Def Leppard Delivered All Rock, No Relic Performance at Hard Rock Live

"Let me take you all the way back to 1981 and the High 'n' Dry album," Def Leppard Joe Elliott tells the sold-out crowd at Hard Rock Live in Hollywood, Florida — and the voice vote that roars back is all aye, no nay as the guitarist Phill Collen breaks out the swaggering, serpentine intro riff for "Let It Go."

Some perspective: 1981 was forty-one years ago. Marty McFly only went back in time thirty years in Back to the Future —and even that jump made his Eddie Van Halen shredding incomprehensible at the Enchantment Under the Sea dance. ("Guess you aren't ready for that. But your kids are gonna love it.") Further: By the time High 'n' Dry hit shelves, Def Leppard had already existed for five years. That's forty-eight years ago. If in 1977 the members of Def Leppard had decided to treat themselves to a night off from refining their New Wave of British Heavy Metal raw materials into pop sheen-shellacked rock in the 'ol Sheffield practice space, they could've been going to see that young hipster Noël Coward (born 1899) performing his operetta Bitter Sweet in 1929.

How?

How does Def Leppard sound this good when so many — read: most — of their peers are being graded on a serious nostalgia curve? How does Elliott hit notes and surf melodies his vocal cords first conjured nearly half a century ago? Not to name names—*cough* Vince Neil *cough*— but time does seem to be a harsh mistress and all the Leps have, at this point, graduated from sex symbol to sexagenarian. Ex-Dio guitarist Vivian Campbell, in the Lep ranks since 1992, played on while fighting lymphoma from his diagnosis in 2013 to remission this year. I mean, Rick Allen lost his left arm in a 1984 car accident — and has continued on playing a one-arm modified drum kit for four decades. Who else has done anything approaching that?.
And yet there was no smoke and mirrors to the band's flawless Hard Rock set, which ranged from old school rock numbers skating on the edge of seventies glam (the aforementioned "Let It Go"; "Foolin'") to ur-power ballads ("Bringing on the Heartbreak"; "Love Bites") to an incredible acoustic interlude that showed even stripped down every member remains at the height of their powers ("Two Steps Behind"; "This Guitar") to songs that literally could not exist anywhere except in a sold-out stadium setting ("Photograph"; "Hysteria"; "Pour Some Sugar On Me").
The crowd was wildly diverse, too. Yes, there were many, many tipsy clinging-to-the-cliff-edge-of-middle-age couples clearly on divorcee dates dancing and grinding and executing mainly in time hand claps that started from the hips. But there were also devoted younger rockers flying the seventies/eighties fashion flags and middle-age workaday fans who could've been the "average, ordinary, everyday kid" Def Leppard sang from the perspective of on 1992's "Let's Get Rocked" (the third song performed last night) to multiple multi-generation families—grandparents, parents, and tweens all on their feet, fists in the air, singing along to "Armageddon It."

You know ya can't stop it…
To say Def Leppard is a well-oiled machine at this point would be an understatement: a large countdown clock beamed onto the stage backdrop, and when that thing hit zero at 8:15, the band hit the stage. There was banter, but — aside from the requisite absence before encore — no downtime for eighteen songs. At the end, Elliott thanked the crowd for their loyalty and energy. And when he said, "We'll see you next time," it was a welcome promise after a somewhat unlikely, triumphant performance by a still-vital band that is all rock, no relic.