Date: Friday, June 24, 2022
City: Queens, NY
Venue: Citi Field
Opening act(s): Classless Act, Joan Jett & The Blackhearts, Poison
Co-Headlining acts: Mötley Crüe, Def Leppard
Joan Jett & The Blackhearts Setlist:
Victim Of Circumstance
Cherry Bomb
Light Of Day
Everyday People
You Drive Me Wild
Do You Wanna Touch Me (Oh Yeah)
Fake Friends
Crimson & Clover
I Love Rock ‘N Roll
(I’m Gonna) Run Away
I Hate Myself For Loving You
Bad Reputation
Poison Setlist:
Look What The Cat Dragged In
Ride The Wind
Talk Dirty To Me
Your Mama Don’t Dance
Guitar Solo
Fallen Angel
I Want Action
Drum Solo
Unskinny Bop
Every Rose Has Its Thorn
Nothin’ But A Good Time
Mötley Crüe Setlist:
Wild Side
Shout At The Devil
Too Fast For Love
Don’t Go Away Mad (Just Go Away)
Saints Of Los Angeles
Live Wire
Looks That Kill
The Dirt (Est. 1981)
Covers Medley:
– Rock And Roll Part 2
– Smokin’ In The Boys Room
– White Punks On Dope
– Helter Skelter
– Anarchy In The U.K.
Home Sweet Home
Dr. Feelgood
Same Ol’ Situation (S.O.S.)
Girls, Girls, Girls
Primal Scream
Kickstart My Heart
Def Leppard Setlist:
Take What You Want
Fire It Up
Animal
Foolin’
Armageddon It
Kick
Love Bites
Excitable
This Guitar
Have You Ever Needed Someone So Bad
Two Steps Behind
Rocket
Bringin’ On The Heartbreak
Switch 625
Hysteria
Pour Some Sugar On Me
Rock Of Ages
Photograph
Notes:
- First show of the 2022 Stadium Tour in support of Diamond Star Halos.
- When The Stadium Tour was announced in December 2019, this show was originally scheduled for August 23, 2020.
- Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it was rescheduled for July 15, 2021.
- Due to the ongoing pandemic, it was rescheduled again for June 24, 2022.
- The concert was not on my itinerary until the spring of 2022.
- First Def Leppard show since September 7, 2021 in Las Vegas, NV.
- A gap of 1,021 days between shows.
- Longest gap since my first two Def Leppard concerts:
- 1,113 days between July 30, 1996 – August 17, 1999.
- First time seeing “Take What You Want,” “Fire It Up,” “Kick,” and “This Guitar” live.
- First open for “Take What You Want.” Third new song to open, twelfth opener total.
- First show to feature seeing four songs live for the first time since seeing five on April 6, 2013 in Las Vegas, NV (show #31).
- First show to feature four brand new songs since March 28, 2003 in Chicago, IL (show #9).
- “This Guitar” and “Have You Ever Needed Someone So Bad” were played acoustically with the full band at the end of the catwalk. Joe Elliott performed a truncated version of “Two Steps Behind” by himself.
- Only the sixth show missing “Let’s Get Rocked;” first since April 13, 2013 in Las Vegas, NV (show #34).
- First time seeing Def Leppard without an encore break, which was skipped to allow more songs in the allotted set time.
- “Pour Some Sugar On Me” and “Rock Of Ages” from this show were recorded and broadcast on CNN’s The Fourth In America on July 4, 2022.
- First time seeing Mötley Crüe live, 11th time seeing Poison, second time seeing Joan Jett & The Blackhearts.
- Classless Act opened this show, but I did not see their set.
- Due to breaking four ribs in the weeks leading up to the tour, Mötley Crüe drummer Tommy Lee was unable to play the full show.
- He performed on “Wild Side,” “Shout At The Devil,” “Too Fast For Love,” and “Home Sweet Home” while Tommy Clufetos played the rest of the set.
- Second Def Leppard stadium show; first since August 24, 2018.
- Attendance: 34,679 / 34,679 [100%].
- Second Def Leppard show in New York, this one in the borough of Queens.
- Show #1 at this venue.
Videos:
Review:
Def Leppard finished up their Las Vegas residency on September 7, 2019. I attended that show, which was my fifth of the residency and 63rd Lep concert overall. I got my hands on a setlist from that show, which now hangs on my wall and it ranks right up there with the best I’ve ever seen Lep play. The band went on to play a few one-off shows in late 2019 before going on break.
On December 4, 2019, The Stadium Tour was announced. The tour would feature Joan Jett & The Blackhearts, Poison, and the return of Mötley Crüe, who hadn’t played a show since their fakeass ‘farewell’ show in 2015. The initial batch of tour dates included only one show that was close to me: Wrigley Field in Chicago, IL. I was a bit put off at the time, as I was not at all interested in the overall lineup of bands and did not want to deal with the headache that is Wrigley Field. I’ve been to the stadium once without actually going in and have never attended a baseball game or concert there… Including skipping the Lep show at that very stadium in 2018. Since Lep’s set wasn’t anything special, I had three other shows on that tour, and they were with the god-awful Journey, it wasn’t worth the hassle.
On December 13, 2019, I logged on to try to buy tickets for the August 28, 2020 show at Wrigley Field in Chicago. Between the prices and the ridiculous number of different packages/sections/etc. to choose from, I was quite discouraged.
Between Chicago being the only show near me with bunch of other bands I didn’t care to see with insane ticket prices and way too many ticket options to choose from, it started to feel like Def Leppard had outgrown me a bit. Rather than having a chance to see the band three-to-five times in amphitheaters or arenas, there was just one show near me at a stadium that would feature three other bands cutting down Lep’s set time. And it would cost more than ever to see. It was a weird time, December 2019. Especially since it was the final month of what was one of the greatest years I had ever had as a Lep fan, having seen their induction into the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame in March and then five residency shows in Vegas in August/September.
Thankfully a little relief came on December 17, 2019, when another batch of tour dates was announced… And it included stops in Kansas City on June 23 and St. Louis on June 25. Two places I’d been to plenty of times. Suddenly Chicago was less on my radar and I knew I could at least hit two shows on the 2020 tour, even though I expected them to be far less enjoyable than what I saw in 2019 thanks to the short set and run of bands I didn’t care about seeing. But oh well, at least I would get to see Leppard, right?!
Nope.
Along came COVID-19 to shut everything down in March of 2020. The tour was off (even though its postponement was announced far later than most other artists at the time) and Lep’s plans on convening to record some new music had been nixed as well. Everything went quiet and eventually the tour was rescheduled for 2021. Really, I was ok with that since 2020 was turning into a crazy year for me since the pandemic decided to kick off when my wife was less than two months pregnant and we were in the process of trying to find and buy a house. Taking a year off Lep shows after seeing them every year from 2011-2019 wasn’t so bad in the grand scheme of things. I just had to wait one year and then I’d get to see Leppard, right?!?!
Nope.
The state of the pandemic was marginally better in the spring of 2021, but putting The Stadium Tour on the road was still too big of a risk to take, so it was postponed again. Since at that point I was in my own house with a baby, I accepted not taking the risk of attending stadium shows with tens of thousands of people while the pandemic was still very real. But losing two years of Def Leppard shows at this stage of their career hurt. The clock is ticking and now this annoying stadium tour that would force me to see all these other bands was eating up valuable time. I just had to wait one more year and then I’d get to see Leppard, right?!?!?!
Yes, actually.
