Viva! Hysteria (Original Soundtrack)

Joe Elliott can’t hit the high notes quite as forcefully as he used to, but otherwise, Def Leppard sounds pretty fantastic here. It’s impressive to hear an album as quintessentially overproduced as Hysteria pulled off live this faithfully, and 25 years later at that. (Of course, the band has had plenty of recent practice aping its younger self by recording verbatim recreations of its classic hits to spite its domineering record label.)

For my money, though, the real gold here is in the opening set (sequenced after Hysteria’s main event on this album). Comprised mainly of deep cuts from Def Leppard’s three pre-Hysteria albums – even “Good Morning Freedom,” a 1980 B-side that has yet to see a reissue, is excavated – it puts a grand spotlight on the days the band still maintained something of an edge. And somehow, even amidst the glitz of a Las Vegas residency and subsequent decades of polished, pedestrian pop tunes (some of which are also unfortunately included), these fantastic early songs mostly retain their swagger.

As a huge fan of early Def Leppard who never got to see the band in its heyday, I think it would have been worth trudging into the cesspool that is Las Vegas to experience this show.