Tesla, Styx, Def Leppard
Austin 360 Amphitheater, August 23, 2015
It was a grand old night in Austin on this August evening, as three veteran rock acts commandeered the large Austin 360 Amphitheater stage on a hot August evening in the middle of Texas. People in attendance knew they’d get a rockin’ show, but nothing is guaranteed when it comes to live musical performance.
Tesla came out in broad daylight, chugging through “Edison’s Medicine” from its 1991 album, Psychotic Supper. The Northern California band had the unenviable task of warming up an arena-sized crowd of several thousand, many of which were still arriving and settling in their seats. Tesla was up for the task, however, with dual guitarists Dave Rude (stage right) and founding guitarist Frank Hannon (stage left) both showing off seemingly without trying to… Both consummate professionals, they stretched their strings, displaying great feeling and tone and making it look simple. Frontman and vocalist looked comfortable getting all the attention. His voice was just the right mix of smooth and rough and it carried well. Their set moved along well, with tunes like “Gettin’ Better” and “Hang Tough” getting appreciative applause. They were nice melodic rockers and it wasn’t long before they broke into their popular cover of the reborn Five Man Electrical Band cover, “Signs.” They rolled through “Love Song, “Little Suzi” and ended with a rousing rendition of my favorite tune of theirs, “Modern Day Cowboy,” which had the audience singing along as best they could. And then it was over. A good eight songs went by like that, which is a sign that the music is pleasing.
Styx came on and immediately took charge with the bombastic “Grand Illusion,” which serves as a great thematic introduction to their show, immediately showing the band’s strength of songwriting, vocals, dynamic timing and — did I mention — vocals? With a pompous almost prog-rock sound like theirs, they have to be on or they might sound ridiculous. With an open outdoor “shed” venue like this, their tunes sounded great and they kept rolling out hit after hit — “Fooling Yourself (The Angry Young Man),” “Miss America,” “Blue Collar Man” and even the early career single, “Lady.”
Styx is just a band that every rocker needs to see at least once. Tommy Shaw’s and their current frontman, Lawrence Gowan, who has been taking over for Dennis DeYoung since 1999) were both shining and strong in the vocal department. In a somewhat odd moment, Gowan took over the stage as the others wandered off, where he sang a medley that included “Rocket Man,” “Bohemian Rhapsody” and “(Sittin’ on) The Dock of the Bay.” It sounded real good, but it seemed a bit out of place at worst or a sudden surprise at best.
The rest of the band, which included two bass players — current Austin resident Ricky Phillips (who I interviewed for HM back in May of 2012 in Issue #156) and original bassist Chuck Panozzo — guitarist James Young, drummer Todd Sucherman (who’s been the Styx stick-whacker since 1995) and Tommy Shaw, came back to the fanfare of the beautiful piano intro of “Come Sail Away.” It marked the end of their set, which lasted about an hour, but there was no way they were leaving without playing “Renegade,” which was the second encore after “Rockin’ the Paradise.”
It was grand, it was epic, it was powerful and the night wasn’t over. Styx rocked the house and it could have been a swell evening had it ended there, but the crowd was ready for Def Leppard as night fell.
Def Leppard came out to intro music (“Disintegrate”) and quickly pushed the pace to full-tilt with “Rock! Rock! (Till You Drop),” from their early days (Pyromania, their third and first huge album, 1983), which gave way to “Animal,” which gave way to “Let It Go.” The band was rockin’ hard, even if they weren’t as energetic and bold as the last time I’d seen them on this very stage (a couple year’s earlier, as the opener for Kiss). Perhaps it was the complacency of being the headliner. It wasn’t hurting the band’s performance. They sounded great. I’d just heard ’em better, in my opinion, so this was just very good.
The hits kept right on cranking, though, as they ripped into “Foolin'” before they’d slowed down enough to chat with the enthusiastic crowd. Mostly 30-to-40-to-50-plus year-olds, the audience was nonetheless as energetic as the band and we kind of fed off each other.
Def Leppard travels with a lot of production, which includes lots of cool video screens. A nice script was writing on the video wall as the band played “Love Bites,” their ode to the pain of romance. “Armageddon It” kept the party moving and the band conjured up an early influence with the David Essex cover, “Rock On” (you know the tune: “Hey kids, rock and roll, rock on…”). Frontman Joe Elliot took to the end of the catwalk that the other bands avoided like no man’s land (headliner’s domain, it seems) with an acoustic in hand for the slower ballad, “Two Steps Behind.”
The band came out and ratcheted up the energy with “Rocket” and “Bringin’ on the Heartbreak,” which segued right into “Switch 625, as it should. The band lost itself (in a good way) during the multi-guitar jam of this instrumental.
“Hysteria” got the audience singing along again and “Let’s Get Rocked” brought ’em along for more singing and chanting. The night would not be complete without their big hit, “Pour Some Sugar On Me,” which swayed and rocked with all the nostalgia of MTV and Mutt Lang’s deft production help. It’s a big tune that the crowd can’t get enough of.
That ended the 90-minute set, but we all knew encores would follow. The band delivered “Rock of Ages,” with heroic drummer Rick Allen showing off his best German skills. Then it was “Photograph,” which was accompanied by a giant collage of photography and video from the band’s career, with respectful but honest moments of departed original guitarist Steve Clark. It’s a good moment that conjures the power of MTV and videos, which certainly had a hand in this band’s multi-platinum career.
And that reminds me: guitarists Vivian Campbell and Phil Collen traded licks and riffs all night long, and they sounded really good. Elliot’s voice sounded solid. Bassist Rick Savage looked the most aged of the bunch, but looked fit and he threw himself into his performance as much as anyone — perhaps even the most.
Austin got what it wanted and Tesla, Styx and Def Leppard delivered on cue, with bravado and high quality musical excellence. They didn’t change the world, take any new ground musically or anything revolutionary, but they didn’t have to. This was a good time. Enough said.
Review and photos by Doug Van Pelt. Photo editing by Teresa Turnage-Simon
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