Last night, I attended the Def Leppard/Foreigner/Styx show at the Concord Pavillion here in the Bay Area. While Styx (no longer featuring Dennis DeYoung but rather a carbon copy of him with a worse voice, affectionately known as Dennis DeYounger) brought the house down in their opening slot, the rest of the night was weak or worse.
Foreigner's keyboards didn't work, and those familiar with Foreigner probably realize this is bad. Very bad. At least the Lou Gramm replacement (affectionately known as Lou Grammateur) sounded really good. And hey, that's Jason Bonham on drums! And look, isn't that cute ... they're playing a snippet of Whole Lotta Love just to remind me that "Hey we've got John Bonham's marginally talented son on drums! He's the SON of someone in Led Zeppelin! Isn't that awesome!" At least they didn't attempt Waiting For a Girl Like You.
Now, before I get to Def Leppard, you may be thinking "but Gordon, you like bad shows! You found Taylor Hicks extremely entertaining, and just last summer you found yourself amused by the laughable Chicago show, featuring a Peter Cetera replacement, affectionately known as Peter Ceterrible."
True, that is a good point, but Def Leppard was so bad, it was bad. Sometimes the formula goes: Song I Hate + Time = Song I Appreciate. That isn't that case with Def Leppard. With the exceptions of Foolin', Photograph and (surprising to find myself admit) Pour Some Sugar on Me, this is just crappy music. But what really ruined the night was not the twin shirtless lead guitar players, but rather the fact that Joe Elliott CANNOT sing. It's miserable. There were times when I think he was singing with a tracking vocal, but I would not have complained if they had just lip-synced all of his parts. He's awful. You may have found yourself asking "didn't this song used to have a lead vocal?" They need a Joe Elliott replacement. We'll affectionately name him Joe Elli-lot-better.
Foreigner's keyboards didn't work, and those familiar with Foreigner probably realize this is bad. Very bad. At least the Lou Gramm replacement (affectionately known as Lou Grammateur) sounded really good. And hey, that's Jason Bonham on drums! And look, isn't that cute ... they're playing a snippet of Whole Lotta Love just to remind me that "Hey we've got John Bonham's marginally talented son on drums! He's the SON of someone in Led Zeppelin! Isn't that awesome!" At least they didn't attempt Waiting For a Girl Like You.
Now, before I get to Def Leppard, you may be thinking "but Gordon, you like bad shows! You found Taylor Hicks extremely entertaining, and just last summer you found yourself amused by the laughable Chicago show, featuring a Peter Cetera replacement, affectionately known as Peter Ceterrible."
True, that is a good point, but Def Leppard was so bad, it was bad. Sometimes the formula goes: Song I Hate + Time = Song I Appreciate. That isn't that case with Def Leppard. With the exceptions of Foolin', Photograph and (surprising to find myself admit) Pour Some Sugar on Me, this is just crappy music. But what really ruined the night was not the twin shirtless lead guitar players, but rather the fact that Joe Elliott CANNOT sing. It's miserable. There were times when I think he was singing with a tracking vocal, but I would not have complained if they had just lip-synced all of his parts. He's awful. You may have found yourself asking "didn't this song used to have a lead vocal?" They need a Joe Elliott replacement. We'll affectionately name him Joe Elli-lot-better.
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