A sweltering hot Coca-Cola Amphitheater in Birmingham, Alabama, welcomed Rock and Roll Hall of Famers Def Leppard to town on Wednesday night. Out on the road for their Summer Tour with rotating opening acts, the always-entertaining Bret Michaels Band was in artist support for this particular tour stop. With over 30 shows scheduled for its inaugural season, Def Leppard was just the third live event at this brand-new 9,300-capacity, nearly $50 million venue. For those familiar with the region, the Coca-Cola Amphitheater is set in Birmingham’s Druid Hills neighborhood and was built on the former Carraway Hospital site as part of the Star Uptown redevelopment project.
With the Alabama afternoon temperatures still hovering in the sweaty mid-90s, the gates finally opened following a 45-minute delay due to a potential weather concern (which fortunately for the early crowd, nothing manifested). The upside to the delay was that the fans didn’t have to wait long to enjoy a night of ’80s rock classics, as the Bret Michaels Band still went on as scheduled at 8:00pm.
Anchored by charismatic frontman Bret Michaels, he and his touring band took to their Parti-Gras decorated stage and launched into “Talk Dirty to Me” off Poison’s debut studio album, Look What the Cat Dragged In (1986). I’ve said it before, Michaels (either solo or when fronting Poison) brings 120% to every show, and Wednesday night was no exception. For nearly an hour, the Bret Michaels Band masterfully navigated through the Poison catalog, delivering enjoyable “covers” of the hits including “Ride the Wind,” “Something to Believe In,” “Unskinny Bop,” and of course the chart-topping power ballad, “Every Rose Has Its Thorn” from Poison’s second studio album, Open Up and Say… Ahh! (1988).
As is typical, Michaels also lead the band through the familiar “cover” of “Your Mama Don’t Dance” — the rock classic that Poison recorded a version of back in 1988 — but it was their rendition of “Sweet Home Alabama” that got the local crowd up in a singing frenzy. However, the unexpected appearance and inclusion of Great White’s singer Brett Carlisle joining Michaels and the band for “Nothin’ but a Good Time” bolstered an empathetic ending to the band’s eight-song opening performance in Birmingham.
Bret Michaels Band
Bret Michaels – Lead vocals, guitar
Pete Evick – Lead guitar, vocals
Norman Voss – Bass, vocals
Meri Schaefer – Drums, vocals
Rob Jozwiak – Keyboards, vocals
Dean Cramer – Rhythm guitar
(Band photography not approved as of publication time)
Setlist:
1.) Talk Dirty to Me (Poison song)
2.) Ride the Wind (Poison song)
3.) Your Mama Don’t Dance (Loggins & Messina cover)
4.) Sweet Home Alabama (Lynyrd Skynyrd song)
5.) Something to Believe In (Poison song)
6.) Unskinny Bop (Poison song)
7.) Every Rose Has Its Thorn (Poison song)
8.) Nothin’ but a Good Time (Poison song)
For those that have caught the previous Stadium Tours with Def Leppard, they continue to travel with a large video screen behind their stage platform that teases out a countdown clock animation for the start of their set. This helpful warning allowed fans to return to their seats in time, as the house lights dropped at exactly 9:20pm to the band launching into “Rock! Rock! (Till You Drop)” from 1983’s Pyromania in front of a capacity crowd.
In full transparency, I have probably seen Def Leppard play at least a dozen times over the years, and even after all this time, their shows simply continue to offer fans a top notch, crisp audio engineering experience enhanced by a spectacular lighting production (other than Phil Collen’s side of the stage having a dimmer spotlight on Wednesday). Def Leppard never disappoints musically, Joe Elliott’s voice continues to age gracefully, and their decades-long catalog of both hits and deep cuts are comfort food for fans old and new (and yes, when looking through the audience, Def Leppard fans were clearly multi-generational now).
I last caught Def Leppard just about a year ago during their Stadium Tour stop in Atlanta, Georgia (July 2024), and while I will never complain about a playlist heavily focused on both Pyromania and Hysteria (1987), the band did not get overly creative with their rundown on Wednesday night. Other than swapping out tracks “Comin’ Under Fire” and “Too Late for Love” with “Let’s Get Rocked” and “Let it Go” (which was awesome to hear again live), the entirety of their performance mimicked the Stadium Tour setlist.
Obviously the humidity-laden Birmingham night was expectedly littered with fan favorite performances of radio-friendly tunes like “Animal,” “Love Bites,” and “Bringin’ On the Heartbreak,” but I still selfishly wished Def Leppard would mix it up a bit with songs like “Paper Sun,” “Promises,” or even “Gods of War.” However, the band’s performances of back-to-back rock and roll anthems in “Rock of Ages” and “Photograph” to close out their main set brought out a sea of cell phones to capture the moment.
Following a brief break, Def Leppard returned to the stage for their two-song encore and wrapped up their sold-out night with classics in “Hysteria” and “Pour Some Sugar on Me.” With flights from Birmingham-Shuttlesworth International Airport taking off overhead and the house lights back on, the hot, sticky sweet crowd rolled out into the adjacent neighborhood streets, elated from an enjoyable night of iconic music.
After a touring stint through Canada in mid-July, Def Leppard will return to the United States through the end of August, wrapping up the summer at Veterans United Home Loans Amphitheater at Virginia Beach, Virginia, on Sunday, August 31st.
Def Leppard
Rick Savage – Bass guitar, keyboards, backing vocals
Joe Elliott – Lead vocals, occasional rhythm guitar, keyboards, piano
Rick Allen – Drums, percussion, backing vocals
Phil Collen – Guitar, backing vocals
Vivian Campbell – Guitar, backing vocals
Setlist:
1.) Rock! Rock! (Till You Drop)
2.) Rocket
3.) Let’s Get Rocked
4.) Foolin’
5.) Armageddon It
6.) Animal
7.) Love Bites
8.) Just Like ’73
9.) Let It Go
10.) Die Hard the Hunter
11.) This Guitar
12.) Two Steps Behind
13.) Bringin’ On the Heartbreak
14.) Switch 625
15.) Rock of Ages
16.) Photograph
Encore
17.) Hysteria
18.) Pour Some Sugar on Me
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Elliott is a music photographer covering shows in Atlanta, Georgia, and the surrounding area. The highlight of his photography career was back in the early ’90s, when he sold Neil Diamond the rights to his negatives from a show and then purchased a set of tires for his 1979 280ZX during college with the money.
