Back at the White River Amphitheater after spending all day at the Van’s Warped Tour the day before…this time to see some good old 70’s and 80’s classic arena rock and the songs Toni and I know the words to.
The show started with a warm-up band who seemed a little heavy for the crowd which were filling the stands, although not for us of course. They were called Kobra and the Lotus, a Canadian band fronted by a female lead singer who could really belt out the vocals. They were very heavy and played one of the most original versions of Barracuda by Heart that I have ever heard, putting an extremely heavy metal spin on it, which worked surprisingly well. Nicki really liked them and went to go meet them after their set. (see a few picture of them below)
Def Leppard came on first, and performed in some real bright sunny weather, after a torrential downpour had just cleared…typical for this time of year in Seattle. They started out with phenomenal finish to the classic Who song Won’t Get Fooled Again which was playing in the background before the show and then immediately broken into one of their great older hits Let it Go. As always, they put on an absolutely great show playing songs spanning their career with a few very nice acoustic pieces, one of which was Bringin’ on the Heartbreak which they transitioned to electric mid-way through…awesome!. They closed the show with a two song encore of Rock of Ages and Photograph. Great to see these guys live again – one of Toni’s all time favorite bands for sure.
KISS came on a little after 9:30pm, and as usual, put on their typical, magnificently pyrotechnic, electrifying stage show complete with Gene spitting fire, Paul flying through the air to a small stage in the center of the amphitheater during the song Love Gun, Eric and his drum set raising up into the air on a scissor stage and all along with fireworks, fire bombs and air cannons going off all around the stage…they never cease to amaze me on the amount of excitement they can pack into an hour and a half. This show was a bit different as I think they played a lot of songs which they don’t typically (or at least not when I have seen them in the past) play like War Machine, Christine Sixteen and Hide Your Heart. Then of course they played the classic favorites Let Me Go Rock N’ Roll, I Love it Loud, Shout it Out Loud and Black Diamond. They finished the night with Detroit Rock City and with an enormous display of confetti cannons, fireworks and raised stages while performing Rock and Roll All Nite.
It was a great end of the weekend show although I think the previous day at Warped, Ryan and Nicki got pretty wiped out as they didn’t stand up much during the show, but they enjoyed the music.
Shots of Kobra and the Lotus
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