Def Leppard, Journey and Steve Miller: Older, rawer and 100% bangingEd Masley
Def Leppard, Journey and Steve Miller Band ruled the airwaves of their day with three different approaches to hitting the mainstream where it lived, each one earning a spot in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame as quintessential people’s bands for slightly different people.
And those differences were plain as day in downtown Phoenix when their co-headlining Summer Stadium Tour hit Chase Field for an all-star hit parade on Friday, Aug. 23, that presented the acts in order of appearance on the pop charts (if perhaps by sheer coincidence).
It started with Steve Miller Band, a psychedelic blues-rock combo out of San Francisco who started making waves in 1968 with “Living in the U.S.A.” before taking the mainstream by storm with a string of timeless rock hits in the ‘70s after topping the pop charts with “The Joker,” their first of three chart-topping entries on the Hot 100, two of which were brilliant.
Miller’s hit years overlapped a bit with Journey’s, to be fair. And Journey’s second-biggest album, “Frontiers,” hit the streets in 1983, the year Def Leppard stormed our shores as the New Wave of British Heavy Metal boys most likely to succeed with “Photograph,” the first of three Top 40 hits from “Pyromania.”
Not only did the songs get newer as the night progressed, the bands got louder as we made our way from Miller's unassuming old-school rock ‘n’ roll revival moves to the glam-metal stripper-pole anthem that brought the concert to a rousing climax, “Pour Some Sugar on Me,” with Journey as a sort of stepping stone between the two.
And yet, it all made sense, to an extent, as a nostalgic trip down memory lane for anyone whose tastes were shaped by what rock radio was playing from those early Miller singles to when Journey and Def Leppard had their final mainstream pop hits, back when rock ‘n’ roll was still the people’s music, which it hasn't been in far too long.
Here's a look at all three acts.
Steve Miller still rock'n me, baby, decades after 'The Joker'Steve Miller got the party started with a hit-filled set that opened on a very trippy note with "Space Intro," the keyboard-driven headphone-music masterstroke that welcomed unsuspecting listeners to "Fly Like an Eagle," Miller's biggest-selling studio release.
From there, he made his way through nearly every song on "Greatest Hits 1974-78," including "Rock'n Me," "The Joker," "Fly Like an Eagle," "Swingtown," "Jungle Love," "Take the Money and Run" and "Jet Airliner."
Miller sounded as good as he looked in his blue dinner jacket and frosty white hair, his phrasing of the lyrics somewhat looser than it was on "Greatest Hits" if no less focused on getting the lyrics across, from "Feed the babies who don't have enough to eat/ Shoe the children with no shoes on their feet/ House the people livin' in the street" to "I really love your peaches/ Wanna shake your tree."
And his guitar work was just as impressive, from the psychedelic majesty of "Serenade" to the gritty post-Chuck Berry approach of "Take the Money and Run." The man remains a criminally underrated lead guitarist. He's got it all — character, phrasing, tone and chops.
He also proved to be a charming presence in his interactions with the crowd, especially when he shared the story of a phone call he received from Eminem, who recently interpolated the Miller hit "Abracadabra" on a song called "Houdini."
His wife took the call.
"Maybe I'm in some kind of beef with Eminem," he recalled thinking. "These young people, they have beef."
His set lasted just over an hour, but could've gone longer, allowing time for — if I may — "Space Cowboy," "Heart Like a Wheel" and "True Fine Love" at the very least. See also: "Wild Mountain Honey" and "Dance, Dance, Dance."
Journey rise above the drama to deliver a hit-filled setThere's so much drama going on in Journey at the moment with founding guitarist Neal Schon publicly feuding with Jonathan Cain, the Babys' keyboardist who joined the fold in 1980 and contributed such Journey classics as "Don't Stop Believin'" and "Faithfully" to the mix, it's amazing that they made it through the set.
Cain recently filed a lawsuit against Schon over the use of Journey's credit card.
Schon responded with a statement this week, as reported by Stereogum, that read, in part, "I am determined to take the high road and push all this aside for the moment to focus on our fans, the tour and all who give so much to make things happen."