By the early spring of 2022, it was starting to look like The Stadium Tour would finally be on. Then Def Leppard shocked us all by announcing a brand new studio album, Diamond Star Halos, for release on May 27. Recorded entirely remotely, the album boasted an impressive 15 songs including the singles “Kick,” “Take What You Want,” and “Fire It Up.” A new album and the two-plus year gap since my last show changed my outlook on The Stadium Tour and put me in a bit of a predicament. When the tour was originally announced in December 2019, I really didn’t give a shit about it. A four band package in venues I don’t care for (when it comes to concerts) and a 100% back-catalog based, short setlist? Meh. Hence me taking a very reserved approach to buying tickets back then. I got decent seats for Kansas City & St. Louis while getting nothing for Chicago, leaving that as a late decision based on what Lep was playing setlist-wise.
Now, though, it had been well over two years since I’d seen the band AND the tour would feature new music. That warrants an entirely different approach to buying tickets, which is not a good thing for tour dates that have been on sale for well over two years. Thankfully the multiple rescheduled dates and games of musical tickets allowed me to upgrade my seats for both St. Louis and Kansas City. But now I was in a bad spot for Chicago, which was nearly sold out. Time will tell how that one plays out since I’ve yet to buy tickets for it despite officially adding it to my schedule for the year. I’m also considering the newly added Indianapolis show in August.
One other show caught my eye though… As the show in New York was now quite early in the tour (being show number five) and was on a Friday… And as I know from 2019, it’s hard to beat a Friday night in New York with Def Leppard.
When the pandemic had retreated in the summer of 2021, a friend and I took a three day trip to New York City. It was an odd trip, since the city was nowhere near what we were used to pre-pandemic. But it was still quite enjoyable and I ended up spending two nights in Brooklyn by myself, getting to escape the real world and instead enjoy one of my favorite places on the entire planet for an extended period of time. During my time sitting there in Brooklyn, staring across the Hudson River at the lower Manhattan skyline for hours on end, I knew I wanted to take my wife there for a proper date night: dinner at Grimaldi’s Pizza, dessert at Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory, and then a pleasant night watching the sunset over lower Manhattan.
With multiple reasons to make the trek to the northeast to make this show, I started booking the trip. First the flight, then a one night hotel in Queens, then a two night hotel in Manhattan. Of course the Lep show would be the focus of the trip, but two more days and nights in the city with my wife were equally as important. I just had one obstacle left… Tickets for the Def Leppard concert.
It wasn’t until June 10 that I finally bought tickets. I wanted to wait as late as possible to see if I could score great seats through a ticket drop. But unlike the 2018 tour when Journey left a shitload of unsold VIP seats to be dumped into the general ticket pool as the show neared, pretty much every VIP seat for all four bands on this year’s bill had sold out. Scoring a decent seat for this show was very important to me since it was my first of the tour after a nearly three year gap between shows and would be my first chance to hear some of the new Diamond Star Halos songs live. I didn’t end up waiting for a ticket drop, instead opting to grab some ‘reasonably’ priced aftermarket seats near the end of the catwalk. It was costly for the pair, but still $1,000+ less than similar seats in the area. And since I had been throwing money into my concert savings account throughout the entire pandemic, I could afford to splurge a little.
After nearly three years between shows and with the New York show being only the fifth of the tour, I decided to do my best to avoid setlist spoilers so that I could go into the show not knowing what Lep would play. Sure, the majority of the setlist would pick itself. But if there were surprises to be had, I wanted them to actually be surprises when I saw the show. My attempts at Leppard-proofing my social media/etc. in 2019 did not work out as well as I’d hoped, so this time around I went into a full blackout: From June 16 to June 24, I had absolutely zero time spent on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, or the Rock Brigade Forum. And this time, it worked.
Well, in terms of not knowing what the band was playing, it had worked. But how would the reveal actually go? Avoiding setlists until my first shows in 2006 and 2011 resulted in vast disappointment. But avoiding sets until my first shows in 2007 and 2012 had huge payoffs. My fear for the 2022 stadium tour was something similar to what Lep played in 2011 or 2018… Extremely basic 15 song sets. The show at The Whisky was a peak behind the curtain in terms of what to expect, but how much would it expand from there?
Finally June 24, 2022 arrived and it would be time to find out. My plan for the trip was fairly simple: fly from St. Louis to New York on June 24, check into the hotel in Queens, then zip over to the stadium on the subway… See the show, go back to the hotel, then check out the next morning and hop back on the subway all the way into Manhattan, where we would check into our second hotel to spend Saturday through Monday in the city. The insanity that occurred on March 29, 2019 thankfully did not occur again today, as my trip went off without a hitch.
Despite that, we were still going arrive to the concert a little bit late. Traffic in Queens was the worst I had ever seen it between the airport and the nearby Citi Field, already packed with cars and people for the concert. As a result, we missed Classless Act entirely. But oh well. More chances will follow and in all honesty, how much do I really care about the first band on a five band bill?
It was my first ever visit to Citi Field and all the instructions I’d gotten from Ticketmaster were very clear that anyone with tickets on the field absolutely HAD to enter through the Bullpen Gate… Which was on the complete opposite side of the stadium from where the subway dropped us off. Walking to our right was impossible, as it was blocked off… Meaning we faced the task of walking allllll the way around the whole damn stadium. We made it to the opposite corner, which also appeared to be blocked off. So we stopped to ask a different security person than we’d talked to earlier, and he confirmed we could enter wherever we wanted. So that was a waste of time but we got an early start on collecting our steps in NYC.
Once inside the stadium, we then had to walk all the way back around to the other side and get our wristbands for the field. That took a bit since the crowd was still filing in, but we at least had music to listen to while all that was happening since Joan Jett & The Blackhearts were already on stage. I had no idea how long she had been playing since she was already on when we got off the subway. But again, I didn’t really care since I’ve seen her once before and we would have at least three more chances to see her this summer.
By the time we got to our seats in section A4 row 12, Joan Jett was already playing her cover of “Crimson & Clover” and had only a few songs remaining in her set. But again, I didn’t mind. I’d seen her live once before on August 12, 2018 opening for what’s left of Foreigner (their lineup featured exactly zero original members that night). I really like Joan Jett and respect the hell out of her influence even if her catalog is a bit baffling considering how covers-heavy it is. Her concert setlists are no different. The band sounded tight and she was in fine voice as well. The sound was a bit muddy, but that was not unexpected in a venue of this size.
We managed to catch Joan Jett close out her one hour set with “I Love Rock ‘N Roll,” “(I’m Gonna) Run Away,” “I Hate Myself For Loving You,” and “Bad Reputation” before saying goodnight.
As the changeover began, I started to look around, really soaking in the environment. After everything that has happened over the last two-plus years, I was extremely grateful to find myself on Citi Field in New York with a stadium full of people, awaiting my favorite band’s performance.
But first…
One of my least favorite bands would perform. As I watched the crew set the stage for Poison, that familiar dread that I’ve felt in 2009, 2012, and 2017 began to set in. Not even a pandemic could prevent that dread from setting in. Coincidentally, it was just one day shy of exactly five years since I had last seen Poison in Indianapolis on June 25, 2017 – the final day of that year’s US tour. I saw five shows that year, including the final four shows in the span of just five days. I was tired and cranky and that really showed in my review of Poison’s set that night:
“I was so glad it was over. I hate everything about them. The music. The shtick. All of it. Their songs are shit, their sound quality is shit, and they are shit as a live band. The songs are bad enough as is, but having piano added to them only makes them even worse.”
If I were to go back through my prior reviews of shows they opened, I’m sure there is plenty more like that.
I hadn’t actually looked at the setlist any band on tonight’s bill had played, not that that mattered at all for a band like Poison. Having seen them 10 (fucking hell) times before, I knew what I was in for. I knew the first two songs would be “Look What The Cat Dragged In” and “Ride The Wind,” I knew there would be terrible and derivative solos from CC on guitar and Rikki on drums, I knew Bret would use everything he could for cheap applause, I knew Bret would have his own terrible harmonica solo, and I knew the one hour set would include fewer than 10 actual songs.
