Def Leppard and Journey at Fenway Park – August 5, 2024

It was a hot Monday night in Boston, as a triple headliner show featuring Def Leppard, Journey, and Steve Miller Band rolled into Fenway Park. The Summer Stadium Tour saw the bands return to the iconic home of the Boston Red Sox, exactly 2 years to the day after Def Leppard last played here.

Steve Miller Band

First up was the joker himself, Steve Miller. At 80 years old, Miller sounded incredible, with all of the Steve Miller Band hits, like “Jet Airliner,” “Rock’n Me,” “Fly Like an Eagle,” and of course, “The Joker.” The five piece band – also featuring Jospeh Wooten on keyboards, Kenny Lee Lewis on bass, Jacob Petersen on guitar and Ron Wikso on drums – set the vibe for a night of iconic music.

Journey

Next up was the incomparable Journey, celebrating their 50th anniversary. The band was absolutely on fire tonight, with singer Arnel Pineda, who’s now fronting the band for over 16 years, doing a remarkable job on these classic hits. The set started off with guitarist Neal Schon, ripping a guitar solo at the end of the catwalk, before the band kicked into “Only the Young.” Throughout the night Jonathan Cain swapped back and forth between guitar and piano, and the set featured a piano solo before “Open Arms.”

Any Journey song you’d expect to hear was in the set tonight like “Faithfully,” or “Lovin’, Touchin’, Squeezin’.” A favorite of mine was “Separate Ways.” The word iconic is thrown around a lot – I’ve already used it once in this review of the show, but there truly are few songs more iconic than Journey’s grand finale, “Don’t Stop Believing.” While the stadium was not quite sold out, you would not have known from how loud everybody was singing along.

Def Leppard

Finally, to close out the night we had Def Leppard. Frontman Joe Elliott, and bass player Rick Savage spent a lot of time at the end of the catwalk getting the audience rocking along. The band is celebrating the 40th anniversary of their hit album Pyromania, and the album was well represented tonight, straight from the opening track, “Rock! Rock! (Till You Drop).” Joe and Rick, along with Vivian Campbell and Phil Collens on guitar, and Rick Allen on drums, carried Fenway Park through 90 minutes of Def Leppard hits. Songs like “Foolin’,” “Animal,” and “Too Late for Love” echoed through the ballpark as audiences sang along.

About halfway through the set, Joe came down to the end of the catwalk to play an acoustic version of “Two Steps Behind.” Before singing the song, he told the audience how he was about 30 hours into a respiratory infection. He said they’d been weighing all their options, trying to figure out if they should cancel their show, but decided the show must go on. He said it was only affecting his “mid voice,” and thanked the band for helping him out. The rest of the band then joined him at the end of the catwalk for an acoustic version of “This Guitar,” which they dedicated to the hometown, recently retired, Aerosmith. The band finished their acoustic mini-set with “Bringin’ on the Heartbreak,” which halfway through kicked back into a full electric version.

The band finished off their set with “Rock of Ages” and “Photograph,” before returning to the stage with an encore of “Hysteria” and “Pour Some Sugar on Me.” From start to finish, Def Leppard gave audiences a night of music to remember.