Whatever lingering resentment may exist between the two, which one imagines is just north of insurmountable, you never would have guessed there was dissension in the ranks as they made their way through a bevy of classics in Phoenix.
I'm not saying there was anything resembling chemistry between the warring factions, but they handled it like pros. Schon's playing on the songs that were clearly important to Cain was beyond respectful, faithfully recreating the parts he played on the original recordings when it mattered most and never doing anything that really felt like showboating.
He had plenty of other opportunities to flex his chops and he took full advantage of those opportunities, as he should. He's a brilliant guitarist and the only member of the band who's been there all along, through all the changes. I would pay to see him solo with no promise of an actual song.
The other recent drama in the Journey camp has been the recurring reports that their singer, Arnel Pineda, who joined in 2007 after being discovered on YouTube in a Journey cover band, isn't singing the way he was in 2007.
He was far from flawless Friday night in Phoenix. There were times when he was clearly struggling with his pitch, a situation made worse by the technical difficulties that caused him to stop singing, three songs in, on "Stone in Love," which then evolved into a lengthy jam as Pineda tried to figure out what happened.
But Journey recovered because that's who they are. Among the highlights of their set was drummer Deen Castronovo (whose drum fills were fantastic) stepping in on lead vocals on "Lights." And when Pineda was actually firing on all cylinders, which was frankly more often than not? The man was every bit as awe-inspiring as he was 2007, when he made it feel like Journey could perhaps survive without Steve Perry.
He's 17 years older now, but aren't we all?
Def Leppard treat the fans to Rock of AgesDef Leppard followed Journey with a set that made it clear that we were dealing with the day's first proper heavy metal band, a point made abundantly clear from the opening strains of "Rock! Rock! (Till You Drop)," the first of seven songs they played from "Pyromania."
As Joe Elliott told the crowd before following "Rock! Rock! (Till You Drop)" with "Rocket," "Tonight, we're gonna celebrate an album that just passed its 40th birthday, 'Pyromania.'"
Before the night was through, they'd made their way through seven songs from "Pyromania," including "Photograph," "Rock of Ages," "Foolin'" and "Too Late for Love."
Their sound was massive, muscular and well-equipped to get you through the fact that Elliott can't always hit the notes he hit in 1983 the way he hit those notes in 1983.
It's just a harsh reality of singing really high on records that define you. When I spoke to Sammy Hagar just the other day about this very thing, he told me he needed to tour on the songs he recorded with Van Halen now because "I painted myself into a corner years ago singing these songs."
And that makes perfect sense. Joe Elliott, now 65, is clearly in if not the same boat then at least the same ocean. To be fair, I haven't heard him sound this good in years when he was on. His performance on "Love Bites," in particular, was stronger than it's been in years. And he remains a charismatic presence.
There were moments in the unplugged portion of the set that played directly to the strengths he now possesses, but the frequent attempts to turn those moments into rousing singalongs rarely generated the response he clearly thought they would, especially on "Two Steps Behind," one of their bigger '90s hits.
Still, they rallied in the end, bringing the set to a crowd-pleasing finish with the Broadway-worthy "Rock of Ages" and the far-from-faded "Photograph" before returning for an encore that ended, as you had to know it would, with "Pour Some Sugar on Me."
His bandmates rocked with the conviction you'd expect throughout, from the two-guitar army of Vivian Campbell and Phil Collen to powerhouse drummer Rick Allen, a true force of nature.
And Elliott proclaiming Campbell, Collen and bassist Rick Savage "three of the greatest voices in rock" may have been more sweet than accurate but the wall of harmonies they recreated on Def Leppard's greatest hits played a huge role in bringing those records to life in concert.
By the time Def Leppard brought the concert to a close with "Pour Some Sugar on Me," we'd heard 28 Top 40 hits spanning two decades, from "The Joker" through "Don't Stop Believin'" to "Two Steps Behind." It was the "Rock of Ages" Elliott promised, still rollin', rock 'n' rollin'.
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