tampa crowd, fondly recalled the group’s New Year’s Eve performance at the USF Sun Dome at the close of 1987 and asked who was there. Vintage band pictures (including some with late original guitarist, Steve Clark), flashed on the huge screens during the first song of the band’s encore, the glam rock-inspired favorite, “Rock of Ages.” A different series of photos were beamed onto stage screens earlier in the night during a particularly enthusiastic performance of “Hysteria.” The song took on a sentimental feel, too when Elliot inserted a line from David Bowie’s anthem “Heroes” at the tail-end of the song and then motioned up to the heavens, as if saluting the deceased rock hero who has provided plenty of inspiration for this band.

The set-closing, powerful pop rocker “Photograph” sent the crown into yet another frenzy and elicited, arguably, the strongest ovation of the night.

“Don’t forget us — we won’t forget you,” Elliot sincerely declared at the end of the triumphant set and, as the band walked offstage, it seemed that Joe wasn’t ready to call it a night. Def Leppard could have easily played another hour’s worth of material, and the audience and the band would have been equally elated. As fun and exciting as the performance was, it sure left me wanting more of the crunchy, melodic rock the band knows just how to pump out.

By Creative Loafing 2018.

Read the full review/20+ photos at - cltampa.com

By Jay Cridlin

Kicking off the night with the immortally poetic salvo to Rocket ("Guitar! Drums!"), Def Lep clearly hasn't given up on the idea of big, dumb, stadium-shaking rock songs as lighter fluid for the soul. Even in their hair-metal heyday, they were kind of a band out of time — listen again to the utterly cheese-diculous Let's Get Rocked, and marvel that such a song was released into the world AFTER Nirvana's Nevermind — and that remains the case in 2018.

They still look like proper rock stars, all scarves and sequins and stringy hair, and guitarist Phil Collen, bless him, is still running around shirtless like a glistening, guileless god. And for the most part, they sound like them, particularly when it comes to the eternally pristine twin guitar assault of Collen and Vivian Campbell (always so much more than just a Steve Clark stand-in); and the stacked backing harmonies of Campbell, Collen and bassist Rick Savage. Put these guys and drummer Rick Allen to work on a chewy rock morsel like Bringin' On the Heartbreak or a cover of David Essex's Rock On, and it's hard not to get caught up and sing along.

Their precision — and let's face it, after playing all these hits a million times, they ought to be polished to a zirconium sheen — would be enough to cover up the missteps of any aging lead singer. But sneering and preening with his arms stretched out wide, Elliott did all right for himself. He ceded a few choruses to his bandmates and fans, instead hopping in with vocal fills as needed on Pour Some Sugar On Me and Foolin'. He strained for those last "getting its" on Armageddon It, but was hopping and punching like a whippersnapper at the end.

By Tampa Bay Times 2018.

Read the full review at - tampabay.com

Back

share this page: