A trio of Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductees brought a nostalgic ‘80s bonanza to Progressive Field on Tuesday night.
Def Leppard, Journey and Cheap Trick filled the stadium with eager fans and plenty of throwback fun.
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Opening the night, Cheap Trick faced a few sound issues and a handful of garbled moments, all seemingly ironed out by the time the band played a trio of major hits in the latter half of its set: “The Flame,” “I Want You To Want Me” and “Surrender.”
Rick Nielsen made sure to wow the crowd with a couple of his unique guitars, including an absurd-looking five-neck checkered guitar, during the breezy, slightly shorter show which kicked things off.
Journey
Journey stuck with familiar, well-trodden territory, armed with a setlist that never broke out of the band’s iconic releases of the ‘70s or ‘80s (despite the band releasing several albums in this century). Just glance at the band’s 10 top-streamed songs on Spotify: nine of them built the framework of the band’s 18-song setlist.
For a band like Journey, that predictability worked well. There’s something to be said for a greatest-hits collection, after all.
(And of course, they saved their mega-greatest-hits, “Don’t Stop Believin’” and “Any Way You Want It,” for last.)
Yes, Journey is a 51-year-old rock group. And its 56-year-old singer Arnel Pineda fit right into the mix, belting out vocals that were pretty indistinguishable from the band’s former longtime singer Steve Perry’s powerful range. Paired with longtime Journey band members Jonathan Cain on keyboards, Deen Castronovo on drums and guitarist Neal Schon (the only remaining Journey band founder), the band powered through a set of total rockers during a brief bit of rain, which saw a few umbrellas pop up in the outdoor crowd.
I’ll say this: Besides the venue size and stage effects, I couldn’t pick up much of a difference between this concert and a show from a couple of weeks ago: E5C4P3, an acclaimed, longtime Journey tribute band, which performed at Lorain’s Black River landing for a massive audience.
And what’s wrong with comparing the two? Both shows were plenty of fun.
That’s because of those songs.
Those songs, those wild, over-the-top songs, ironed into our brains, ironed into our culture, into the Glee soundtrack, the karaoke night ballads — into our lives, existing in these ways — and in this big way, at Progressive Field on a damp Tuesday evening.
Def Leppard
As the opening guitar riff of “Pour Some Sugar On Me” snarled out, a group of women threw their arms into the air, dropping down low, while a few guys started fist-pumping, in the distance. “Love is like a bomb, baby, come on, get it on,” sang Joe Elliott, in this final song of Def Leppard’s performance.
At my wedding, there was one song on the DJ’s “do not play” list, and it was “Pour Some Sugar on Me” by Def Leppard. Let me explain: The way I’ve seen past drunk wedding guests behave during this song made me not really want to see my loved ones try to dance to that song.
While I don’t regret my wedding song decision, the song felt fitting at a place like a Downtown Cleveland stadium show, where the crowd was absolutely amped up and ready for this — the grand finale of a big night of music. Colorful lights danced around a packed stadium of onlookers, who sang along to every word.
Before that song, the British glam metal band featured a range of its ‘80s tunes, celebrating, in particular, the 40th anniversary of Pyromania with a strong batch of selections from the 1983 album.
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That included the song “Photograph,” which rounded out a primary set of songs. While the group rocked out on the Progressive Field stage, photos of Def Leppard from over the years flickered across the stage screens, showcasing a variety of shows, poofy hairstyles and musical highlights in the past few decades — offering one last slice of nostalgia in one incredibly nostalgia-fueled night.
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