Looking back at the sets for all of the times I’ve seen Poison, the lack of variety is pretty crazy. But really, what does their catalog have to offer besides the nine or 10 songs they do from show to show? The inclusion of three solos and so much banter in such a limited time slot tells you everything you need to know about their catalog. The songs just simply aren’t there.
Now… The crowd certainly livened up when Poison hit the stage and they were admittedly more entertaining to watch than what I had seen from Joan Jett. Poison may be borderline superficial and excessively cheesy, but people do love cheese.
As expected, “Look What The Cat Dragged In” and “Ride The Wind” kicked things off. After greeting the crowd, Bret did that hilariously weird thing he does by introducing the next song as “Poison’s Talk Dirty To Me.” It reminds me of The Office when Michael Scott kept saying “I do declare” and then Ryan Howard said “You don’t have to keep saying ‘I DO DECLARE.’ Any time you say something it means you’re declaring.” I need Ryan to attend a Poison show and say “You don’t have to keep saying ‘POISON’S.’ Any time you play a song it means it’s Poison’s.” Other than the cover of “Your Mama Don’t Dance,” which I have also heard Bret introduce as Poison’s. Everything about this band is a clown show.
One of the few variations in the times I’ve seen Poison dating back to 2009 was “Something To Believe In” popping in and out of the set. For tonight’s show, I think Bret mentioned they’d had a request for “I Want Action,” which was inserted into the spot normally occupied by “Something To Believe In.” I’m not quite sure if that was trading up or down, but hey, it was something different in one hour of literally everything else being the exact same schtick Poison rolls out from show to show for decades now.
As usual, CC stepped up in his giant platform shoes for a horrible sounding guitar solo. The whole band’s mix was terrible, continuing what’d I’d already heard from Joan Jett. The solo followed the same schtick as every other time I’ve seen it, from the stomping to make the crowd chant “CC” to including part of Van Halen’s “Eruption.” Highly original, I know.
Poison returned to the stage for “Fallen Angel,” a song I will admit is somewhat enjoyable.
I admit that now because it was during that song that I had a bit of an epiphany. Why it took until my 11th time seeing Poison for this to occur to me, I’m not quite sure… But it suddenly dawned on me under the bright blue New York sky that if I’m watching Poison perform live, that can only mean one thing… Later on, I’ll be watching Def Leppard perform live. There’s literally no other reason I would subject myself to Poison. Suddenly the annoyance at watching and listening to Poison trot out their same ol’ same ol’ had faded and you know what? I started to have a better time. Not a good time, mind you. But a slightly better than average time. And when it comes to Poison, I’ll accept that. I don’t need nothin’ but a slightly better than average time. And it… Well, it does get better than that, but I still had a ways to go.
Following “I Want Action,” Bret started to introduce drummer Rikki Rockett..
And suddenly I was taken aback again as he started to use Rikki’s battle with cancer for more cheap applause. Don’t get me wrong, beating cancer deserves to be celebrated. But that was what, five years ago? And he’s still calling it out this directly because he knows people will cheer? In my mind, he could go about that a little more subtly as Lep did with Vivian back in 2014-2015… But then again, there’s nothing subtle about Poison so I should not have been surprised.
Another song I will reluctantly admit to enjoying is the absolutely stupid “Unskinny Bop.” It has enough of a good groove and hook that I’ve actually come around on that one in recent years. And while I really don’t understand why “Every Rose Has Its Thorn” is so popular or somehow managed to make it to #1 on the charts, I do get some joy out of “Nothin’ But A Good Time” as an all time classic 80’s rock anthem. Plus it still takes me back to hearing it on the radio following a play I was in way back in 8th grade…. Over 21 years ago at this point. That was a great night between the performance and hanging with friends and the song just hit the spot in that moment.
The one hour set ended there and did everything I knew it would do. Nine songs (including one cover), three solos, and all the cheap applause one could ever ask for. But it was also cheesy and fun and was quite likely the most I’ve ever enjoyed a Poison show. Perhaps the pandemic softened me up to them a little bit after all.
Guess we’ll find out when I write my reviews of each subsequent show.
Normally, this would be the part of the evening where I start prepping for Def Leppard. Two bands have played, the second of which is Poison, so it’s Leppard time now, right?!?!?!?!
Nope.
It was time for Mötley Crüe, a band I didn’t care enough to see in concert before they ‘retired’ and still didn’t care to see now. There were a couple of times I almost considered seeing them… Like when they toured with Aerosmith (my second favorite band) in 2006 or Alice Cooper in… Whenever that was. But I could never bring myself to do it. Admittedly, I did have their Greatest Hits CD in my youth, but that was purchased during a period of trial and error when I was first expanding my music library. Plus at the time there was a girl I liked that really liked the Crüe so why not, right? Well, that situation didn’t play out for me and soon enough the CD wasn’t getting played either.
I do like or can tolerate a few of their songs though, and there was a mild curiosity in seeing them… Though there was one major hindrance that I knew would interfere with any joy to be taken from the show…
Vince Neil.
I simply cannot understand why he is so, so bad and thinks that type of performance is even remotely acceptable. So it made sense when the band called it quits. I mean, he is THAT BAD, Mick Mars can barely stand, and the band just flat out hates each other. So yes, call it quits. I get it. To this day, I can’t hear “Kickstart My Heart” without thinking ‘nugget hot’ and ‘chaulk filled putty tat hell of a bee.’ Hearing the actual song makes me laugh every single time.
And now I was about to witness it live when the band was seven (or more) years past their expiration date.
As the showtime neared, the lack of decent security became increasingly apparent. As did the lack of general decency of what seemed to be primarily Mötley Crüe fans. The aisle next to the front & center section had been a little packed with people during Joan Jett and Poison’s set, but security finally pushed them all out when Poison was done. However, as it got closer to the Crüe hitting the stage, there was a crush of people pushing their way up to the front, filling the fairly wide aisle completely. Meanwhile people of various ages kept trying to sneak into empty seats in the center section itself. It appeared there was no one keeping tabs on whose seats were where and it was a goddamn free-for-all. Which is not annoying at all for the most expensive seats in the entire goddamn venue…
It only got worse when Mötley Crüe took the stage with “Wild Side,” a song I actually find a bit boring if I’m being honest. And it wasn’t exactly a high energy song to kick off the show despite the name. In fact, I was a bit shocked at how reserved everything from the band to the crowd felt in that moment. You’d think being only Crüe’s fifth show ‘back’ in New York would kick off with more energy, but nope. Within that first song, I immediately felt like Poison had gone down better than Crüe did. It was quite strange.
The mostly hits based set continued and for the third band in a row, the sound was muddy as shit. I started to wonder if it was just going to be a product of the venue as surely we wouldn’t have three bands of this stature with terrible live sound, right? I mean… The odds would be in favor of at least ONE of them sounding decent? Should I be worried about Lep?
Speaking of which, it was several songs into Mötley Crüe’s set that I turned to Brittany and pointed out how long the day felt. Even though we missed all of the first band and half of the second band, it still felt like we had been there forever. It was still daylight out, Crüe was only a few songs into their set, and we still had another band to see. In fact, I had started to zone out to the point that I temporarily forgot I would even be seeing Def Leppard. The whole damn reason we were there!
Speaking of being only a few songs into the set… Mötley Crüe drummer Tommy Lee had apparently broken some ribs prior to the tour, resulting in him only playing a small portion of each show. Tonight, as with other night’s I believe, he played the opening trio of songs (“Wild Side,” “Shout At The Devil,” and “Too Fast For Love”) before being replaced by Tommy Clufetos.
