Def Leppard Rocket Lands at Canadian Tire Centre In Ottawa

British rockers Def Leppard hit the stage in Canada’s capital on Friday night at the Canadian Tire Centre delivering a brilliant performance and one for the record books.

I’ll start with a review of the opening act Tesla.  They dug into their catalog of songs playing some of their best including crowd favorite Signs. These guys still know how to bring it all out and get a crowd warmed up.  If you’ve followed their career and saw them back in the day, after seeing them you would agree with me that time has been on their side all these years.  A well delivered performance.

The crowd watched with intensity building as the time of the clock displayed on the screen ticked down second by second until the place erupted and Def Leppard launched and landed onto the stage with none other than their massive hit Rocket. From that moment on the audience was on their feet for the entire show. Right out of the gate you could feel the connection between the audience and the band. It was solid as they hung on to every move, every vocal and every riff through to the end. The visual display of lights, video and pictures on the big screen behind the band was in classic Def Leppard style and brought back memories experienced along the musical journey fans have been on since the early 80’s when they first hit the stage. Each album since has had that someone unique and special that continued to draw in fans of all ages.

Lead singer Joe Elliot leisurely walked to the front of the stage and uttered the words Do You Wanna Get Rocked and the crowd rocketed things to another level of excitement. Elliot still has the vocal array he had those many years ago. Albeit with some changes to how he delivered some parts but certainly nothing to be concerned about.  Auto-tune is not part of his vocabulary.

Drummer Rick Allen put on a drum solo like no other and consistent with what he’s given us in previous shows. The man is so accomplished in his playing and an inspiration to many of his fans.  From a tragedy early in his career, one that could easily have lead him to hang up it all up and walk away from music altogether, he dug in deep and came out on top of the industry.  My hat is off to you sir.

Returning to the stage for an encore with their gigantic hits Rock of Ages and Photograph sealed the show making it a 10/10 performance.   The only way I could see this performance improving would be for them to play a few more songs. I’ll close this out with the the words Elliot ended the night with, “Until next time”.

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