Date: Monday, October 21, 2019
City: Sauget, IL
Venue: Pop’s
Opening act(s): Last In Line
Headlining act: UFO
Last In Line Setlist:
Landslide
Year Of The Gun
Holy Diver
Give Up The Ghost
The Last In Line
Starmaker
Electrified
Rainbow In The Dark
Devil In Me
We Rock
UFO Setlist:
Mother Mary
We Belong To The Night
Run Boy Run
Venus
Lights Out
Baby Blue
Only You Can Rock Me
Burn Your House Down
Cherry
Love To Love
Too Hot To Handle
Rock Bottom
———————
Doctor Doctor
Shoot Shoot
Notes:
- Fourth time seeing Last In Line; first as an opener.
- Third band with which I’ve seen Vivian Campbell perform, as I’ve seen him with Def Leppard 63 times, Thin Lizzy once, and now Last In Line four times. I’ve also seen him perform live with Leppard openers in 2003 (Ricky Warwick) and 2011 (Evan Watson), making Vivian the musician I’ve seen perform the most.
- Last In Line also featured original Dio (and former Black Sabbath) drummer Vinny Appice along with Andrew Freeman on vocals and Phil Soussan on bass.
- First time seeing “Give Up The Ghost” and “Electrified” live.
- The set featured six original Last In Line songs along with four Dio covers (two from 1983’s Holy Diver and two from 1984’s The Last In Line; no songs from 1985’s Sacred Heart, the last Dio album to feature the original lineup, were performed).
- First time seeing UFO; however, I only saw about half of their set.
- Show #2 at this venue; first since December 11, 2013.
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Review:
Aside from a few one-off shows scheduled throughout late September through early November, the Las Vegas residency was the end of the major live activity for Def Leppard in 2019. As a result, the band members would splinter off and return home for the winter.
Except for Vivian Campbell, who immediately returned to the stage with his side band, Last In Line.
They’re still touring in support of this year’s release of II, their aptly titled second album. Not even recent back surgery could prevent Vivian from getting back on stage for a mix of headline shows and opening slots for classic rockers UFO.
Tonight’s show at Pop’s in Sauget, IL was an opening spot.
This was only my second visit to the tiny venue, the last of which was on December 11, 2013 for my first and only time seeing Stone Temple Pilots when the late Chester Bennington was the frontman.
Not long after I booked tickets to this show, a headlining show in St. Charles, IL was announced for two days later. Of course I couldn’t pass up the chance to see them headline again, so I wound up with two shows in three days.
My wife and I headed down to Sauget after work and got in line for entry with reserved baloney seats. I spent the extra money for a reserved seat in what is normally a general admission venue to ensure we had a decent spot since we were going down late after a long work day.
Once inside, we took our seats in the front of the balcony just slightly to the left of the stage and waited for Last In Line.
Shortly after 8:00, the band appeared and kicked off the show with “Landslide.” This was my first time seeing the band anywhere besides the Arcada Theatre in St. Charles, and my first time seeing them as an opener rather than a headliner. It was apparent that this was a UFO crowd, as it took them a bit to get warmed up to Last In Line.
Due to the abbreviated opening set, a handful of songs were nixed including a few Dio covers and one original tune. But I’m happy to say the majority of the set was made up of originals, as Last In Line continues to work and stand on their own despite their ties to the early era of Dio.
Despite the short set, it still included two songs I had not seen live before.
The first was “Give Up The Ghost,” which was added literally ONE DAY after I saw the band in St. Charles on March 22. And it’s a damn good live song so I was happy to finally see it.
The other first timer was “Electrified,” which had been added to the set just two shows prior to this one. So while it took a long time to see “Give Up The Ghost,” I was fortunate to catch “Electrified” very early on.
It was strange to see Vivian performing on such a small stage, but he rocked out just the same as he does on the big stages. If I didn’t know about his back surgery beforehand, I never would have suspected anything was up as he still went all out for this evening’s one hour set.
Not surprisingly, the cover of “Rainbow In The Dark” was one of the highlights of the night for the crowd.
Rather than waste time on an encore, they continued straight through and closed the set with “Devil In Me” and “We Rock.”
I couldn’t pass up the chance to see Last In Line just 80 minutes away from where I live even though the set was shorter than usual. But it was still an awesome show regardless and I was glad four songs from II made it into the set.
After their show, Vinny and Phil spent some time at the merch table, signing autographs and taking photos with fans. I was going to run down there, but decided to stay put since I didn’t want to miss UFO’s opening song and I would be doing the VIP Meet & Greet with Last In Line just two days later.
UFO took the stage around 9:30 and kicked things off with “Mother Mary.” I was only vaguely familiar with UFO going in, but I had listened to them on Spotify the night before and really enjoyed them. So I was looking forward to seeing them live.
It was clear that at least 3/5 of the band were not original, but they still sounded great despite this being their 50th anniversary.
The second song was “We Belong To The Night,” which quickly grabbed my attention when listening to the band the night before. Not surprisingly, it was a great live song as well.
“Run Boy Run” and “Venus” followed before the highlight of the set for me, which was “Lights Out.” Brittany didn’t know a single UFO song going in, and I suggested “Lights Out” as the one she may be most familiar with. Somehow she wasn’t, but it is the one I remember most from classic rock radio and when my dad would occasionally listen to the band between binges of Rush when I was a kid.
Despite my enjoyment of the show, Brittany wasn’t all that invested so she pushed for an early exit since we still had a long drive home and she works two hours earlier than I do.
Before we left, we headed over to the merch table so I could pick up a new Last In Line shirt, as my original is a few years old at this point. While there, I purchased a signed setlist which at first glance looked to match what was played at tonight’s show.
It was only on the way out that I realized it included “Stand Up And Shout,” which was not played during the show. So for the second time, I got my hands on a signed inaccurate setlist.
We headed out after that, so I only got to see & hear about half of UFO’s show. As luck would have it, we wound up directly behind Last In Line’s tour van as we were leaving and getting on the highway. They had an eight hour drive to Ohio in front of them.
It was a great show as always, but I was also excited to see the band play a headline set in front of their own crowd again.
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