Just about a year ago we saw Tesla, Reo Speedwagon and Def Leppard at Sprint center. We saw these tickets go on sale and I personally have never seen Poison so we decided to add a couple of artists to our elusive “two time” club (Tesla and Def Leppard).
One of the first things that I noticed was the unusual amount of sound board equipment setup, I get it there are three bands but not often you see three complete sets of sound equipment and what seems like then some:
Although my picture is hard to see the Poison equipment had the Poison logo on them, not just the name like you see most times. I found this interesting and it emphasized the amount of branding/marketing you see all over with Poison at their show. Here is another shot in the dark you can kinda see the Poison logo:
Tesla opened up and, unfortunately, very much like last year I was disappointed in the sound. I think it’s not the band that seems off it’s Keith, he just seems well kinda out of it. Like he didn’t really realize he was in a concert or in front of people or something. Very odd behavior and his singing is no where near the rest of the band on “sounding like the album”:
Once again my point to this is if you’re going to tour with the powerhouse that is Def Leppard you should really bring your “A game” – else it highlights the shortcomings.
Shot of the crowd size for Tesla, lots of empty seats:
Frank Hannon is a top level player and “Love Song” is something to behold with him picking that acoustic:
Tesla played about 6 songs for about a 40 minute set. Then came Poison with Brett Michaels jumping about in his what I guess is “Modern Cowboy Glam” look?
Shot of the crowd for Poison, considerable difference (note this highlights the excellent light bars setup for Poison/Def Leppard (not used for Tesla)):
Poison was high energy and I think they are a seriously underrated bunch of musicians. Sure they didn’t do themselves any favors with the entire Glam Metal genre, dressing up like girls, and picking ridiculous name (“Ricki Rocket”, “CC Deville”).
The spotlight solo for CC Deville was borderline spectacular. He went into Van Halen “Eruption” (nailing it I might add), added some Steve Vai “The Audience is Listening” (again spot on). You don’t see that often and I was seriously impressed by his fret fingering, clarity, and speed. Well done indeed.
They also gave Ricki Rockett some spotlight time and he proved his chops banging out some drum work that was impressive (don’t get me wrong no where near Rocket’s showcase, but impressive nonetheless.)
I did get a kick of of the way that Michaels held and strummed his guitar at a near 45° strumming nearly straight and up down. Unusual but worked and gave a real “Rock ‘n Roll” type appearance (strumming without care or looking down to ensure he had the correct placement).
Poison played a short set as well about 45 minutes, it was very well done the music and singing was spot on. Angie and I were impressed at the energy, humor, and production value of the set.
Here is the crowd and pre-set image for Def Leppard:
Here is a close up of the banner used:
In case your wondering, yes it was the same banner they used last year with just different light colors, this shot from last year by yours truly:
Their production set has both times been top notch really impressive lighting, graphics, sound quality. A nearly two-hour tour de fource rarely matched in concerts we have seen:
Here are some shots of the graphics from the show:
When you have enough cameras setup you can do awesome things like this:
So last year I went to Def Leppard not really being that big of a fan, however after seeing their show twice I am getting there. Really if Def Leppard comes anywhere near you, get there.
Me and My Angie:
