Terry
08-10-2006, 09:14 PM
Another late review:
JOURNEY / DEF LEPPARD FORD AMPITHEATER, TAMPA, FLORIDA 7/11/06
Journey
Neal Schon
Jonathan Cain
Deen Castronovo - drums
Ross Valory
Jeff Scott Soto subbing for Steve Augeri on lead vocals
Star Spangled Banner (Schon and Cain did this instrumentally - something that had the potential for true cheese factor, but sounded purty good, actually)
Anyway You Want It
Ask The Lonely
? (couldn't tell what the fuck this tune was)
Stone In Love
Wheel In The Sky
Who's Crying Now (drummer - lead vocals)
Chain Reaction
Lights
Open Arms (drummer - lead vocals)
? (couldn't figure out this one, either)
? (or this one)
? (spent this one staring at some late thirtysomething
bleach blonde's silicone boobies through a t-shirt
that said MILF)
Faithfully (drummer - lead vocals)
Be Good To Yourself
Don't Stop Believing
Separate Ways
Band sounded like they were playing in standard tuning.
Schon played a Les Paul Custom w/Floyd Rose
Crisp, clean sound: loud enough to be punchy in the right spots without distorting the proceedings. Background vocals were spot-on. Drummer sounded excellent on the tunes that he sang. Neal Schon wailed. Jeff Scott Soto sounded great, too, although a little strained on Chain Reaction. At the end of the show, Soto thanked the band for "having [him] aboard and letting [him] spend the summer singing these great songs," which I took to mean that he's sitting in for Augeri for the summer tour. Augeri's absence wasn't explained.
A few songs I either hadn't heard before, or just couldn't figure out what they were (or was distracted by boobies), and maybe two or three I would liked to have heard that they didn't play - have never been a diehard Journey fan, but growing up in the States, if you spent enough time listening to classic rock radio, you're bound to have heard and been familiar with most of the tunes in the setlist - band performed well, had a great sound and delivered one hit after another.
Def Leppard
Hellraiser (seemed like an odd choice to open the show with, seeing as nobody in the audience really knew it, but I suppose it's best to get the new shit out of the way right off the bat)
Let's Get Rocked
? (couldn't tell what this one was)
Make Love Like A Man (or whatever the fuck the name of the second single off Adrenalize was)
Foolin'
Hysteria
No Matter What (Badfinger cover)
Rock On
Rocket (kinda overlong and boring, just like on the album)
Photograph (Elliot chickened out when it came to the high notes at the end - the band played up to the point where he says "I want to touch you," then they stopped and went into...)
Armageddon it
Animal
Rock of Ages
Love Bites
Pour Some Sugar On Me
Many of the Leppard songs sounded like they were played a 1/4 to a 1/2 step down from the recorded versions.
Drums sounded good.
Bass was audible.
Guitars sounded muddled - Collen took the lion's share of the solos, but his guitar wasn't brought up far enough in the mix when he did so.
The lead vocals were virtually inaudible for the first four songs.
Elliot is clearly more comfortable working the lower registers - strained on tunes like Photograph (maybe if the chubby little fuck hit the treadmill once in awhile, he might have more stamina).
Background vocals were okay.
Phil Collen - played mostly Phil Collen Jackson models
Vivian Campbell - mostly various Les Pauls
4 large, square video screens around the venue and the huge rectangular projection screen behind the bands allowed for some great close-up shots, particularly useful for showing how Rick Allen works his foot pedals.
After Journey left the stage and Leppard were setting up, we noticed the volume on the canned P.A. music was turned down big time.
Leppard were just plain not loud enough - the songs had no punch to them - when you stand in a crowd at a rock concert and you can hear conversations going on around you 10 feet away as clear as a bell, much clearer than what's coming from the stage, you know something is up. People were yelling "Turn it up!' and "I can't fucking hear it!"
Although the lead vocals for Leppard got straightened out in the mix by the 5th song or so, the guitar mix really was for shit, and Vivian Campbell - well, it was worse than I feared. The dude is totally underused, although he got off a nice, bluesy, Gary Mooreish solo on Love Bites.
Leppard did have a cool light and rear projection screen show going for them.
Came there expecting to enjoy Leppard far more than Journey, and although Journey didn't have the advantages of the lights and video screen work, as most of their set was played while the sun was still out, they were much better. Better mix, better sound.
JOURNEY / DEF LEPPARD FORD AMPITHEATER, TAMPA, FLORIDA 7/11/06
Journey
Neal Schon
Jonathan Cain
Deen Castronovo - drums
Ross Valory
Jeff Scott Soto subbing for Steve Augeri on lead vocals
Star Spangled Banner (Schon and Cain did this instrumentally - something that had the potential for true cheese factor, but sounded purty good, actually)
Anyway You Want It
Ask The Lonely
? (couldn't tell what the fuck this tune was)
Stone In Love
Wheel In The Sky
Who's Crying Now (drummer - lead vocals)
Chain Reaction
Lights
Open Arms (drummer - lead vocals)
? (couldn't figure out this one, either)
? (or this one)
? (spent this one staring at some late thirtysomething
bleach blonde's silicone boobies through a t-shirt
that said MILF)
Faithfully (drummer - lead vocals)
Be Good To Yourself
Don't Stop Believing
Separate Ways
Band sounded like they were playing in standard tuning.
Schon played a Les Paul Custom w/Floyd Rose
Crisp, clean sound: loud enough to be punchy in the right spots without distorting the proceedings. Background vocals were spot-on. Drummer sounded excellent on the tunes that he sang. Neal Schon wailed. Jeff Scott Soto sounded great, too, although a little strained on Chain Reaction. At the end of the show, Soto thanked the band for "having [him] aboard and letting [him] spend the summer singing these great songs," which I took to mean that he's sitting in for Augeri for the summer tour. Augeri's absence wasn't explained.
A few songs I either hadn't heard before, or just couldn't figure out what they were (or was distracted by boobies), and maybe two or three I would liked to have heard that they didn't play - have never been a diehard Journey fan, but growing up in the States, if you spent enough time listening to classic rock radio, you're bound to have heard and been familiar with most of the tunes in the setlist - band performed well, had a great sound and delivered one hit after another.
Def Leppard
Hellraiser (seemed like an odd choice to open the show with, seeing as nobody in the audience really knew it, but I suppose it's best to get the new shit out of the way right off the bat)
Let's Get Rocked
? (couldn't tell what this one was)
Make Love Like A Man (or whatever the fuck the name of the second single off Adrenalize was)
Foolin'
Hysteria
No Matter What (Badfinger cover)
Rock On
Rocket (kinda overlong and boring, just like on the album)
Photograph (Elliot chickened out when it came to the high notes at the end - the band played up to the point where he says "I want to touch you," then they stopped and went into...)
Armageddon it
Animal
Rock of Ages
Love Bites
Pour Some Sugar On Me
Many of the Leppard songs sounded like they were played a 1/4 to a 1/2 step down from the recorded versions.
Drums sounded good.
Bass was audible.
Guitars sounded muddled - Collen took the lion's share of the solos, but his guitar wasn't brought up far enough in the mix when he did so.
The lead vocals were virtually inaudible for the first four songs.
Elliot is clearly more comfortable working the lower registers - strained on tunes like Photograph (maybe if the chubby little fuck hit the treadmill once in awhile, he might have more stamina).
Background vocals were okay.
Phil Collen - played mostly Phil Collen Jackson models
Vivian Campbell - mostly various Les Pauls
4 large, square video screens around the venue and the huge rectangular projection screen behind the bands allowed for some great close-up shots, particularly useful for showing how Rick Allen works his foot pedals.
After Journey left the stage and Leppard were setting up, we noticed the volume on the canned P.A. music was turned down big time.
Leppard were just plain not loud enough - the songs had no punch to them - when you stand in a crowd at a rock concert and you can hear conversations going on around you 10 feet away as clear as a bell, much clearer than what's coming from the stage, you know something is up. People were yelling "Turn it up!' and "I can't fucking hear it!"
Although the lead vocals for Leppard got straightened out in the mix by the 5th song or so, the guitar mix really was for shit, and Vivian Campbell - well, it was worse than I feared. The dude is totally underused, although he got off a nice, bluesy, Gary Mooreish solo on Love Bites.
Leppard did have a cool light and rear projection screen show going for them.
Came there expecting to enjoy Leppard far more than Journey, and although Journey didn't have the advantages of the lights and video screen work, as most of their set was played while the sun was still out, they were much better. Better mix, better sound.