Concert review by Dale Boyd
Penticton was asked if they wanted to get rocked, and the answer was a resounding yes.
I can say without a doubt that U.K. rockers Def Leppard brought in the most people I’ve ever seen in the South Okanagan Events Centre at one time.
The floor was packed and once the crowd stood up they didn’t return to their seats for the rest of the show.
Def Leppard is the first of a three-pronged British invasion of the SOEC, with Brit Floyd and Ringo Starr coming to Penticton in the fall. If this show was any indication, the invasion will be quite successful.
Most of the original line up was intact, including one-armed drummer Rick Allen, and the glam metal veterans sounded like they hadn’t aged a day since hits like Let’s Get Rocked, Pour Some Sugar On Me and Armageddon It first hit the radio.
Lead vocalist Joe Elliott still hits the high notes with precision and power blending well with the high-gain solos from Phil Collen that led to many an air guitar in the crowd.
You realize how much of a hit machine Def Leppard was when hearing best of tour. I wouldn’t consider myself a mega-fan, but I found myself singing along and knowing most of the words to songs I hadn’t heard in years.
The pace would only slow briefly for a few slower songs, and a solo acoustic effort from Elliott featuring a brief Neil Young shout out because we’re in Canada, but the performance was hard-hitting and high energy.
The initial set ended with Pour Some Sugar On Me, arguably the highlight of the show, and I personally wondered how they would follow that up. As said before, these guys are hit machines and after the capacity crowd screamed for an encore, they returned with Rock of Ages and Photograph capping off a hard-rocking set.