Def Leppard: London to Vegas Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		4.0
Overall		4.0

Def Leppard: London to Vegas Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman May 19, 2020

Years ago, I walked out of my house early one morning to get ready to drive to work only to discover someone had left one of those old style zipper cases full of compact discs on the hood of my car. I put up “found” posters on a bunch of telephone poles around my neighborhood, but never heard back from anyone, and so considered the CDs up for grabs after a while. It was a rather interesting assortment of music styles, with a bunch of people like Sarah McLachlan as well as some other at least partially Celtic tinged artists, but among the discs was Def Leppard’s Pyromania, which served as my first real in depth listening introduction to the band, at least beyond the ubiquitous music videos by them that used to populate such channels as MTV back in the day. I'm not always a huge fan of what some might call "typical" hard rock and/or head banging music, but I was instantly struck by the craftsmanship on display in Pyromania, and songs like Photograph became regular excursions for my headphone listening. It's perhaps notable that both concerts offered in this deluxe new set from Eagle Rock Entertainment close with performances of Photograph, since that song is arguably among the best of Def Leppard's output in the way that it probably shows off many of their strengths in one accessible package, including instantly memorable hooks, distinctive melodies highlighting Joe Elliott's soaring tenor (which in its upper register kind of reminds me of Jon Anderson at times, even if Elliott is a bit gruffer sounding), a driving rhythm section and some really glorious back up vocals. This particular collection might have more been more accurately titled in reverse, meaning Vegas to London, since chronologically speaking Def Leppard first starting doing Hysteria in concert in Vegas several years before they matriculated back to the UK for the 2018 concert version of Hysteria captured here (see Def Leppard: Viva! Hysteria for details on their first stint in Vegas), though that said, the Hits Vegas concert included in this release is actually from 2019, after the band returned to Sin City to begin a new residency at Planet Hollywood.

Both of these concerts find Def Leppard in pretty fine fettle, delivering consistently high energy performances that can frankly feel just a little pat and locked in, at least in terms of the shared material between the two. The good news in that regard is that the two shows together provide a nicely wide array of tunes from the band, and so while there are some duplicates, they're not the bulk of either show. Any niggling qualms like that aside, there is fantastic musicianship on display in both shows, and considering the guys are starting to get up there in years, the vocals sound bright and clear, and the instrumental playing is as driving as ever. The Vegas show arguably has a bit more stagecraft, while the O2 show perhaps offers a bit more in the video bells and whistles category, but both shows together prove that Def Leppard certainly deserves their reputation as Arena Rock Gods.

The playlists for the two concerts are as follows:

Hysteria at the O2

• 1. Intro
• 2. Women
• 3. Rocket
• 4. Animal
• 5. Love Bites
• 6. Pour Some Sugar On Me
• 7. Armageddon It
• 8. Stephen Clark Tribute
• 9. Gods of War
• 10. Don't Shoot Shotgun
• 11. Run Riot
• 12. Hysteria
• 13. Excitable
• 14. Love and Affection
• 15. Encore
• 16. Wasted
• 17. When Love and Hate Collide
• 18. Let's Get Rocked
• 19. Rock of Ages
• 20. Photograph

Hits Vegas Live at Planet Hollywood

• 1. Die Hard The Hunter
• 2. Animal
• 3. Excitable
• 4. Foolin'
• 5. Too Late For Love
• 6. Billy's Got a Gun
• 7. Slang
• 8. Promises
• 9. Paper Sun
• 10. Let It Go
• 11. Mirror Mirror (Look Into My Eyes)
• 12. Bringin' On the Heartbreak
• 13. Switch 625
• 14. Let Me Be The One
• 15. We Belong
• 16. Have You Ever Needed Someone So Bad
• 17. Two Steps Behind
• 18. Now
• 19. Rocket
• 20. Let's Get Rocked
• 21. Hysteria
• 22. Love Bites
• 23. Armageddon It
• 24. Pour Some Sugar On Me
• 25. Action
• 26. Let's Go
• 27. Rock Of Ages
• 28. Photograph

Def Leppard: London to Vegas Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Note: Screenshots 1 through 9 are from Hysteria at the O2 and Screenshots 10 through 18 are from Hits Vegas Live at Planet Hollywood .