I had low expectations for Mötley Crüe and they were at least meeting them. And to their credit, they at least had one new song to perform: “The Dirt,” which was the title track from the Netflix movie that came out… Somewhat recently? I don’t know. Nikki or someone asked the crowd how many people had seen it and I had nothing to offer as I’ve not watched it, nor will I. But while I’m not a Crüe fan, I do support longstanding bands continuing to record new music for themselves and their most dedicated fans. Even if it does veer off into complete crap territory by having some moron ‘rap’ over it on the video screens.
I didn’t really have time to be distracted by that though, as it was at this point that shit in the crowd really hit the fan. One guy that did not belong in the row in front of me kept trying to push his way in. Meanwhile the guy whose seat he was getting in the way of was growing more and more frustrated by the intruders… Both the one guy and the entire group since his seat was on the aisle that was packed full of people. Finally the intruder went too far, putting his hand in the other guy’s face, so the guy’s frustration boiled over and he clocked the intruder straight in the face. The two of them continued in their fist fight, knocking over chairs and other people in the process. I grabbed my wife and moved her to the other side of me as they started to spill into our row. The intruder got the shit beat out of him and was on the ground bleeding and dazed. Meanwhile the other guy, who really only got hit once, was pulled away by other fans well before security finally intervened. The area was a disaster, with chairs broken and moved everywhere. The rows of seats were all out of sorts and there was blood all over the floor in the aisle.
It had only become that much more apparent why I hadn’t gone to see Mötley Crüe before.
As all that was happening, I completely missed Nikki Sixx’s crowd banter and introduction for a medley of covers. So when the dust settled and I finally returned my attention to the actual concert, I didn’t know what the fuck they were doing. At that point they were in the middle of “White Punks On Dope” and it was like I was at a bizarro Down ‘n’ Outz concert. Once it segued into “Helter Skelter,” I realized what they were doing. But I also wondered why the fuck they were doing it considering they had a 90 minute time slot and were filling a chunk of it with a medley of covers. If I were even a moderately dedicated Crüe fan, I’d be disappointed.
Following the medley, a keyboard rose out of the catwalk and Tommy Lee emerged once again. Despite only playing a few songs during the evening, he was the most energetic person in the band… And suddenly I realized he was the only one that actually seemed to be having fun. Nikki had his moments to a much lesser extent. Mick mainly just looked at his guitar as he played. Vince… Could not have looked more disinterested, which was most apparent to me as he strolled down to the end of the catwalk with the rest of the band. There was zero interaction between them (because again, they hate each other), and he was stone faced the entire way despite the crowd getting louder as he got closer to the end.
Ironically, this was one of Vince’s better vocal moments during the show, as being limited to the end of the catwalk for the laid back “Home Sweet Home” allowed him to actually sing it, and to sing more than every third word. He would stick the mic out to the crowd to sing the chorus, but still showed little enjoyment for what he was actually doing.
Seeing that play out made me zero in on watching the band’s faces for the rest of the night. Exactly how much fun were they having? Even while just playing the keyboard, Tommy was at least smiling and singing and interacting with fans. I never saw that level of excitement from any other guy in the band for the rest of the night.
Much like with Poison, but slightly less reluctantly, I’ll admit to enjoying “Dr. Feelgood” quite a bit. The song is heavy, catchy, and the production on it is pretty insane. As for how it would translate live… It wasn’t quite as massive and expectedly, the lead vocal was the weakest part of the whole damn thing.
When the set reached “Girls, Girls, Girls,” two huge inflatable girls arose on the stage and the three dancer/backup singers emerged wearing robot outfits. They certainly did their part in carrying the backing vocals (if they were actually live) and stage presence, as they had far more than the three members of Mötley Crüe. I question what was actually live with any of the backing vocals, as at times they sounded way too big to be coming from who was on the stage (usually just Nikki). The same could be said for some guitar parts, where Mick Mars was soloing away but there was still somehow a rhythm part coming through the speakers.
The inflatable girls remained on the stage for the remainder of the set, which concluded with “Primal Scream” and “Kickstart My Heart.” Nugget hot, hot on speed, chaulk filled putty tat, hell of a bee. Live in person. Wah-gah!
The band said their goodnights and they were off.
So… How did I feel about seeing Mötley Crüe for the very first time at my 149th concert? Eh. Good, not great. I’ve seen better, I’ve seen worse. Musically they were solid, though there was the previously mentioned questionable phantom guitar parts being heard. The backing vocals were just fine, but whether they were live or not is up for debate. The energy level felt different when Tommy Lee went missing, which unfortunately was the majority of their set. He was the only one that truly appeared to be having fun every minute he was on stage. Nikki seemed to be enjoying himself at times, Mick very much kept to himself and focused on his guitar, and Vince… Props to him for slimming down ahead of the tour, but his vocals have seen little improvement. I’m not expecting him to sound exactly like he did when he was in his prime but I do expect him to actually do the songs service. As in intelligibly singing the majority of the actual words instead of mumbling through a quarter of them. Looking even slightly interested in being on stage in front of tens of thousands of people would probably help too.
Overall, I had low expectations and I’m not sure Crüe even hit those. I wanted to enjoy them more than I did, but the sound quality was crap and the energy level wasn’t what I expected from them as a whole. The whole thing just failed to feel like the event it should have been, being a stadium show in a huge city so early in the band’s return from ‘retirement.’ I know I’m biased, but they should not be closing any shows on this tour. And if they’re going to stick a covers medley in the middle of the set, they should be cut down 10 minutes and have that time allotted to Def Leppard as the proper headliner.
If I was doing anything else in the world, I would have been dying at this point. I’d been up since 5AM on very little sleep following a late night softball game and rough work week. I drove nearly two hours to an airport, sat there for another two hours, then took a two hour flight from St. Louis to New York. I sat in traffic for longer than ever before outside the airport en route to my hotel, where I had just a short break before hopping onto the subway over to the stadium. Once I was finally inside, I sat through three bands, all just to see DEF LEPPARD.
But it was finally time.
It’s hard to describe the excitement I was feeling as the stage was being set for Def Leppard. This would be my 64th time seeing them live, so it was hardly a new experience. But it was being experienced in a completely different way than before for so many reasons. As usual, when I walked out of my final Lep show of the year on September 7, 2019, I didn’t know what was ahead. Then what was ahead changed, and changed again, and changed again. In the middle of that, my life and the whole world changed. All concerts were taken away for awhile. I became a father. Nothing was as it was when I had last seen Def Leppard.
Not only that, but I was now down to the final minutes of the second longest gap between Lep shows since I first saw the band. My very first show was July 30, 1996 in St. Louis, MO. I was just nine years old at the time. My second show wasn’t until August 17, 1999 in my hometown, Springfield, IL. I was 12 years old by then, and three years at that age is an eternity. It was a gap of 1,113 days.
Now, at 35 years old, it had been 1,021 days since I had last seen Def Leppard. Portions of that wait certainly felt long but three years in your thirties is nothing compared to three years when you’re a kid. Still, it’s crazy that the last time I had a wait this long between Leppard shows, I didn’t have a kid, I was a kid.
I’ve never taken a Def Leppard show for granted, even at times when I have expressed frustration with some of their rigid setlists in the past. But the pandemic and losing two years of getting to see the band live still made me that much more appreciative of them still being around. Losing two years of their shows at this stage of their career was a tough pill to swallow, especially as I continue my goal of reaching 100 Def Leppard concerts. But what’s done is done and it was time to get back on track. And there’s no better way to do that than with a stadium show in New York City with a studio album that isn’t even a month old to support.
Going completely dark to social media and other websites meant I had barely even seen what the stage would look like. I’d seen a few sneak peeks before I logged off of everything, but that was it. And thankfully, I’d had ZERO setlist spoilers. So I was awaiting the show completely fresh, not knowing exactly what I would see.
