Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Artist: Def Leppard
Label: Frontiers Records
Release: 2013
Running time: 147:50
Rating: 4.5/5
Here’s another rock band that, for the past two and a half decades, has thought commercially first and then tried to serve up whatever it figures will sell well. The profit has to be guaranteed up front. Sadly, their new studio efforts have been stuck in the shadow of those cult albums for ages now, especially the three released between 1983 and 1992. They’re not Americans, even though this is raw market logic straight out of the default American recipe. Ladies and gentlemen, the answer is actually dead simple. Def Leppard.
It’s as if they know themselves that they can’t achieve anything more with new original music. They’ve tried literally everything there was to try to hold on to their commercial success. But the real creative songwriting spark is nowhere to be found. So they went back to the thing that keeps them “alive.” They clung to the old days of glory and decided to record their cult album “Hysteria” — showered with praise and loved by all of us — live, in its entirety. An album that has sold over 20 million copies to this day. During a multi-night stand in Las Vegas. In an “indoor” setting. Right where Def Leppard tend to get listened to. The sonic perfectionism of their live shows is a deeply proven Def Leppard trait, one that few hard rock bands can match even today.
Not to ramble. This two-CD, one-DVD package is a cross-section of last year’s March–April stint in Las Vegas, where Def Leppard played the entire album “Hysteria” front to back and rounded off the spectacle with a set of rarities, especially older, nearly forgotten songs from their own catalog that they hadn’t played live in a long time. For that purpose they actually christened themselves as their own opening act, declaring themselves the world’s best “tribute to Def Leppard band” called Ded Flatbird. That way they opened their own concert nights (and, if possible, collected a double paycheck). Honestly, the second CD is the real draw here and grabs most of the attention! Above all, in the new era the older songs are fully upgraded in sound and performance. In places the rhythms are tighter, and the vocal harmonies more polished. The contrast is bigger, of course, compared to the revamped “Hysteria,” since the songs from “On Through The Night,” “High ‘N’ Dry,” and “Pyromania” are the stepping stones on the band’s road to “Hysteria.” The first virtuous surprise on the second disc comes from the opener Good Morning Freedom, which actually came out in 1980 as the B-side of the single Hello America. The second CD combines two concert nights (03.29 & 03.30.2013), where Ded Flatbird played completely different material on each night. Some of the gems are a bit newer, and the standout is definitely the performance of Promises from the album “Euphoria” (1999), while Slang (“Slang,” 1996) is totally missable. The second disc is where you should actually start listening to the “Viva! Hysteria” document.
Eleven shows, then, in the middle of the prestigious The Joint venue, or the “Hard Rock Hotel And Casino” in Las Vegas (Nevada), running from 03.22.2013 to 04.13.2013! Is it even possible to make a mistake? Even if they do, it’s always masterfully covered up. If you record every one of those shows and then process the whole lot after the fact, you get a flawless sonic sheen.
Elliott’s voice has dropped over the years. That’s no longer news. The most important parts, the “load-bearing” parts of the songs, the man nails competently and with confidence, no worries there. He remains a solid, unshakable frontman figure in 2013 too! The multi-part choir-style vocal harmonies that Elliott’s lead vocal is dressed in are brilliantly laid down. One of the toughest tests of Elliott’s stamina on the first disc is surely the chorus of Love Bites! Elliott and the crew still pull it off superbly for their age.. The band is maturing. So the tones naturally get lower over the years, but they also get thicker. They get fatter and fatter. Hence a few cosmetic adjustments to the starting tuning. You have to hit the notes, after all. That’s why the tuning is lower. So you could say that Stagefright, on the second disc, marks the upper limit of Elliott’s vocal range today. The limit where Elliott can still successfully and credibly pull off the vocal sequences. The ones that demand the highest vocal registers.
We can say that with “Viva! Hiysteria,” Def Leppard delivered everything that the 2011 live album “Mirrorball,” despite huge expectations beforehand, failed to deliver, and which, in terms of sound and performance, measured against the standards Def Leppard demand of themselves, was a mild letdown. “Viva! Hysteria,” on the other hand, delivers what we were looking for on “Mirrorball.” First of all, equal involvement from both guitarists, in the riffs, the transitional parts, the solos. And let’s not forget that Vivian Campbell got a cold shower right before Def Leppard left for Las Vegas, when he learned in that time that he’d been diagnosed with lymphoma. But the sound and the tightness of the quintet on this document give none of that away. Campbell played his parts excellently; he could easily have fallen apart personally. Compared to “Mirrorball,” “Viva! Hysteria” has a more convincing coloring of Elliott’s vocal through the harmonies of the other members, and the organic depth of the sound is more strongly emphasized, deepened by Rick Allen’s famous snare crack with its crumbling-detonation effect, intensified by Rick Savage’s thick bass foot. That’s why the whole coloring of the individual moods across the live document is more effectively contrasted, and so the live document gains in dynamics.
The release arrives as a prescription patch for all those Def Leppard fans who live in vain hope that the band will someday return to the original-songwriting turf of creating riffs the way they did in the Steve Clark era. Those years are never coming back, let alone the inspiration. “Viva! Hysteria” will give the more demanding rock gourmets a key sweet treat of sensual pleasure, especially because of what the second disc holds. Sadly, it remains a somewhat painful fact that the band has to market its old glory. But better that than recording new studio albums that are a pale shadow of what they once knew and were able to deliver, right, Bon Jovi?
As far as Def Leppard are concerned, there’s just one thing left. It would be nice if they paused their calculating, capitalist mindset for a moment — the one that has had them earning their keep for years with shows only in the US and the UK — and did at least a 14-day tour of the old European continent. Guys, it’s about time.
Lineup
Joe Elliott – vocals
Phil Collen – guitar, backing vocals
Vivian Campbell – guitar, backing vocals
Rick Savage – bass guitar, backing vocals
Rick Allen – drums, percussion, backing vocals
Production
Domenic J. Cotter & John Rubey
Track list
CD1:
1. Women
2. Rocket
3. Animal
4. Love Bites
5. Pour Some Sugar on Me
6. Armageddon It
7. Gods of War
8. Don’t Shoot Shotgun
9. Run Riot
10. Hysteria
11. Excitable
12. Love and Affection
13. Rock of Ages
14. Photograph
CD2.:
Ded Flatbird Set#1:
1. Good Morning Freedom
2. Wasted
3. Stagefright
4. Mirror Mirror (Look Into My Eyes)
5. Action
6. Rock Brigade
7. Undefeated
8. Promises
Ded Flatbird Set#2:
9. On Through The Night
10. Slang
11. Let It Go
12. Another Hit And Run
13. High ‘n’ Dry (Saturday Night)
14. Bringin’ On The Heartbreak
15. Switch 625.
DVD/Blu Ray:
– Viva Hysteria
– Ded Flatbird Night 1
– Ded Flatbird Night 2
– Acoustic Set:
When Love and Hate Collide
Have You Ever Needed Someone So Bad
Two Steps Behind You
– Photo Montage
