Def Leppard provides ’80s rock throwback for 10,000 Winnipeg fans

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This article was published 29/04/2015 (4184 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Grad party season was in full swing at the MTS Centre on Thursday — if you graduated from high school in 1983. Or 1987.

The soundtrack to those heady days filled with hope and dreams and rock and roll included Def Leppard anthems like Rock Rock (Till You Drop) and Animal.

And the British rockers didn’t disappoint the nostalgia-seeking crowd on Wednesday night. They kicked off their downtown arena show with those two anthems and a setlist that was thick and heavy with songs from their two biggest albums, Pyromania (1983) and Hysteria (1987).

Not only did 10,000 or so fans fill even the upper reaches of the MTS Centre Thursday night for the famous heavy metal party band, but even Mayor Brian Bowman got in on the act earlier in the day.

He name-checked several Def Leppard songs in a speech to council on Wednesday morning, deftly, and in some cases not so deftly, admitting his love of 1980s rock and setting Twitter ablaze in the process.

It wasn’t a key to the city, like Gene Simmons of Kiss received amid much civic consternation in 2011, but the mayoral shoutout must have sold a ticket or two.

The stage included a catwalk that extended into the audience. Drummer Rick Allen, who lost his arm in a car crash in 1985 but was as loud as anyone on Wednesday night, was perched on a five-step pedestal between the usual stacks of amps at the back of the stage.

The sound technician must have cranked up the vocals after the first couple of songs, which were drowned out by all the drums. That helped give singer Joe Elliott a fighting chance to be heard above the usual metal concert din, and it made 1983’s Foolin’, the fourth song of the set, stand out.

The blond-haired Elliott looked like one of his fans, wearing a jean jacket as he took the stage. Halfway through though he switched to a white leather jacket and picked up an acoustic guitar for a singalong with the crowd called Two Steps Behind. The band may have rocked and partied hard for over three decades, but Elliott reached high notes in songs like Bringin’ on the Heartbreak, with ease. That clear singing helped make Def Leppard a success on the charts while other metal bands of the ’80s, and continues to separate it from the rest of the power-pop pack on today’s concert circuit.

Photograph, another hit from Pyromania, was part of the encore along with another anthem, Rock of Ages. As for a photograph of the concert, you better be satisfied with the blurry, underexposed shots taken with fans’ smartphones. Def Leppard allowed no photographers or video personnel from the media to take pictures of the performance.

For those grads from the ’80s, Def Leppard’s appearance in Winnipeg provided a musical escape from their 40- and 50-something baggage of mortgages, children’s soccer practices and the indignities of age. For the next generation, Def Leppard’s songs like 1987’s Armageddon It or Pour Some Sugar on Me which the group played just before the encore, are just their parents’ music — to be scoffed at when no one’s looking.

One Bad Son, a four-piece group from Saskatoon, kicked off the proceedings with 45 minutes of metal, including a shout-filled rendition of the Talking Heads’ Psycho Killer.

 

alan.Small@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @AlanDSmall