Home to Major League Baseball’s Atlanta Braves, Truist Park in northwest Atlanta, Georgia, hosted the third stop for this summer’s Stadium Tour on a sunny and sweaty Saturday afternoon in the South. This year’s edition of the Stadium Tour features co-headliners Def Leppard and Journey, with co-headliner artist support in Atlanta from the Steve Miller Band. Truist Park is familiar territory for Def Leppard and their fans, as the band kicked off their COVID-delayed co-headlining Stadium Tour with Motley Crue here in 2022. They also previously performed with Journey in front of a sold out Truist (then SunTrust) Park crowd back in July 2018.
As heavily advertised, the co-headliner acts for this year’s Stadium Tour would be a rotation of rock band institutions, with the Steve Miller Band picking up the baton from Cheap Trick for their first appearance on the tour Saturday night. With the summer sun still fiercely beaming down, the Steve Miller Band took to the stage at precisely 6:00pm and kicked off the night with “Fly Like an Eagle.”
While inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame back in 2016, even that accolade makes it is hard measure just how influential the now 80-year-old Miller has been on the music industry for six decades. For 60 minutes in Atlanta on Saturday, Miller and his band casually and enjoyably rolled through familiar hit after familiar hit, including “Abracadabra,” “Swingtown,” “Take the Money and Run,” “Jungle Love,” and “Space Cowboy.” Fans danced in the aisles and sang along with Miller throughout the early evening, which was never more evident then when the band delivered consecutive radio favorites in “The Joker” and “Jet Airliner” to close out their set.
Steve Miller Band:
Steve Miller – Lead vocals, guitar, harmonica, keyboards
Kenny Lee Lewis – Bass, backing vocals
Joseph Wooten – Keyboards, backing vocals
Jacob Petersen – Guitar, backing vocals
Ron Wikso – Drums
Setlist:
1.) Fly Like an Eagle
2.) Serenade
3.) Living in the U.S.A.
4.) Abracadabra
5.) Swingtown
6.) Dance, Dance, Dance
7.) Take the Money and Run
8.) Jungle Love
9.) Rock’n Me
10.) Space Cowboy
11.) The Joker
12.) Jet Airliner (Paul Pena cover)
To the backdrop of the sun slowly setting on the Atlanta horizon, Rock and Roll Hall of Famers Journey took to the stage at 7:30pm and opened their evening with the tune “Only the Young.” Nearly six years ago to the day, I was out there in the crowd enjoying their performance as a fan, so my expectations were already set that Journey would continue to deliver at a high level on Saturday. They did not disappoint.
Journey’s musicianship continues to be a tight as ever, anchored by founding member and lead guitarist Neal Schon, along with his long-time bandmate Jonathan Cain (keyboards, guitar). Arnel Pineda, who took over the band’s lead vocals back in 2007, delivered the evening’s catalog of anthems with recognizable effectiveness, all-the-while smiling, jumping, and fist-bumping the fans in the first few rows.
However, in looking back at the setlist from 2018, Journey generally did not deviate from performing the same set of songs, albeit in a slightly different order. The back third of their setlist was a powerhouse of classics, starting with “Wheel in the Sky,” which notably had Cain return to the stage in an Atlanta Braves jersey following a Schon guitar solo. The band then followed that tune with sing-along hits that echoed into the night including “Lights,” “Separate Ways,” “Be Good to Yourself,” and “Any Way You Want It.” As the time crept towards 9:00pm, Journey put the exclamation point on their evening with their expected signature song, “Don’t Stop Believin’.”
Journey:
Neal Schon – Lead guitar, backing vocals
Jonathan Cain – Keyboards, piano, backing vocals, rhythm guitar, harmonica
Deen Castronovo – Drums, backing and lead vocals
Arnel Pineda – Lead vocals
Jason Derlatka – Keyboards, backing and lead vocals
Todd Jensen – Bass, backing vocals
Setlist:
1.) Only the Young
2.) Stone in Love
3.) Keep On Runnin’
4.) Escape
5.) Faithfully
6.) Lovin’, Touchin’, Squeezin’
7.) Open Arms
8.) Line of Fire
9.) La Do Da
10.) Dead or Alive
11.) Wheel in the Sky
12.) Lights
13.) Separate Ways (Worlds Apart)
14.) Be Good to Yourself
15.) Any Way You Want It
16.) Don’t Stop Believin’
At 9:15pm, the large video screen behind the entire stage platform lit up with a 15-minute countdown clock animation for Def Leppard. This advanced warning allowed fans to scurry back to their seats in time, as the house lights dropped at exactly 9:30pm. With smoke streaming up and the video boards flashing, Def Leppard appeared in front of the capacity audience and immediately blasted into “Rock! Rock! (Till You Drop)” from 1983’s Pyromania.
I have been a Def Leppard fan for decades, dating back to when I first heard Pyromania echo through the car speakers from the cassette player in my best friend’s Chevy Nova back in high school. Their shows have always been top notch musically and vocally, with spectacular lighting productions complimented by crisp audio engineering. Saturday night in Atlanta was no different.
What was different was the pleasantly heavy setlist focus on both Pyromania (in acknowledgement and celebration of that album’s 40th anniversary) and Hysteria (1987). The band did mix in their latest release, “Just Like ’73” mid-set, which arguably replaced other typical tracks like “Paper Sun,” “Promises,” or “Let’s Get Rocked” that generally pop up at a Def Leppard show. However, pivoting back towards the early part of their catalog is what will make this Stadium Tour experience different from 2022. Speaking of 2022, singer Joe Elliott joked that he remembered the last time they played in Atlanta, their performance was doused by a giant thunderstorm, so he was fine dealing with just the summer heat Schon had warned him about backstage.
Similar to Journey’s approach, the back end of Def Leppard’s playlist was essentially musical comfort food, with the band delivering back-to-back rock and roll anthems in “Rock of Ages” and “Photograph” to close out their main set. Following a brief break, the band returned to the stage and wrapped up their night with two fan favorites in “Hysteria” and “Pour Some Sugar on Me.”
The Stadium Tour continues on through early September, wrapping up on Sunday, September 8th, at Coors Field in Denver, Colorado.
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.) Foolin’
4.) Armageddon It
5.) Animal
6.) Love Bites
7.) Just Like ’73
8.) Comin’ Under Fire
9.) Too Late for Love
10.) Die Hard the Hunter
11.) Two Steps Behind
12.) This Guitar
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.