But the surprises started before Lep even hit the stage. Like before, a countdown popped up on the screens that were decorated with Diamond Star Halos-themed artwork. As I sat there anxiously tapping my foot, I suddenly tuned into the music that was playing, as I could tell it was a cover of David Bowie’s “Heroes.” Between the crowd noise and being so close to the stage, it was difficult to hear it clearly and I couldn’t quite tell who was covering the song. But as I listened more and more, I thought it sounded a lot like Joe Elliott on vocals.
Without prompting her, I asked my wife who she thought was singing the song, and she replied “It sounds like Joe.” So I sent fellow Lep fan Cindy a message through Twitter to ask about it and she confirmed my suspicion… I was listening to a brand new, unreleased cover of “Heroes” by Def Leppard. Being out of the loop on social media and the forum had even kept this surprise intact, With a new original Lep album recently released, I can take joy in them doing another cover tune for whatever reason and it was nice to have something new take the place of “Personal Jesus.”
My excitement boiled over as the countdown reached zero, the lights went down, and the album intro music for “Take What You Want” came blasting through the speakers. I had hoped this would happen ever since the day the song was released as the second single from Diamond Star Halos. To borrow from my initial review of the song:
As for “Take What You Want,” I can see Def Leppard using this as the show opener for the stadium tour this summer. I picture it being done like they did “Rock! Rock! (Till You Drop)” in 2009, where the album version of the intro plays as the band takes the stage, and then they kick in live when it builds into the main riff. Hopefully they do so with a curtain that drops right as they kick into that part of the song.
There wasn’t a curtain, but there was a video screen that had been lowered and was slowly raising as the intro played. Then just as I’d hoped, the band kicked in with the main riff and we were off.
As soon as the band kicked off the song and Joe came in with the vocals, it was immediately apparent that Def Leppard were a whole other ballgame (pun intended?) than the three bands that had already played. The muddy sound that had plagued the first three bands was gone and replaced by crystal clear perfection. As mentioned, this was my 149th concert and Def Leppard is just in a completely different category than every other band in terms of their live show’s presentation and sound quality. The only other band that has come remotely close to Lep’s amazing sound quality is Garbage, as I found out last September.
As for “Take What You Want,” the song is a MONSTER live. It’s the third new song to be used as an opener in the last decade or so and this one is miles ahead of “Undefeated” and “Let’s Go.” It helped that Joe was clearly going to have a fantastic night vocally, as it was the best I had heard him on the song (having only heard live versions from Jimmy Kimmel Live and the Sirius XM broadcast of the show at The Whisky). This song, which is likely my favorite on Diamond Star Halos, has all the makings of a live classic.
I decided early on to get my videos of any new songs out of the way tonight, as I’m still trying to nail down the lyrics and fuck them up all the time when trying to sing along. Plus I knew seeing any new songs live would increase my love for them so I can enjoy them even more at subsequent shows when I’ll actually know the lyrics.
Plus I had mostly short folks in front of me, so…
I fully expected “Animal” to be in that second spot, as it has been locked there since 2014. But when the stage turned red and a “We Will Rock You” type beat started, I knew we were in for something different. I wasn’t sure what yet, but my immediate guess was “Fire It Up” even though I had no idea if they were actually playing the song. Turns out.. They were, and here it was! I was quite curious about how it would sound live, especially with Joe having to handle those crazy verses.
I mean, I knew he could do it, having done it on record and since he’s been singing “Slang” live for more than two decades now. I guess I have too, but I can never, and I mean NEVER, get that “I’d love to get connected” line right. I’m simply incapable of singing/rapping it correctly. Joe was nailing “Fire It Up,” other than a minor mix up in the second verse… Musically it sounded great and the light show & presentation for the song was awesome. Once again, seeing the song live made it even better and I expect it to be more enjoyable for me when listening to the studio version moving forward.
I was also impressed that the show kicked off with two new songs. I knew “Kick” was probable too, so having three new songs in the set was really exciting since only getting two wouldn’t have been much of a surprise for this type of show.
Things returned to ‘normal’ after the one-two punch of new songs, as “Animal” remained early in the set in slot three. Since I’d been recording for the first two numbers, this was my first chance to sit back, take it all in, and sing (poorly) at a concert like I haven’t done in damn near three years. The same applied to “Foolin’,” which expectedly fell fourth. Noticeably absent was any sharing of the mic for Joe and Phil. Which is understandable in today’s world, but still a bit strange after watching those two share a mic for the final bridge for so many years.
I expected “Kick” to follow as Joe made his way down the catwalk, but when Vivian followed him I knew what was next. Joe addressed the crowd since it had been so long since they’d been here before giving Vivian his introduction. Viv went on to kick off “Armageddon It” (completely free of a cymbal count-in, I might add). The song sounded great but once again there was no sharing of the mic for Joe & Viv.
Joe worked his way down the catwalk once again address the crowd and point out how the last couple of years have been ‘pretty shit.’ But he told the story of the band using that time to work on new music and introduce “Kick” from Diamond Star Halos. Which I think translates live quite well musically, but the chorus and backing vocals sound a bit odd to me. No matter, it was awesome to hear three new songs in the set and I figured we were done with Diamond Star Halos at that point.
The set returned to standard fare with “Love Bites,” which once again was accompanied by an awesome light show. Thanks to the show at The Whisky, I knew “Excitable” was a possibility for this tour and I was happy when it followed. I’ve enjoyed seeing that song live going all the way back to when it made its debut in 2000. Of course I enjoyed its revivals in 2007, 2013, and 2019 as well. Since the song was played at the last five shows I saw the band play in 2019, I wouldn’t have minded a different deep cut in this spot… But considering some of the alternatives, I was also thrilled to get “Excitable” as a deep cut in a set that also included three new songs.
After “Excitable,” Joe emerged with an acoustic guitar. When the roadies were setting the stage for Lep after Mötley Crüe, I spotted a couple of guitar techs testing out acoustic guitars. I turned to my wife and said “man, I was hoping there would be no acoustic song for this tour.” Of course, I was merely referencing “Two Steps Behind,” as I hoped it would be rested in favor of some more rock-centered material given the nature of the tour and the setting.
But then I saw that Rick’s acoustic drum kit has also emerged at the end of the catwalk, and as I had learned at my first Vegas show in 2019… That meant it wasn’t going to be your standard acoustic break.
Rick was the first to join Joe at the end of the catwalk and once he got seated, he started with a simple beat that had me confused as to what the hell they were about to do. It was quite similar to when he started with a simple beat during the Vegas residency and “We Belong” was what followed. Joe continued to chat with the crowd as each band member emerged with a quick introduction. Meanwhile Joe told the story of Phil writing “This Guitar” all the way back in 2003, and I was in shock that they were about to play that song.
As you may know from my review of Diamond Star Halos, I was quite concerned about “This Guitar” ahead of the album release since it had a country flavor to it. And while it definitely ranks near the bottom on the album for me, I still enjoy the song quite a bit. So I was thrilled to have the chance to see it live. It was also a pretty big deal to have FOUR new songs in one set, as that hasn’t happened since I saw the band on March 28, 2003 in Chicago on the X tour. The very year “This Guitar” was written! That was just my ninth Def Leppard show… And here I was on show #64, finally seeing four new songs in one set again.
After realizing what the band was going to play, I turned to my wife and said “I take back what I said about not wanting any acoustic songs in the set.”
Once the introductions (of the band and the song) were out of the way, the band played the song and much like the acoustic version of “Let Me Be The One” in Vegas, this live acoustic version of “This Guitar” just may be my favorite version of the song. Stripping it down to normal acoustic guitars and adding more band backing vocals to the song transformed it into much more of a traditional Def Leppard acoustic song.
