When I was a teenager, Def Leppard was definitely one of my favorite bands. And what I love about them today is that the classic stuff from Hysteria is the connection with my siblings- there's a significant difference in our ages but Def Leppard kind of bridges that.... My sister and I would have "music wars" through a shared heating vent- she would blast NKOTB and I'd respond with something from Hysteria or Pyromania. Def Leppard was one of 3 bands that my brother, at all of 3 years old, could identify by sight on MTV.
Besides Def Leppard, to my knowledge (and please let me know if I'm wrong) only Styx has done a show where they play the songs from an album (in Styx's case, 2- The Grand Illusion and Pieces of Eight- tremendous show-but that's another post!) in the order they are on the record. Before the show starts, there is a video montage from when Hysteria was released and they included Steve. They also explain how they introduced Vivian Campbell, who has filled some big shoes remarkably.
Sadly for me (as I'm hearing some of their material from albums after Adrenalize, while watching the VIVA Hysteria DVD with Def Leppard being their own opening act of Ded Flatbird) I regret that I stopped buying their albums after Steve Clark's death. I mean no disrespect to Vivian Campbell, it just didn't feel right for me. I did buy Adrenalize since I knew that Steve wrote and played on some of the tracks. I've got some catching up to do! :-) Now onto the show!
Sadly for me (as I'm hearing some of their material from albums after Adrenalize, while watching the VIVA Hysteria DVD with Def Leppard being their own opening act of Ded Flatbird) I regret that I stopped buying their albums after Steve Clark's death. I mean no disrespect to Vivian Campbell, it just didn't feel right for me. I did buy Adrenalize since I knew that Steve wrote and played on some of the tracks. I've got some catching up to do! :-) Now onto the show!
Even watching it (and of course singing along!) on DVD you can feel the energy from the stage and the audience. The energy builds as they move from "Women" to "Rocket" (the long version! yes!) to "Animal" where I'm sure prior to editing the audience very well may have been louder than the band. Everyone sings along to "Love Bites" and I even had my lighter in the air for that one. After this song you can feel the excitement build and Joe Elliott takes a moment to speak with the audience before launching into their best known song, "Pour Some Sugar On Me". And I will admit, I got caught up in the moment wondering if they were going to do the UK or the US version. (The difference is how they open the song, either with Joe singing, "Love me like a bum", and it fading out or, "Step inside! Walk this way! You and me babe! Hey! Hey!"). To my delight, they did the UK version! While they played "Armageddon It" the huge visual monitors behind them had random numbers and phrases such as, "Smile". I've always loved this song and it's impossible for me to maintain a foul mood upon hearing it! A video of Steve Clark on the giant monitors right after the song ends is the icing on the cake. The rest of the world around me fell away as I got caught up in songs I haven't heard in a while with "Gods of War", "Don't Shoot Shotgun", and "Run Riot". Just singing along with those, especially "Run Riot" was amazing! The song "Hysteria" has always had a particularly hypnotic effect on me and I loved it. "Excitable" is another song I hadn't heard in quite some time and was a treat! My lighter was raised again for "Love and Affection". Partly because it seemed appropriate for the song and more so because I knew that the show was almost over- even though it seemed as if it only started a mere few minutes previously. Def Leppard gave an amazing encore with "Rock of Ages" and "Photograph".
Def Leppard is still amazing is what it boils down to...An album that's been around for almost 27 years and their performance and energy are contagious!
The bonus features on the DVD completely spoil the viewer and if you want to know what they are, you're just gonna have to watch it!