Def Leppard: London to Vegas is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Eagle Vision, an imprint of Eagle Rock Entertainment, with AVC encoded 1080p ( Hysteria Live at O2) and 1080i (Hits Vegas Live at Planet Hollywood) transfers in 1.78:1. There's some very minor banding noticeable just as the image fades in on the exterior shot of 02 in that concert, and some occasional equally minor moiré shimmer that can show up on some of the pixellated displays upstage in Hits Vegas Live at Planet Hollywood, but otherwise both of these presentations are generally very sharp and well detailed, without any other major issues. That said, and perhaps due at least in part to its interlaced presentation, the Vegas concert struck me as looking a little flatter and more video like than the O2 concert. As mentioned above, the O2 concert has a few built in video bells and whistles with the imagery deliberately tweaked (see screenshot 5), and that can obviously tend not to support detail levels as well as the bulk of the presentation. Some of the deepest cobalt blue lighting regimens in both concerts can come pretty close to posterizing territory (see screenshot 16), especially when other image tweaks like an intentionally distressed appearance are added. Close-ups offer generally excellent levels of fine detail, even in some less than optimal lighting conditions.

Def Leppard: London to Vegas Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Both performances features DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and LPCM 2.0 tracks (the discs are authored to default to the stereo tracks, as is often the case with Eagle Rock Entertainment releases). Fidelity on both these tracks is great, with really boisterous midrange and (especially) low end, but this is another case where the actual mixes just kind of bothered me, with Joe Elliott's vocals sounding buried a lot of the time. In that regard, the surround mix does spread the instrumental forces throughout the soundstage, but it really doesn't help things that much, and (to my ears, anyway) it sounded like Elliott was singing from the bottom of a well sometimes. The stereo track is less diffused and so vocals can sound just a bit more forward some of the time . The difference was quite noticeable to me when I put on the CD versions of the concerts, where suddenly the vocals were mixed forward where I personally believe they should be, so this may well have been an intentional mixing decision on whoever did the audio for the Blu-ray discs, and, as always, individual listener mileage may vary.

Def Leppard: London to Vegas Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Hysteria at the O2

• Play Options (see screenshot 19) include:

  Full Show (1080p; 1:39:35) offers all of the material detailed in the Playlist above.

  
  

  Hysteria (1080p; 1:08:06) offers all of the album track performances (see Playlist above).

  
  

  Before and After (1080p; 31:29) features everything from the Encore through Photograph, as detailed in the Playlist above.

• Hysteria: Then and Now (1080p; 11:27) is an appealing if brief featurette with some fun interviews with the guys as they talk about the original album, which had a pretty long gestational period due at least in part to Rick Allen's horrifying accident (which is overtly mentioned here), and then the chain of events that led to performing the album live.

Hits Vegas Live at Planet Hollywood

• Behind the Scenes (1080p; 11:28) documents some of the immense setup necessary to mount their Sin City residency.

Additionally, this is a very handsomely packaged release from Eagle Rock Entertainment that includes 4 Bonus CDs (two for each performance), plus a hardback book with a ton of great photos and track listings. The slipcase holding the book and a trifold insert which houses the Blu-ray discs and CDs is approximately 9.5" wide by 9.75" high by 0.75" deep.

Def Leppard: London to Vegas Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Def Leppard offers two great performances in this set, and while there is some shared material, there's a glut of other songs that are exclusive to each concert. I personally found the mixes on the Blu-ray discs not always to my liking, but audio fidelity itself is fine, as is overall video quality. This deluxe set has some non-disc swag that may not be of interest to everyone, and so some may want to wait to see if this pretty pricey release is discounted or if perhaps Eagle Rock will release standalone Blu-rays at some point. Diehard Def Leppard fans and those with deeper pockets should find this a very worthwhile release. Recommended.