Last Wednesday marked my fourth Def Leppard concert, making them the band I’ve seen live more than any other.

Some time ago my boss just happened to mention that he’d really like to see Def Leppard in concert, not saying it but almost wondering if they even tour anymore. “Oh, they’re really great,” I said. “I saw them last summer.” He vowed that if they came again we would definitely go. It wasn’t a month later before I found that they would be kicking off their 2012 tour at Usana Amphitheater in Salt Lake. We bought tickets on the first day they were on sale.

My boss’s wife had the idea that we should all dress up and really get into the whole concert thing. So Amber and I planned this way. The shirt was an easy choice. We were going to see Poison and Def Leppard, so I clearly could not wear my Def Leppard shirt. But I’d just been to Van Halen (in another town, crucially), so obviously I was going to wear that shirt, especially since Van Halen isn’t coming to Salt Lake. As for the pants, that was obvious: I was going to make some more holey jeans like Joe Elliott had during the Hysteria tour:

I had some of these in high school but gave them away before I left on my mission. So I made new ones. The old ones wouldn’t have fit anyway.

The other girls were going to wear pleather pants or some other thing. Amber was harder to convince but she finally decided to go all out with neon and rubber bracelets and the big hair thing. She even tried to do the whole super-claw bangs but couldn’t get her hair to do it.

The other girls came and picked Amber up, which was when she found that they had kinda chickened out. Kinda. They still had some of the 80’s look going on, but Amber looked the best.

Here’s the crew on our way out the door:

We missed most of Poison, sad to say. I was kinda looking forward to it, but most of the others aren’t fans. We did get to hear the last three songs. Bret Michaels is a pretty good frontman, I have to say.

Def Leppard was great like always. I think last year’s Mirrorball tour was the best I’ve ever heard them sound, but this year was quite excellent.

My pants seemed to draw some attention that I’m not sure was the best kind. In the middle of “Armageddon It” this guy in front of us was drunk and dancing back and forth along the row right in front of us. I was on the end of the row. He came over by me and put up his fist for us to bump fists. I complied, and soon we were banging heads in unison and then he wrapped his arm around my head and sang/shouted in my ear “Cause the best is yet to come!”

Actually that part was kinda fun. The security guard came up to me afterward and asked if I wanted him taken out, but I said Nah, we were just having fun and he was okay.

The one I wanted to throw out was the girl behind us who kept coming up and trying to dance with me. She’d come and dance next to me and when I would ignore her she’d nudge me and try to get me to pay attention to her. With Amber standing right next to me! Some people aren’t too bright I guess.

We had a really good time, and I have to say most of the people around us were pretty decent. Drinking alcohol usually just makes people friendlier, so even though I don’t drink I don’t usually mind being around those that do, and I’ve got nothing against them. But I must say I really don’t get it. I like having all my senses present and fully capable when I’m trying to enjoy a rock concert. I like feeling fully aware. I like not stumbling out of the concert and falling headfirst into a chain link fence.

At the concert I thought back on a clear memory of 25 years ago this summer. I remember where I was when the Space Shuttle blew up. I remember where I was when I heard the Twin Towers had been hit by terrorists. And I remember where I was when I first heard Hysteria. I had ridden my bike up to my friend Curry Wilson’s house. He brought me into his bedroom and said, “Dude, you have to listen to this.” He introduced me to Def Leppard’s brand new album, Hysteria. I said to him, “This is going to be a classic rock album. I will be listening to this for the rest of my life.”

25 years later, those words are still proving true.