Interestingly, Phil flipped a switch on his guitar, which allowed him to play a proper electric solo for the song while the rest remained acoustic. It was awesome and I loved the entire performance. I really hope a live album from this tour will be released so we can have a proper live recording of this song.
The whole band remained on the catwalk after that song, so I wasn’t quite sure what to expect for the next song. I had filmed “This Guitar” and let my phone keep recording since I wasn’t sure what would follow, and I was once again shocked when it turned out to be the acoustic version of “Have You Ever Needed Someone So Bad.” This song has a bit of a crazy history for my shows, as I had seen it performed (electrically) at my very first show on July 30, 1996, but was not seen again for a record 58 shows. The song was not played on the 1999-2000 Euphoria tour or the 2002-2003 X tour. It had a short revival on the 2005 Rock Of Ages tour, but was sadly dropped from the setlist before my first show on that tour. It wasn’t until the 2019 Vegas residency that I finally got to see the song live again, now in acoustic form.
It was one thing to see the song five times during a residency, but now I was seeing it live during a normal tour show (in a stadium, no less) for the first time in 26 years. I couldn’t believe it. Which is a bit weird, considering how big of a hit it was in 1992 and how it was featured on the multi-platinum Vault compilation. A huge hit turned into a deep cut. Just strange. But I loved getting to see it again and made sure to film it since it was the only (rare) acoustic track I didn’t get footage of during the 2019 residency. I tried, but quit thanks to a poor sightline. I guess that worked out perfectly though since I had a great view for tonight’s show.
Everyone but Joe left the catwalk following “Have You Ever Needed Someone So Bad.” Part of me hoped “Now” would somehow make the cut for the show, but instead Joe invited the crowd to sing with him as he did an even shorter version of “Two Steps Behind” than he did on the 2015 tour.
He kicked it off with the first line of the song, had the crowd sing the chorus with him, and then ended the song after that. Short and sweet. And better than a bass solo!
I appreciated that we got two different songs for the full acoustic performances but still got a taste of “Two Steps Behind.”
The stage went dark and the album intro for “Rocket” kicked off the final run for the set. I hoped it would be the proper album version that I’ve been fortunate to see during both the 2013 and 2019 Vegas runs… But it was just the shortened version with the album intro that we’ve been seeing on normal tours since 2016. Not that that hurt my enjoyment of it, as “Rocket” is my favorite of all the big hits.
“Bringin’ On The Heartbreak” and “Switch 625” served as the only tracks from High ‘n’ Dry.
Once again, “Hysteria” followed. I knew something was up though, as an extra bass drum and a GONG had lowered from the lightning rig off to the right of Rick’s drum kit. I stared at the two things, wondering what the hell they were doing there. The last time I’d seen a gong on a Def Leppard stage was 2000, when it was used to really accentuate the ending of “Paper Sun” on the Euphoria tour.
Photos and video of the band flashed on the screens behind them, and once again it included video and photos from their induction into the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame. It’s still hard to believe I was there, and it was extra special to once again be seeing the band in New York. It was easy to become so focused on the show that I forgot where I was. But that reminded me. In 2019, I got to see the band in Brooklyn. Tonight, I was watching the band in Queens. One day, I hope to see the band in Manhattan at Madison Square Garden.
“Hysteria” carried on as usual until after the final chorus, when the song detoured into a crowd participation segment. Rick left his normal kit, instead playing the standalone bass drum while the guitars took on a reserved tone as Joe worked the crowd. I really liked the guitar work being done by Viv & Phil, but wasn’t quite sure how I felt about the outro. Rick finished it off with a strike of the gong, and that was that. If I’m being honest, “Hysteria” is a song that I haven’t been excited about in a long time, so this at least gave it something a little different to experience.
The stage went dark again and the band then blasted into “Pour Some Sugar On Me,” dropping the ‘step inside’ intro that has been used for awhile now. By this point I’d been watching the clock, wondering how many songs we had left. Knowing the time, I wasn’t surprised when the band skipped the encore break but I was happy. It was a wise move during a show like this, where every minute counts. Dropping that no doubt helped the band expand their setlist so I really appreciated it.
It was no surprise that “Rock Of Ages” and “Photograph” followed, having closed every show (except the Hall Of Fame induction) I’ve seen since 2013. Sure, I wish it would get switched up. But in a setting like this, you can’t beat the one-two-three punch of “Pour Some Sugar On Me,” “Rock Of Ages,” and “Photograph” to end the night.
Well, if they’d played “Wasted” or something, sure. But for the casual fan, of which there would have been plenty in the stadium, those three songs are as good as it gets.
As for me, I was beyond satisfied with what I had seen. It had been a long day, both due to travel and enduring three bands before them, but Def Leppard made it all worth it.
My fear going into the show, having not had anything spoiled for me setlist-wise, was getting the 12 big hits, “Switch 625,” “Rock On,” and maybe “Take What You Want” & “Kick” as the token new songs in a standard 16 song set. I was excited for the show regardless after 2.75 years, but I was also hoping for the best and prepped for the basics. So when I got not only FOUR new songs but also “Excitable” and “Have You Ever Needed Someone So Bad,” I was blown away. Lep had finally done what I’d been hoping for in a normal show by being confident in their new music while also changing up a couple of the standards. I’m glad “Two Steps Behind” has been cut down (as I wouldn’t miss it if it was dropped entirely) but I like how it is still featured a little bit. And while I’ve grown to love “Let’s Get Rocked” in concert again, I also don’t mind swapping it out for something else. “Let’s Get Rocked” will return one day, but it’s good to have anything else featured in its place. “Excitable” wouldn’t necessarily be my first choice since it was featured in my five previous shows (all in Vegas), but if I had to choose between the two, I’ll take “Excitable” any day since I’ve seen it far less often. And while I wouldn’t necessarily pick “This Guitar” out of all the songs on the new album, I’m just glad to see anything from it at all and any change to the acoustic section of a normal tour show is refreshing.
Yes, 2/3 of the set picks itself, but what the band has done with the other 1/3 of the set is pretty bold and refreshing. Maybe as the tour goes along, we will get a couple of changes, whether it be with the new tracks (still hoping to see “Gimme A Kiss That Rocks,” “Open Your Eyes,” and “SOS Emergency” live!) or older tracks in the “Excitable” and/or “Foolin'” slots.
As we continue to feel out life during the third year of the pandemic, it was nice to finally get to see Def Leppard again. I spent 2021 attending a range of concerts from small tribute band shows to huge shows (like Foo Fighters and Garbage/Alanis Morissette) in varying degrees of comfortability. That will be an ongoing thing, but all that mattered tonight was that two years and nine-plus months of waiting was finally up and I got to see my favorite band live again. It would have been a great time even if they had trotted out the same old set, but damn am I glad they had several surprises in store for me. The Diamond Star Halos tracks deserve to be heard live and any deep cuts after that are huge bonuses.
Well done, fellas.
Media Review:
NYC Crumbles in the Wake of The Stadium Tour
Summer 2022’s hottest tour has been two years in the making, with rock concert-goers, and general lovers of a good time waiting with bated breath amongst cancelations, reshuffled lineups, and postponements in the wake of COVID-19.
Finally, on a hot summer day in NYC, the two-years-in-the-making concert event of the year careened into Queens’s Citi Field, with the promise of a full days-worth of hard rock nostalgia bred through music, beer, and comradery. Those unfamiliar, or those out of the proverbial loop, might be wondering aloud, “Which artists pepper this reportedly star-studded roster?” Well, if you’re on the edge of your set, I’ll leave to wonder no longer, as I spent the day at Citi Field, taking in all the glory, splendor, and bombast that The Stadium Tour had to offer.
