{"id":842,"date":"2018-07-27T01:56:00","date_gmt":"2018-07-27T01:56:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/?p=842"},"modified":"2026-06-27T01:58:07","modified_gmt":"2026-06-27T01:58:07","slug":"def-leppard","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/?p=842","title":{"rendered":"Def Leppard"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

April 2003, Sound Advice Amphitheatre, <\/strong>West Palm Beach, Fla.<\/strong><\/p>\n

There are some albums and bands that own parts of our lives, capturing us at a time which seem planned solely for us. Pyromania<\/em> came out during my freshman year of high school, and no one can convince me Def Leppard\u2019s music isn\u2019t the constant soundtrack for ninth-grade boys everywhere.<\/p>\n

There was nothing about that album or that band that doesn\u2019t appeal during that time in your life. It\u2019s loud with a crush of guitars, the lead singer is cocky without being arrogant while making overt fashion statements (did I have a sleeveless Union Jack T-shirt? I did), the songs are catchy but not in a teeny-bop way, the videos (which were huge in 1983) told stories while making the band look cool as hell, and girls loved them, just loved them.<\/p>\n

I had Def Leppard posters on my wall, I listened to Pyromania<\/em> more than I did just about anything. Def Leppard should be in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on this album alone (and 1981\u2019s High \u2019n\u2019 Dry<\/em> is strong from my vantage point).<\/p>\n

The fact the band added Hysteria<\/em> to its catalog four years later only cements its status as one of the greatest arena rock bands ever. I will admit to not latching onto Hysteria<\/em> \u2014 I was a sophomore in college when it came out, and musically I was in a much different place \u2014 but the album still holds up 27 years later. There are seven singles on that album, five of which are more than five minutes long. Unheard of.<\/p>\n

So this is a band of my youth, but I never got to see the band play when I was a young man. It wasn\u2019t until my mid-30s I had the chance to relive my teenage music crush.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s great providence in seeing a band during its prime, but I\u2019ve seen bands play live years after their height and they seem much better. Sure they don\u2019t jump around as much, but age adds wisdom and craft to the performance \u2014 they just play better and don\u2019t seem to hate each other as much. Plus, the addictions that plague musicians in their 20s aren\u2019t as prevalent in their 40s and 50s. At 45 it\u2019s hard to wake up after a hangover, much less play a live rock show (though Keith Richards is excluded from this assumption).<\/p>\n

So I went, by myself, to see Def Leppard kick some serious ass. Joe Elliott, Rick Savage, Rick Allen and Phil Collen were technically perfect while still bringing a certain swagger. The band released X<\/em> the year before, but it was clear from the outset the band was here to play gems from the past, as \u201cLet It Go\u201d and \u201cRock! Rock! (Till You Drop)\u201d \u2014 the opening songs from High \u2018n\u2019 Dry<\/em> and Pyromania<\/em>, kicked off the show. When the band veered to \u201cBringin\u2019 on the Heartbreak\u201d and \u201cFoolin\u2019\u201d a few songs later, I found a concert joy that\u2019s hard to describe. I have a bucket list of songs I want to see in a live setting, and Def Leppard knocked six songs off the list on this night.<\/p>\n

Joe Elliott owned the stage, looking as cool as he ever has, and Phil Collen was even better at guitar than I thought he would be. I know this has been mentioned ad nauseum, but I don\u2019t know how this is all backed by a one-armed drummer. Rick Allen did a solo set midway through, and the crowd roared with each cymbal splash. I\u2019ve never seen anything like it.<\/p>\n

Here were the last nine songs: \u201cWomen,\u201d \u201cRocket,\u201d \u201cPhotograph,\u201d \u201cAnimal,\u201d \u201cArmageddon It,\u201d \u201cPour Some Sugar on Me,\u201d \u201cRock of Ages,\u201d \u201cLove Bites\u201d and \u201cLet\u2019s Get Rocked\u201d. Wow. How does a band have this many hits, and who plays them back-to-back-to-back? I guess you play them if you have them. Def Leppard continues to tour to large crowds because they have the songs, and for many of us, those songs are pieces of our lives.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

April 2003, Sound Advice Amphitheatre, West Palm Beach, Fla. There are some albums and bands that own parts of our lives, capturing us at a time which seem planned solely for us. Pyromania came out during my freshman year of high school, and no one can convince me Def Leppard\u2019s music isn\u2019t the constant soundtrack […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":843,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[110],"class_list":["post-842","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-concerts","tag-def-leppard"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/842","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=842"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/842\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":844,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/842\/revisions\/844"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/843"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=842"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=842"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=842"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}