Louisiana State University - Gumbo Yearbook

“eppard Leaves BR Fans Hysterical provide an amusing impetus lor a generally sluggish concert sea- son. Pandering to a crowd seem- ing to consist of a goodly portion of the population of several local high schools (and a few universi- ty students timid enough not to wear their concert T-shirts the next day), Def Leppard served up nearly all of their love and angst- oriented hits of the past six years . Assuming perhaps that the masses wouM nofbe ent^QpjjjeiJ by wise little pop songs or stage antics, Def Leppard arrived in Baton Rouge armed with some rather amazing laser-induced special effects. One episode in particular featured a sleeping feline (presumably the " deaf lep- pard " ) who proceeded to relieve himself on an earhorn. Theatrics aside, Def Leppard themselves seemed a rather amiable lot, fond of introducing each other often ;Sad making themselves quite visible to their swarms of fans. This sort of stage personality maintained by the band was facilitated by the round platform they used to perform on. Throughout the evening, whether from the port or starbord side of the Assembly Center, each sneer- ing, posturmg body belonging to a member of the band could easi- ly be perceived. In tiic words if lead Leppard Joe Elliot " It ' s hot. It ' s sweaty. One of the group ' s biggest drawing cards IS drummer Rick Allen, who has had to overcome severe limitations in order to be where he is today. Despite his apparent handicap he is hailed by fans as " Awe- some " and highly regarded in the arti.stic community. What could possibly be more fun than about 12,000 young teenage girls screaming in the throes of a raucous, near orgias- tic, cultural event? Sadly enough, very little. However, the sonically prestigious cheez-metal band Def Leppard and their spunky tourmates Queensryche proved to be almost an equally entertaining spectacle as any pubescent love-fest when they played the Pete Maravich Assem- bly Center on September 8. Almost recalling the cannabis- inspired noise-feasts of yore that the Assembly Center used to play host to earlier in the decade (a la Van Halen, Kiss. Judas Priest, etc.), Def Leppard managed to It ' s loud. It ' s GREAT! " Or, in the words of another young post- ulant, " dude, it was awww- some! " In a concert season that could be best described as simply " adequate, " the preceeding statements could indeed have some credibility to them. And of course, the young, screaming, teenage girls weren ' t bad either. Steve Zaffuto Def Leppard Concert 13 ”