Classless Act
The day’s musical journey kicked off with Classless Act, who initially were not scheduled to be a part of The Stadium Tour when it was first announced during those ever-distant pre-COVID days. In the tour’s first incarnation, Tuk Smith & The Restless Hearts were originally slated as openers, but amidst the post-pone moments, Mötley Crüe’s Tommy Lee took a liking to the band, and eventually, Classless Act was tabbed as the opener. The timing couldn’t have been more perfect for Classless Act, as the band’s debut record, Welcome to the Show, was released the same day (June 24th) as the performance at Citi Field.
While The Stadium Tour is proving to be Classless Act’s first foray into the stadium world and will serve as their first major, national exposure, in performance, the band’s supposed “inexperience” is not remotely apparent. The band’s frontman, Derek Day, is a burgeoning star, with a commanding stage presence, and his bandmate’s musicianship and showmanship are stout.
Classless Act’s five-song setlist was torrid and proves why the band is one of the genre’s most up-and-coming groups. For those in attendance – remember this moment – as it will serve as a harbinger of greatness to come and just might be akin to seeing Mötley Crüe at The Troubadour in the early 80s. Yes, Classless Act is that good, and that torrential. The only issue was crowd size. Sadly, for Classless Act, the Citi Field performance took place on a busy Friday afternoon in NYC, with far too many would-be concertgoers still at work, as such, the crowd was only a few thousand strong, at most. Still, for those that were there, this will be a moment to remember, and their namesake track, “Classless Act,” gave an intimate snapshot of a band on the fast track to megastardom.
Joan Jett & The Blackhearts
Next up, was rock ‘n’ roll queen, and trendsetting veteran, Joan Jett, who was flanked by her band, The Blackhearts. Jett kicked off around 430pm, with the torrid “Victim of Circumstance,” which seemed all too appropriate given the times we live in. From there, Jett ran through a set of twelve classics, which included The Runaway’s “Cherry Bomb,” a cover of Tommy James & The Shondell’s “Crimson & Clover,” and of course, Jett staples “I Hate Myself for Loving You,” and “Bad Reputation.”
I’ve seen Jett twice before, once in 2012, and once in 2015, so it had been seven long years since I’d seen the leather-clad rock queen strut her stuff, and I have to say, she hasn’t lost a step. Yes, for those wondering, Jett’s voice and always solid guitar work were in vintage form. If you’ve seen Joan Jett, then you know what you’re going to get – a gutsy, edgy, near-primal performance. Nothing more. Nothing less.
Still, Jett’s timeless vibe, anthemic choruses, and influential aesthetic are always a sight to see. If you’ve not seen Jett perform before, she’s a regular on the circuit year in and year out, as such, I recommend you scoop up tickets when she comes to town. Sadly, once again, crowd size was an issue. I suspect that during Jett’s set, many fans were either driving home or on their way to the stadium for the remaining three acts which were to follow.
Poison
Bringing up the rear behind Joan Jett was glam rock warriors, Poison. Going in, I had heard mixed reviews regarding Poison, and so I had high hopes, but not overly high expectations. More so, in recent weeks I had seen reports from Poison’s drummer, Rikki Rockett where he mentioned that Poison was not a band that used any backing tracks, and was, “All live, all the time, with no help,” which I found commendable. The commitment to presenting an authentic live product is in keeping with the spirit of raw, and dirty rock ‘n’ roll, and if nothing else, that’s what Poison is, by definition at least, right?
Bret and the boys kicked off their set with “Look What The Cat Dragged In,” which was an effective way to open the show to be sure. Immediately, their stage presence was palatable, especially when it comes to frontman Bret Michaels, and guitarist C.C. DeVille. Also immediately apparent was that Michaels was, unfortunately, having a touch of vocal issues on this particular evening. It’s worth noting that NYC has been under a serious air quality alert for days, making breathing, and perhaps vocalizing difficult, so Michaels gets a pass here. For the most part, Michaels held his own during the verses, but during the chorus sections of some of the songs, he seems to be a tad bit restrained, if not restricted.
To the rest of the band’s credit, they were sensational. C.C. DeVille starred on classic tracks such as “Talk Dirty to Me,” “I Want Action,” “Unskinny Bop,” and “Nothin’ But A Good Time.” Also, I must say that “Fallen Angel” was a welcomed addition to the setlist, and it went down a treat, with C.C.’s unmistakable tone prevalent throughout. As far as Bobby Dall and Rikki Rockett go, when it comes to 80s rock rhythm sections, they are as solid as it comes, and their showmanship never ceases to amaze me. Toward the end of the show, Poison launched into “Every Rose Has Its Thorn,” which surprising even to me, proved to be the setlist highlight, after “Fallen Angel,” of course.
Overall, Poison put on a wonderful show. My only complaint is that in a too-short, eleven-song setlist, they added in both a guitar solo and drum solo. In my opinion, I would have rather heard two more tracks – perhaps deep cuts – rather than the solos. In a long-form concert setting, I am all for drum and guitar virtuosity, but in this type of setting, nine songs simply aren’t enough to satiate my appetite for Poison’s patented brand of 80s rock goodness.
Mötley Crüe
As dusk began to fall, The Stadium Tour’s penultimate act and co-headliner Mötley Crüe took the stage, and did so in literal explosive fashion with “Wild Side,” and what a way to open it was. By this point, Citi Field was around three-quarters of the way (or more) full, and from where I was positioned on the floor, just a few rows from the stage, things were getting rowdy, and Mötley Crüe’s particular brand of sleaze-ridden metal did nothing to calm the masses.
From there, Neil and company ripped into searing renditions of “Shout At The Devil,” “Too Fast For Love,” and for me at least, a happy inclusion of “Saints of Los Angeles,” one of my favorite Mötley Crüe tracks. By the time “Live Wire” kicked off, a sufficiently sweat-soaked, and alcohol-imbibed crowd was moshing at near-panic levels, and it was at this point that broken-rib-bearing drummer, Tommy Lee, strutted to the stage’s edge, and took things down a notch. “Man, we are so fuckin’ happy to be here. Fuckin’ look at you, New York, you’re fuckin’ beautiful. Hey, I’m sorry I can’t be up here with these guys all night, I cracked some fuckin’ ribs. But I’m here now. All I can say is we fuckin’ missed you – I fuckin’ missed you,” said Motley’s tattoo-covered, legendary bringer of thunder.
With the crowd in the palm of its hand, Mötley Crüe launched into a turnback-the-clock rendition of “Home Sweet Home,” which would have you swearing it was 1989 all over again. Now, you might be wondering, “What about Vince Neil’s vocals?” To that, all I can say is the reports are overexaggerated, and Neil was in fine form all night. The proof was in the pudding, as a track like “Home Sweet Home” would have easily exposed any singer’s weaknesses, but Neil drove it him with the vigor of a stage-bred pro. The Crüe closed out the fifteen-song set with a powerful run of tracks that include “Girls, Girls, Girls,” “Dr. Feelgood,” “Same Ol’ Situation (SOS),” and a show-stopping rendition of “Kickstart My Heart,” which was so vicious that it threatened to topple Citi Field, crumbling its walls, and exposing the mangled steel framework beneath.
Citi Field didn’t topple though, but many fans certainly did. To Mötley’s credit, they were in fantastic form, and at sets end, I was certain that they had stolen the entire show. Vince Neil’s voice was steady, if not agile, and exactly what you’d expect from an aging rocker, who has lived the long and varied life that Neil has. Nikki Sixx remains the consummate performer. His iconic posturing, thunderous basslines, and authoritative stage presence haven’t diminished with time whatsoever. Mick Mars, though he doesn’t move much due to physical maladies, is still an unmitigated wizard on the guitar. Mars’ stylings are a sight to behold, and given his physical condition, he certainly falls under the “see him now, before you never have the chance to again” category.
