Def Leppard: And There Will Be a Next Time - Live from Detroit Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		2.5
Overall		4.0

Def Leppard: And There Will Be a Next Time - Live from Detroit Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman February 10, 2017

Def Leppard has reportedly sold well in excess of 100 million records, but I got my first Def Leppard album (actually a CD) when someone left one of those zipper folder cases full of discs on the hood of my car, evidently in the middle of the night, where I found it the next morning. I posted a “found” notice around the neighborhood, but no one ever came a callin’, so I suddenly had a ton of “new” CDs that included a number of bands and/or artists that I probably would have never picked up myself. The CD “bestowed” upon me was Pyromania, and I had already become quite fond of “Photograph” courtesy of its nonstop playlist status on MTV at the time. “Photograph”, offering a typically high energy role for vocalist Joe Elliott, was unusually melodic and had probably helped to mislead me into thinking the band was kind of another arena rock power ballad outfit, a la Journey. That of course is only part of Def Leppard’s appeal, and the band has a number of more riff driven, head banging material that may in fact appeal to its hardcore fans more than its more overtly commercial tunes.

The essay by Rolling Stones’ David Fricke included in the insert booklet in this package makes the case that Detroit, the setting for the 2016 concert, is in many ways the American analog for Sheffield, England, the working class burg from which Def Leppard hails. Before an at times pretty raucous audience who is obviously there to have a very good time, the band offers a consistently high energy performance here, one that perhaps unavoidably hails back to arena rock spectaculars of an earlier age, but which finds the band (who are getting well into AARP territory, so to speak) sounding forceful and often quite beautifully melodic. In fact it’s the ability of Def Leppard to combine rather sumptuous changes with driving beats that defines a lot of this concert experience.

The band’s set list for the concert is:

Let’s Go
Animal
Let It Go
Dangerous
Foolin’
Love Bites
Armageddon It
Rock On
Man Enough
Rocket
Bringin’ On the Heartbreak
Switch 625
Hysteria
Let’s Get Rocked
Pour Some Sugar On Me
Rock of Ages
Photograph

Def Leppard: And There Will Be a Next Time - Live from Detroit Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Def Leppard: And There Will Be a Next Time. . .Live From Detroit is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Eagle Vision and Eagle Rock Films, both imprints of Eagle Rock Entertainment, along with Universal Music Group, with an AVC encoded 1080i transfer in 1.78:1. While there are occasional issues with the huge displays behind the band offering brief moments of quasi-pixellation and/or shimmer, this is on the whole a really sharp and nicely defined looking concert video. While it's directed with standard "ADHD" quick cutting, something that tends to cut down on the perception of fine detail if only because it's hard to spot anything for very long, when the camera does pause for a moment, everything from glistening sweat streaked skin to flyaway hairs are offered with precision. The palette looks natural, though of course the stage is often bathed in various deep hues, including reds and purples, two tones which tend to cast a kind of softening ambience on everything and therefore probably tend to at least slightly deplete fine detail levels. Aside from brief anomalies with the displays, there are no problems with image instability.

Def Leppard: And There Will Be a Next Time - Live from Detroit Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Def Leppard: And There Will Be a Next Time. . .Live From Detroit features DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and LPCM 2.0 tracks (the disc is authored to default to the stereo track, so those who prefer a surround experience should have their remotes handy). The surround track is quite appealing, offering good prioritization for vocals which are only occasionally subsumed by the very enthusiastic audience. The driving rhythm section is nicely balanced and is afforded some breathing room in the 5.1 mix that isn't as evident in the stereo iteration. Fidelity is fine and provides a highly enjoyable listening experience.

Def Leppard: And There Will Be a Next Time - Live from Detroit Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Music Videos

  Let's Go (Lyrics Video) (1080i; 5:05)

  Let's Go (1080i; 5:11)

  Dangerous (1080i; 3:36)

  Man Enough (1080i; 4:09)

  We Belong (1080i; 5:15)

Additionally, this package comes with 2 CDs featuring all of the songs on the Blu-ray. The insert booklet has a lot of photos and interesting essays by Phil Collen as well as David Fricke of Rolling Stone.

Def Leppard: And There Will Be a Next Time - Live from Detroit Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

It's kind of fun to see bands that are getting up there in years continue to perform with such energy, and Def Leppard offers a largely very satisfying performance in this Detroit appearance from the summer of 2016. Technical merits are strong, and Def Leppard: And There Will Be a Next Time. . .Live in Detroit comes Recommended.