We walked that way…in fact, we walked all the way down to GM Place here in Vancouver tonight to catch ’80s rock megastars, Def Leppard.

Why on earth did you do that? Aren’t they a little past their prime? Are you really into heavy metal? Don’t they have only one song about sugar or something?

Here’s my response to that machine gun line of questioning that I’ve just asked myself in the third person: because you simply have to, not exactly, and no.

Let me begin be stating/re-stating that I have extremely eclectic musical tastes (if you’ve been reading timinganddelivery.com for some time, you’ll already be aware of that – just check out the music section!).

My first and fondest memories date back almost 20 years ago when I would blast around on my Norco moutain bike blaring the Hysertia cassette tape on my yellow Sony sports AM/FM walkman….yeah, you know the ones. They were nice, weren’t they? And only 5 pounds without batteries! Those were good times.

Cut to today, almost 20 years later…and a whole bunch of life happenin’ in between…and I gotta say, these guys have still got it. Joe Elliott’s vocals are as strong as ever, the guitar solos are fresh out of the 80’s hair band days (complete with finger tapping and whammy bars), and the drums are bombastic (the one-armed drummer story is a truly amazing story in and of itself, but I digress). The show was solid…let’s just put it that way. Rock of Ages solid.

These guys are a class act and I’m glad we caught them from the 8th row…talk about great service for your entertainment dollar! They really do know how to put on a show by trying to get up close n’ personal with the crowd….even after 30 flippin’ years!

That’s right, folks, these lads have been at it almost as long as I’ve been alive…and when I mean ‘at it’, I mean ‘at it’. They may be pushin’ mid-50’s or whatever they are, but ‘back in the day’…which was a Wednesday, by the way…these guys probably have ruined a hotel room or two.

I’m not going to do an album review here because what’s the point? You know who these guys are. EVERYONE knows who these guys are…they’re only 1 of 6 bands, including Led Zeppelin, The Beatles, Pink Floyd, The Eagles, and Van Halen, with two original albums that have sold over 10 million albums each in the US…not bad, eh?

So here’s what you need to know (keeping in mind your service experience in entertainment, of course): catch them next year!

Def Leppard announced tonight that they will be releasing a new album in 2008 and will be touring through Canada and the US once again. So go…sing and be merry.

Take it from me, it’ll be worth your time, your money, your air guitar, and your sore throat the next day from singing along to all the songs you remember from high school dances.

T&D Rating: 5 guitar picks (out of 5)