Def Leppard & Journey live!

Journey, Def Leppard
Marcus Amphitheatre, Milwaukee
Saturday, September 9, 2006

Look up “guilty pleasure” in the rock ‘n’ roll encyclopedia and it’s sure to include a host of ’80s-based arena rockers and hair metallers, including Journey and Def Leppard. The double bill indeed embodied that very idea, and while it compromises one’s cool to admit an affinity for either act, there’s hardly a white person on Earth who doesn’t own a greatest hits disc by at least one of them.

Though the two straddled slightly different audiences in the decade of decadence, this pairing led to a slew of singles steeped in sing-alongs, lighter waving, strobe explosions, and jumbo-tron magnification. Though it would’ve made more sense to pair Journey with the likes of Foreigner or even Bryan Adams (Leppard’s tourmate last year) while pitting Leppard with label mates Bon Jovi or fellow Aqua Net revelers Mötley Crüe, the night built a bridge between both fanbases and was stacked with non-stop familiarity.

While it’s far from breaking news that Journey parted company with Steve Perry, fans expecting their current ringleader Steve Augeri (who bears an almost eerie vocal and physical resemblance, while even possessing a rhyming last name) were left scratching their heads. Instead it was the much younger, shorter-haired, hard rock singer Jeff Scott Soto, who’s currently filling in because Augeri “left” the tour due to a chronic throat infection. The new face is somewhat recognizable to hardcore Journey followers as the singer for Neal Schon’s recent side project, Soul Sirkus, though he’s also a solo artist and session performer on a slew of import projects.

It’s probably questionable to replace a singer mid-tour rather than postponing the dates until he can recover (which even the money hungry Rolling Stones did when Keith Richards fell out of a tree), at least this incarnation sounded solid throughout 16 trips down memory lane. “Stone In Love,” “Ask The Lonely,” and “Wheel In The Sky” were early inclusions in the greatest-hits set that seared with a stadium shaking aura, pitting Schon’s signature strums against Ross Valory’s accomplished basslines. Soto passed the microphone to drummer Deen Castronovo, who slapped his skins while singing “Who’s Crying Now?,” sounding even more like Perry than Augeri ever did. He reprised that role come other slow songs like “Faithfully,” during which footage from Journey’s eternally out-of-print documentary, Frontiers And Beyond, was flashed on the screens overhead (with Perry’s parts strategically edited out). Yet the ballads were kept few and far between in favor of more forceful material, including the power chord romps “Don’t Stop Believin,’” “Any Way You Want It,” and “Separate Ways.” The thunderous trio brought the house down and signaled the band’s ongoing sonic strengths, despite the unpredictable lineup that couldn’t quite compare to their heyday.

Way further past their prime were Def Leppard, who are touring in support of their latest irrelevant studio offering, Yeah — a covers disc tipping its hat at the band’s primary influences. Despite a continued commercial decline, the group are a summertime staple as a jukebox on wheels backed by monstrous production to party-hearty results. The smoke, lights, and two-story stage helped capture the original glimmer of “Let’s Get Rocked” and “Promises,” while the audience jumped on the karaoke train come “Bringin’ On The Heartbreak” and “Foolin’.” Unfortunately, the energy demonstrated during last summer’s Rock Of Ages tour has been steadily sucked out of vocalist Joe Elliott, who was often off key and a little low on overall performance gas. Some compensation came from guitarists Phil Collen and Whitesnake alum Vivian Campbell, who were both in better shape and at least carried the instrumentation with vigor.

Cuts from Yeah were thankfully kept to a minimum, only touching on forgettable versions of T. Rex’s “20th Century Boy” and David Essex’s “Rock On.” From there, the closest Def Leppard came to hitting a full-fledged stride was for the threesome of “Photograph,” “Armageddon It,” and “Animal.” Yet the revelry didn’t last all that long as the encore featured an especially lethargic Elliott on autopilot through “Love Bites” and “Pour Some Sugar On Me,” though at least the latter was saved by his bandmates’ harmonies and the sheer hysteria of wildly enthusiastic concertgoers. But as with any guilty pleasure experience, it’s not about the art, members’ current abilities, or even execution, but the opportunity they afford fans to forget their problems, let their product-filled hair down, and shout at the top of their lungs to the nostalgia. And both bands were generally able to achieve that dynamic, much to the pleasure of ticket buyers, who’ll most likely rave to their friends about the highly interactive encounter amid the shortcomings.

— Andy Argyrakis

Category: Live Reviews, Weekly