Live Review: Def Leppard, Baby Animals

Idyllically set in bushland, with the city and sunset glinting in the distance, Red Hill is a hidden treasure, and one well-catered for with excellent facilities and a bevy of shuttle buses ferrying punters in and out. The scene was set for a great night of rock'n'roll.

Baby Animals took the stage as the sun edged lower, local frontwoman Suze DeMarchi packing as powerful a punch as always through a set which focussed on their 1991 debut. Favourites Rush You, One Word and Ain’t Gonna Get were all delivered with rocking fury, with last year’s scathing Email a more contemporary highlight.

Americans Live seemed an odd fit and stood out like a sore thumb on the night. Bookending their set with their big hits All Over You, Lightning Crashes and I Alone at either end of a too-long set, they played all the wrong cards. New singer, Chris Shinn, resembled a tribute band version of Ed Kowalczyk, and the rest of the band had no engagement with the crowd at all, resulting in a tedious hour or so.

Def Leppard had no such problems, bursting onstage with new single, Let’s Go, and delivering a selection of their greatest hits with a couple of surprises thrown in for good measure. Guitarists Vivian Campbell and the seemingly permanently topless and baby-oiled Phil Collen threw all the right shapes as their guitars meshed perfectly, while the faultless rhythm section never skipped a beat.

With so much material to choose from, these old pros did a good job cherry picking a hit-packed 90 minutes. Animal and Armageddon It had the crowd singing along, their modernisation of David Essex’s Rock On was a winner, and singer Joe Elliot’s solo acoustic performance of the band's best non-album track, Two Steps Behind, was a treat.

At their rocking best for the early instrumental Switch 625 and the double-whammy encore of Rock Of Ages and Photograph, Def Leppard gave Perth a little bit of everything that has made them endure so well for so many years, leaving Red Hill well and truly Rocked.

Originally published at X-Press Magazine