Def Leppard Concert Review: Hysteria in Homdel NJ

By: Rob Cavuoto

On a rain drenched evening in New Jersey, Def Leppard and Heart played the PNC Arena in Homdell NJ. The concert was a rescheduled show from July due to the passing of singer, Joe Elliot’s father.

It may have poured this night but it didn’t slow the band down. They opened with “Undefeated,” a new studio tracks on their latest CD, Mirror Ball Live & More. It’s a fast paced high energy song that the crowd really loved and set the stage for the concert.

Joe Elliot Photo: Rob Cavuoto

From the out of the gate Joe’s voice sounded fantastic as he and the band tore through a greatest hits set list. I had the chance to speak with Vivian Campbell who told me, “In America people want to hear the hits so that’s what we give them.”

Read GI’s Interview with Vivian Campbell

Def Leppard stuck a nice balance of songs from every area of the bands multi-platinum career like “Let’s Get Rocked,” “Foolin,” “Rocket” and “Animal,” and let’s not forget the crowd pleasers “Photograph” and the forever summer classic “Pour Some Sugar on Me.”

I asked Phil if playing “Pour Some Sugar On Me” for the millionth time ever get boring, he replied, “When everyone’s going bonkers and everyone’s singing along to it and you forget about that part of it. My daughter, who is six, just asked me, ‘When did this song come about?’ and I said ‘Well, 25 years ago.’

What’s really amazing is that it still has that same effect. It’s a lot of different things, but the fact that we put all that into it and were still doing it 25 years later and it still has the same effect is mind blowing. It doesn’t get old really. It does get old if you’re in rehearsal and there’s nobody in there. It’s like pulling teeth. But if you’ve got an audience that’s great, it’s amazing.”

Read GI’s Interview with Phil Collen

Phil Collen Photo: Rob Cavuoto

Mid-set the band came out to perform two acoustic songs which provided a nice dynamic to the show from the runway extending into the orchestra, “Two Steps Behind” followed by a hybrid version of “Bringin’ on the Heartbreak,” which turns electric at the end.

The stage was the same from the last few tours and Vivian told me, “We’re doing a very different video thing this time around. We’re having multiple screens instead of one big one. We’re hanging seven screens at different depths on the stage. Plus we have a bunch of new video content that we try to refresh each year. We don’t recycle the MTV videos from the ’80s or things like that.”

One of the highlights for me was the lead guitar work Vivian did at the end of their hit “Love Bites,” playing it effortlessly over the top of Les Paul guitar neck. Vivian is a stand out guitar player from his days in Dio so it was great to see him get the spot light.

Vivian Campbell Photo: Rob Cavuoto

Phil Collen, shirtless as usual, owned the right side of the stage, trading licks and interaction with fans in the audience. The collection of Jackson guitars he used for the evening was staggering; I think he changed up every other song.

Rick Savage ran the length of the stage song after song with his Jackson black, white and grey Union Jack Flag bass, whipping the already crazed fans into frenzy.

I’m sure that no Heart or Def Leppard fan left unhappy. It was a great bill with two great rock and roll acts giving it their all. As Joe Elliot said, “PNC We’ll be back”!” We can’t wait.

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