Violent Femmes Cheap Trick Billy Idol Journey Def Leppard
About a month ago one of my coworkers told me about an upcoming concert one of the local radio stations was putting on. He started running down the lineup:
Def Leppard (cool, I bet they would be fun to see)
Journey (feh. not interested)
Billy Idol (hmm, could be fun, not a big draw for me)
Cheap Trick (hey! always wanted to see them)
Violent Femmes (no reaction)
Cheap Trick was the clincher for me. I joined the radio station's listener club so I could get presale tickets. Two weekends ago we went and joined in the revelry at Jack's First Show.
I hadn't been to Irvine Meadows (now Verizon Wireless Amphitheater) since seeing Oingo Boingo there on Halloween in 1989. I still managed to find the place - as we pulled into the parking lot we got our first surprise: Free parking! Wow. That never happens. (I'm sure they added it into the ticket price but I felt like I was getting away with something.)
We made our way to our seats as the Violent Femmes came on and did their set. The place was still pretty empty and they did a low-key but enjoyable set, at one point thanking us all for coming out and "supporting all these new acts." They played many songs I didn't recognize but closed their set with "Blister In The Sun" which was pretty unavoidable on KROQ back in the day.
Cheap Trick followed with a set that seemed a little overdone - it was starting to fill up a bit but the crowd wasn't that into it yet. They still sounded great and it was fun to see the five-necked guitar and hear them do "Surrender" and "Dream Police."
Billy Idol came next, and really seemed to be phoning it in on his first song. He looked very respectable in a jacket and collared shirt and I thought, oh well, he's just here for the paycheck. Oh how wrong I was. After that first track he seemed to kick it up several notches, and the now-full amphitheater sprang into life. He knew exactly what he was there for - to play his hits - and he didn't disappoint, pouring energy into the crowd. The set closed with backup musicians coming on to cover the drums and bass guitar while everybody else - Billy, the lead guitarist, the keyboard player, the bass player, and the drummer - grabbed a guitar and vamped it up at the front of the stage - the Billy Idol Guitar Army. The crowd ate it up.
Energy was starting to build as Journey came out to play their set. I'll be the first to tell you, I'm not a big Journey fan. Back in the day I thought them to be no more than soulless corporate rock - I would have never considered going to see them play. I knew that they were on their second Steve Perry replacement and really didn't think I was going to get much out of them. Once again, how wrong I was.
These guys put on a hell of a show. It may still be soulless corporate rock, but it was played about as well as you could ever expect to hear it. They had the crowd on their feet for most of their set. One interesting thing - the drummer covered lead vocals on ballads, which gave Steve Perry Clone #2 a minute to relax/gargle some salt water/take some drugs/whatever it is lead singer-frontmen do between songs.
When Journey finished the whole place was riding a big surge of energy, and we were all ready for Def Leppard.
Somehow, though, they weren't quite able to keep that level up. The lead singer was having some vocal problems and he couldn't get into his high register. I'll give him full marks for bravery - he was selling it as hard as he could - but somehow they just seemed a little flat. The crowd still got up for the big hits - Rock of Ages, Armageddon It, Love Bites - but it wasn't until the encore that they really seemed to get everyone's attention.
All in all it was a great concert though. I'm generally not big on what I call "nostalgia tour" shows but this was a good combination of acts and I had a great time.
And the frosting on the cake? Getting out of the parking lot five minutes after we got into the car.