Inglewood’s SoFi Stadium was packed to the rafters on a balmy Sunday night concert to see legendary rock bands Def Leppard and Journey co-headline the Summer stadium tour. On their stop in Los Angeles, they brought the original Space Cowboy himself, Steve Miller and his touring band are co-openers with Cheap Trick. This co-headlining tour of rock legends has been one of the most talked about tours this Summer since its announcement.
The JOURNEY x DEF LEPPARD 2024 Stadium Tour featured not only three of the most iconic acts ever on one stage, but all of the artists and bands played their biggest hits, crowd favorites, and even a few deep cuts. All to the enjoyment and delight of old and new fans alike. Opener Steve Miller played through over five decades of music. His touring backing band often inflected funk or R&B influences into some of Miller’s jam band songs and arena rock classics. It was a great way to get the party started. Some of the highlights from his set include the forever groovy Fly Like Eagle, Abracadabra, which he dedicated to Eninem, one of the best jam band songs ever, Take the Money and Run, and the slide guitar classic, The Joker. Miller ended his set with a neat story on Les Paul and a song dedicated to him, Jet Airliner. It was cool vibes around.
Journey hit the stage at approximately 7:25 PM to old-school lights up to an adoring crowd at SoFi Stadium at dusk was quite dazzling. The fact that Journey still pulls such raw emotion in their songs (and, with no Steve Perry, I might add) from such an expansive crowd was impressive. The same goes for all of the acts on the lineup. I had never seen any of the bands live before or even been to SoFi Stadium, so hearing staples like keyboard-led Faithfully, the groove-laden Lovin, Touchin, and Squeezin are true stadium rockers and heard in their settings was thrilling. Journeys' fans were eating it up, singing along, loud and proud, up on their feet dancing and swaying along to every song. Yet, even with all of Pinedas' skills as a vocal powerhouse, it felt like it took him some time to warm up to the crowd, and he had a few either vocal or in-ear difficulties at first. He soon switched it into high gear, running along the stage, doing high kicks, and singing those seemingly impossible high notes laden throughout Journey's hits, something particularly evident in the powerful R&B spiked rock anthem, Separate Ways (Worlds Apart). It is a crowd-pleaser, but hey, what Journey song isn’t? Their set ended on the quintessential sing-along, Don’t Stop Believing, and the power pop anthem, Anyway You Want It.
A countdown appeared on the massive stage screen surrounded by the grandest and most extraordinary lighting setup I have ever seen. Leppards' crowd grew even more riotous applause with the songs Gods Of War and Pyromania playing alongside. It is this flair for the dramatic with the lights, razzle, dazzle, and anticipation that was very apropos for the English Heavy Metal band, and their penchant for braggadocios, pyro, and putting on a show still carries on till today, and was a signature that helped propel the band to their initial mainstream success in the 80s which multiplatinum status, and two top ten Billboard albums with Pyromania and Hysteria. Leppards' SoFi Los Angeles shows mainly showcased these seminal releases, with most of the setlist coming from there. Def Leppards' set started around 9:30 PM, where they opened up with Rock! Rock! (Till You Drop) a rowdy number from 1983's Pyromania, before launching into Rocket then Foolin. The audience was deliriously excited now, singing along, fists in the air, some with signs asking for guitar picks. Lead vocalist Joe Elliott kept it casual and cool in all black as he strutted up and down the same stage thrust areas of the catwalk as Savage. I was almost late making it into the pit where I needed to be to photograph the first three songs, as that onscreen clock I mentioned earlier was down to seconds by the time I made it in. I also honestly did not realize how massive their stage was until somehow I was in the midst of it taking pics. The stage setup nearly wrapped around the entire floor of the stadium. It dawned on me right then and there how massive this show was and how obsessive their fan base still is.
The band never let up on the energy all night rocketing through a twenty-song setlist, which included time to sing Happy Birthday to bandmate and guitarist, Vivian Campbell. It was a full-out wall of sound with loud, thrashing guitars from Phil Collen’s lightning-quick precision style intermeshed with Campbell pocket groove and fluid adaptability. Bassist Rick Savage brought the show on the stage thrust catwalk with his plectrum-picking style of Bass on his Union Jack emblazoned signature XB925 bass, and drummer, Rick Allen held down the fort for all. While it seemed like every song played was a crowd favorite amongst the fans, notable highlights for me were tracks like the cheeky Love Bites, the middle of the set half-acoustic number, the raucous party bop Rock of Ages, the love-addicted assault of Photograph, and the absolute 80’s Hair Metal bawdiness of both Hysteria and Uber classic Pour Some Sugar on Me. The last two songs were an encore and capped off an incredible night of music.
