Blackfoot
Def Leppard
Waterbury Palace Theatre
Waterbury, Connecticut
September 1980
What a show! Southern rock boogie kings, Blackfoot, had just struck gold in England and were now back in the US touring under their most prominent release, “Marauder.” While this band had been around since the early 1970s, upstart British metallers, Def Leppard, were spearheading the New Wave of Heavy Metal movement along with Maiden and Saxon, and touring the US for the first time. With an average age of 18, the young lads scattered about the stage like pups just let out of a cage!
The Leps opened the show and played mostly their entire debut, “On Through the Night”. Even though they’d been together for a short while, the band had surprisingly already gained popularity in the US. The band opened with “Rock Brigade” and “Hello America”, and these two songs epitomized what Lep was all about at the time – shot, punchy, metal anthems that were hummable and memorable…”Answer to the Master”, “Overture”, and the immortal “Wasted” with a young Steve Clark ripping out the opening riff while Pete Willis and Rick Savage wait at the ready. Joe Elliot, wearing that ridiculous perm, was, even at that time, the unofficial leader of the Leps and would guide them to the stars!
Blackfoot, on the other hand, were burgeoning southern rock stars. With five albums under their belt, the band had forged a sound that could best be described as southern metal. They were fierce, hard and no-nonsense. They concentrated on their last three albums, foregoing “No Reservations” and “Flying High.” We got the likes of “Gimme Gimme Gimme”, “Rattlesnake Rock N Roller”, “Dry County”, “Fox Hunt”, “I got a Line on You”, and others. Rickey Medlocke was and is the consummate front man and many wish he’d rejoin the Blackfoot guys, but Skynyrd remains the priority. It’s a shame that both Leppard and Blackfoot chose to try and break the American market by neglecting their roots in favor of the Almighty dollar. Blackfoot’s next release, “Siogo” was a failure and the Leps…well, we all know what happened to them! Sad!