I might have been just 18 years old when I saw Journey and Def Leppardon tour together in 2018, but I was just as excited as my parents were – until I ultimately fell asleep. The generation of music I grew up with was defined by 2000s pop, R&B, hip-hop, and more, but my musical palette was expanded by listening to my parents’ CDs and iTunes playlists, most of which included plenty of classic rock albums and hits.
With a Metallica-essentials-loving dad and a U2 mega-fan mom, there was no shortage of rock music in all its variations throughout my childhood, which made it an obvious yes for me to join them in seeing both Journey and Def Leppard in concert in 2018. I had previously seen Def Leppard on their tour with KISS back in 2014, and my parents and I had also gone to see Foreigner in 2017, so this was far from my first classic rock concert. Oddly enough, however, it did struggle to keep my attention at one point.
A rock concert definitely doesn’t sound like the proper setting for sleep, especially not during a band like Def Leppard’s set, but I promise it wasn’t entirely their fault. The earlier context is necessary; I was 18, a senior in high school, and I was knee-deep in the final preparations for finishing my high school career and moving on to college. I was also a competitive dancer growing up, and this concert happened in the thick of long weekends of travel and non-stop dancing.
It was a school night, too, which meant I had already been attending classes all day prior to the show – and would have to do the same the next day. When Def Leppard was on stage, and the lights began to soften just as much as the songs’ chords, it was no wonder that my eyelids started to grow heavy.
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