Def Leppard, Journey take over Comerica Park for 35,000 as stadium tour hits Detroit

Comerica Park got a big dose of ‘80s rock energy as about 35,000 fans piled into the Detroit ballpark Thursday night for a doubleheader from Def Leppard and Journey.

The potent pair — two of that era’s enduring hitmakers — were joined by another classic rock radio staple, Steve Miller Band, for a long, festive and sonically diverse blast of music on a pleasant summer night downtown.

Detroit was just the fifth night on Def Leppard and Journey’s Summer Stadium Tour, but the show is already a well-oiled machine, which is little surprise given the long, deep touring pedigrees of the two co-headliners.

Def Leppard closed the evening with a finely tuned 1?-hour set of Union Jack-stamped hard rock, a signature wall of sound layered with sheets of vocal harmonies, squalling guitars and unapologetic pop hooks. It’s an approach meant for a big setting like CoPa, and the flashy visual accompaniment on the centerfield stage drove home the point.

Vocalist Joe Elliott, now sporting an august white mane, led the proceedings flanked by his singing compatriots Phil Collen (guitar), Vivian Campbell (guitar) and Rick Savage (bass), with drummer Rick Allen typically merry and thunderous back at the kit.

Thursday night featured significantly more material from 1983’s “Pyromania” album than the band’s last Comerica Park visit, a 2022 tour stop with Motley Crue. That included fiery album opener “Rock! Rock! (Till You Drop),” which also kicked off Thursday’s set. The time trip continued soon with a thick “Foolin’” and the deep cut “Comin’ Under Fire” — never played live until this tour — with the record’s milestone tracks, “Rock of Ages” and “Photograph,” closing the regular set.

There was plenty of music pulled from that album’s multiplatinum follow-up, 1987’s more polished “Hysteria,” full of chart-scaling hits such as “Armageddon It,” “Animal” and “Love Bites,” which served as instant crowd-pleasers at Comerica Park, with a rippling “Hysteria” and sticky “Pour Some Sugar on Me” saved for the encore.

One new number — the stomping, glam-touched “Just Like ’73,” a nod to band members’ formative music years — was tucked into the blend, while a quick riff by Elliott on Kiss’s “Detroit Rock City” launched an unplugged-style session at the edge of the stage’s runway.

Journey delivered its own polished and hits-filled performance, grounded by expressive playing from guitarist Neal Schon and cinematic keys from Jonathan Cain, who occasionally left his grand piano to handle rhythm guitar on songs such as “Keep on Runnin’.”

Sixteen years into his tenure as Journey front man, Philippines-born Arnel Pineda looks all the part of a seasoned pro, energetically working the stage in an unmissable azure blue suit. At 56, he spent much of the show seamlessly swooping to the top of his high tenor, though signs of vocal fatigue crept in as the 90-minute set wound on.

Offering a tribute to members of the armed forces, Cain said he was “send(ing) this song like a prayer” as he launched into “Faithfully,” one of the slew of hits Thursday that ranged from the band’s stock-in-trade soaring ballads (“Open Arms”), yearning midtempo fare (“Only the Young”) and pulsing rockers (“Wheel in the Sky”), with room carved out for guitar and piano solos by Schon and Cain.

The extended jam of “Lovin’, Touchin’, Squeezin’” prompted a sea of swaying arms and a chorus of “nah-nah-nah-nah’s” while “Lights” drew a stadium full of illuminated cellphones and, in a 2024 anachronism, a fair share of old-fashioned lighters.

A show that started in daylight was headed toward sunset by the time Jonathan Cain’s seesawing keyboard lick launched Journey’s set closer, “Don’t Stop Believin’,” which at a place like Comerica Park is just a build of anticipation for the song’s second verse. Sure enough, Pineda handed vocal duties over to the crowd for mass belting-out: “born and raised in south Detroit!”

Steve Miller Band opened the evening with a likable, punchy 55-minute set of hits that stretched back to Miller’s late-’60s breakthrough, “Living in the U.S.A.,” and much of his greatest-hits repertoire (“Fly Like an Eagle,” “Take the Money and Run,” “Jet Airliner”).

Ahead of 1977’s “Serenade,” the silver-haired guitarist-singer paused early on for a dedication to Eminem, who recently landed his biggest hit in a decade with “Houdini,” built in part around an interpolation of Miller’s 1982 track “Abracadabra.” The Detroit rapper’s single has enjoyed big chart success, Miller pointed out, "just like Abracadabra’ … all around the world."

The Summer Stadium Tour will roll on through September. A note for fans in other markets: In Detroit, Steve Miller Band went on promptly at 6 p.m., Journey at 7:30 p.m. and Def Leppard at 9:30 p.m.

Contact Detroit Free Press music writer Brian McCollum: 313-223-4450 or [email protected].

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Def Leppard, Journey host rock night at Comerica Park for 35,000