Styx/Def Leppard concert review
July 17, 2007, 10:44 PM
Styx/Def Leppard concert on 7/13/07 at Bossom Music Center, Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio.
A fan's view...
For a long time, I've been a fan of both groups, Def Leppard and Styx, I had seen Styx in concert back in '99, when Dennis De Young was still the driving force behind Styx's 'rock opera' type music. This time around, neither group disappointed.
When Styx took the stage at 7:30 pm, the pavilion wasn't nearly full. Even though Styx (Tommy Shaw, James Young, Ricky Phillips, Todd Sucherman and Lawrence Gowan) gave it their all and an awesome performance, the energy with the audience just wasn't there. They did a lot of old favorites like 'The Grand Illusion', 'Too Much Time On My Hands', 'Come Sail Away' and other crowd pleasers. All through the concert, James Young and Tommy Shaw threw guitar picks into the audience, along with a lot of other things with their band name on them. Even the keyboard player took polariods of the audience and gave them out LOL
All during the concert, the band's energy was up, bouncing around on stage, getting the audience involved in the songs. By far, 'Renegade' was the best song out of the whole set.
I noticed that during the intermission, the level of excitement increased quite a bit. Even as we sat there, waiting for Def Leppard (Joe Elliott, Phil Collen, Vivian Campbell, Rick 'Sav' Savage, and Rick Allen) to take the stage. Although I caught their act last year at the same venue, I wasn't bored or disappointed at all. They burst onto the stage (seriously not bad for guys mostly in their late 40s) with an energy that took the audience by storm. Everyone was instantly on their feet, clapping to 'Rocket', singing along, at times drowing out Joe Elliott, lead singer and front man for Def Leppard. I had their set list previously so I knew what was coming up when but that didn't put a damper on the music at all.
Different from last year, they pulled out some older songs from their 2nd album, 'High 'n' Dry', which were a welcome addition to their set list. From the time that they took the stage to their encore, everyone was up, clapping, singing, feeling good and having a good time. Just before they played a wonderful acoustic version of 'Two Steps Behind', Joe Elliott broke out with 'Cleveland Rocks', which made the audience go wild! I know that all the native Clevelanders there were touched by this gesture. I know I was.
They closed the concert with 'Rock Of Ages', which made everyone cheer for more.