The elephant in the room is Tommy Lee. Once again, he performed a few tracks, took a break, and then came back for “Home Sweet Home.” For me, Tommy Lee takes Mötley Crüe to another level, as his ability behind the drums is unparalleled, and his showmanship is unquestioned. While fill-in drummer Tommy Clufetos fancies himself a dead-ringer and honestly is a capable replacement, there is a touch of fairy dust missing when Lee isn’t behind the kit, and that became very apparent when Lee wasn’t on stage. When Lee was present, you could the nuanced musicality elevate on the whole, and his bandmates’ energy rise with it.
Def Leppard
So, remember when I mentioned that to this point I felt Mötley Crüe had all but stolen the show? Well, I felt that way until around 930pm, when in front of a packed house, Def Leppard triumphantly took the stage. Now, to this point, I had been thoroughly impressed with all four of the day’s acts, as such, my expectations for the tour’s final headliner were high. This said, going in, I had heard rumblings that the mighty Lep was experiencing all sorts of sound and performance issues on stage, so I made an effort to temper those same expectations.
To say those reports were incorrect, overexaggerated, and generally false would be a massive understatement. From the literal opening chords of new track “Take What You Want,” it was readily apparent that in Def Leppard, we were dealing with an entirely different animal than we had seen all day. From the jump, Leppard’s sound and mix were spot on, with Vivian Campbell and Phil Collen’s dueling leadwork in perfect synchronicity. Rick Savage and Rick Allen continue to be consummate professionals, whose towering rhythms echoed through the halls and channels of Citi Field. But the most stunning part of Def Leppard’s set was the band’s frontman, Joe Elliot, who strutted across the stage, commanding the crowd, beckoning them to cater to his every whim.
Elliott and company moved through a near-perfect set, which included “Fire It Up,” “Animal,” “Foolin’,” “Love Bites,” and “Armageddon It,” before Elliot wistfully strode to the stages edge, spread his arms, and took it all in. “Excuse me, I just want to take a moment, and breathe this all in. It’s been a long fucking long time since we’ve seen this, and I’ve missed it. The last two years have been a bit shit, haven’t they? It’s good to be back. It’s good to see you all. Thanks for having us,” said Leppard’s amiable frontman.
During the performance, I heard a lot of fans around me complaining due to Leppard’s inclusion of several new tracks into its eighteen-song setlist, but honestly, the new music is wonderful and ingratiates itself alongside the classics seamlessly. More so, the Sheffield veterans played just about every classic track any cursory fan could want. So, with that, what more could you want? Leppard is a band that is still creative, vibrant and performing with vital urgency. Their musicianship, songsmith, and ageless-wonder-sound should be cherished, not wasted. If Def Leppard wants to feed us new music, then we should be prepared to eat as if we’ve been starved of rock music for years. To that end, we have been, haven’t we?
Another complaint fans seemed to be fostering was the inclusion of acoustic tracks into the middle portion of the performance. Once again, I have no issue. I felt it added tremendous depth to the performance, and allowed fans to see another side of the band. Once more, given that this was a greatest-hits-peppered, eighteen-song set, there was more than enough room for the band to stretch out, if you will.
At the conclusion of that acoustic portion, Leppard launched into “Rocket,” “Bringin’ on the Heartbreak,” “Hysteria,” “Pour Some Sugar on Me,” ‘Rock of Ages,” and “Photograph,” before bidding the crowd adieu. At the show’s end, clad in red velvet, and a bowler hat, Elliot addressed the crowd once more, “Thank you, New York. It’s been a pleasure. It’s been too long since we’ve been here. We’ll see you next time, and I promise you – there will be a next time. Please don’t forget us, because we will never forget you.”
The Takeaway
Two years in the making, hoping, and wishing, The Stadium Tour is upon us, that is to say – it’s in motion – and this train won’t stop until the tour’s September 2022 conclusion. But, as we all know, hype is a funny thing, and sometimes it leads to unrealistic expectations. So, as a concert goer, you might be plaintively asking yourself, “Is the price of admission worth it?” Well, I can certainly say that in this instance, the short answer is, “Yes. The juice is worth the squeeze.”
Look, the band’s on the bill were chosen for a reason. In the case of Classless Act, the elder statesmen on the tour love them, more so, they respect them. Classless Act harkens back to a bygone era, which happens to be the same era that The Stadium Tour is not-so-gently reminding us of. As for Joan Jett, she’s a warrior. She’s solid. You know what you’re going to get, and she always delivers it in spades. She’s a rocker through and through. Her raw passion and unbridled energy provide the essential bedrock for what’s to come.
Or course, we have Poison. These guys keep the wheels of this “thing” turning. Their showmen ship, unapologetic repping of the era, and reverence for their history are ever apparent, and always welcome. If you’re looking for a good show, smattered with greatest hits, and an old-school vibe, Poison is your draw. They are fun and worth the price of admission each and every time. In no uncertain terms, you won’t ever be sorry you went to a Poison show. Not ever.
As for Mötley Crüe, I didn’t know what to expect given the reports over Vince’s voice, and Tommy Lee having to sit a large portion of the set out. But you know what? They brought it – big time. The sleaze was apparent, with tattoos, droves of scantily clad women, and a general vibe of 1980s Sunset Strip debauchery – which they made famous – permeating through the tracks, performances, and members. Leather-bound fist in the air, and with a Thunderbird bass slung over his ink-clad shoulder, Nikki Sixx said it best, “We’ve been a band for forty-one years. They tried to kill us. We almost died, but they didn’t fuckin’ bury us. That’s what we’ve learned – you can’t kill us. You can hate us, but you can’t fuckin’ ignore us. You can’t kill Mötley fuckin’ Crüe. Mötley Crüe will never die.”
That leaves us with Def Leppard – who quite honestly – are worth the price of admission all by themselves. Without exaggeration, if you purchased a front-row ticket to The Stadium Tour, and you only showed up for Def Leppard’s set, you would not be disappointed. I don’t care how much it cost – Def Leppard was that stunning. Simply put, there are very few chances in life to see a world-dominating, historically meaningful hard rock band on stage, let alone in an open-air stadium, up close and personal. If you have the chance – take it – less you will regret it for the rest of your life. Hearing Eliott and company perform those legendary tracks in that type of setting will forever alter your perception of the band, and perhaps rock music, in general, for the rest of your life.
In short, The Stadium Tour isn’t about money, merch, or pomp and circumstance. No, it’s about the continued legacy of rock music. It’s about bridging the gap between new and old, between men and women, and between American and British bands. It’s about all of that and more. You know, there’s something of a false statement out there, or maybe, it’s a growing, if not lingering sentiment, and it goes something like this: “There’s no reason to make albums anymore, rock is dead.”
Well, I’m here to tell you that The Stadium Tour is living, breathing, in-your-face proof that rock ain’t dead. Not even close. Classless Act is a brand new band, with a new record out (Welcome To The Show), which is poised to crush the charts. Def Leppard is an over forty-years-strong band, with a new record out (Diamond Star Halos), which is currently invading the hearts and minds of both fans new and old alike. Does that sound like “rock is dead” to you? Because it sure doesn’t sound like it to me.
If you’ve got the chance, go see The Stadium Tour. In life, we have very few chances to see the greatest acts do what they do best on the grandest stages. For several years, The Stadium Tour seemed improbable, but on June 24th, 2022, at Citi Field in Queens, NY, an up-and-coming act, a fearless rock warrior, and three of rock music history’s most pioneering bands, accomplished the improbable, and then some.
By Andrew Daly @ VWMusic, 2022
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