SAN FRANCISCO — Wednesday night’s classic rock spectacle at Oracle Park recalled a Day On the Green at the Oakland Coliseum in 1984. The Stadium Tour brought together a co-headlining bill of Def Leppard and Mötley Crüe, with a solid undercard of Poison and Joan Jett and the Blackhearts. The four acts are very different from each other, providing a spectrum of classic rock and roll to a massive crowd that spanned generations.

Just about every band on the bill mentioned relief of finally performing the twice-rescheduled concert and the penultimate night of the tour.

“We started to wonder whether this was ever going to happen,” Def Leppard vocalist Joe Elliott said. “But look at us now. Here we are!”

The evening’s headliners couldn’t be further apart in how they approached their 90-minute, 16-song sets. Def Leppard closed out the night with flash, shine and tight musicianship. The U.K. quintet relied most on a spectacle of lights filling the stage while letting the music do the majority of the talking. The group opened with the trio of “Take What You Want,” “Let It Go” and “Animal.” The dual guitar attack of Phil Collen and Vivian Campbell provided added musical fireworks. Both musicians showed a cool confidence. 

The challenge for all the bands was juggling album tracks with the hits. The crowd absolutely erupted during the classics. The lesser-known tracks were a hit and miss proposition, and Def Leppard wasn’t immune to that.

Elliott triumphantly announced the band’s latest record, Diamond Star Halos, produced remotely over the pandemic as a sign of the band’s resiliency. Def Leppard broke out “Kick,” “Take What You Want” and “This Guitar.” The challenge, after a long day of music—on a school night!—was keeping the crowd’s focus. Just as it seemed the momentum was waning, the band turned to its bread and butter, closing out with a triumphant finale of “Pour Some Sugar On Me,” “Rock of Ages” and “Photograph.”

 

Mötley Crüe provided a contrast in just about every fathomable aspect. From the production, which was filed with massive props and platforms, to its performance, Mötley Crüe was all about putting on a show. The set began with an emergency broadcast on projection screens as a gaseous purple plume of smoke filled the stadium. It was so thick that people seated behind home plate must have had challenges seeing the early portion of the show.

The actual performance was over the top, at times ridiculous and a ton of fun.

Where Def Leppard was all about musical precision, Mötley Crüe was all about energy. Drummer Tommy Lee fueled the rhythm with bassist Nikki Sixx, while guitarist Mick Mars showed off his flashy guitar work. There were lasers, dancing girls, giant statues of futuristic dancing girls, and songs about girls. Both Sixx and Lee addressed the crowd individually in between songs, and the band members took advantage of their time.

“They can’t cancel us; we’re Mötley-fucking-Crüe,” Sixx announced.

At one point, Lee urged the crowd (starting with the men) to join him in a game of “I’ll show you mine if you show me yours,” to which at least one fan seemed to oblige. While not every gimmick worked, there’s no denying the prowess the band brought. Sticking to the hits wasn’t an issue for the Mötley Crüe, who pulled out all the stops from “Dr. Feelgood” to “Home Sweet Home” and set-closer “Kickstart My Heart.” It was clear the band won over the San Francisco crowd.

When you have celebrity chef Guy Fieri in your corner, there’s not much else to worry about. Rockers Poison had the Sonoma County resident take the stage before them and bring the band up with hype-man energy. Frontman Bret Michaels may have been the happiest man in the room, mentioning multiple times how grateful he was that the show finally happen after two and a half years.

Michaels led a strong performance, providing endless energy as the lynchpin between his bandmates. The singer even thanked veterans in the crowd “without politics or policy.” Of course, the band hit all the high notes, mixing in songs like “Every Rose Has Its Thorns” and “Nothing But a Good Time.”

Watching Joan Jett lead the Blackhearts felt like watching musical royalty. Jett strapped on the guitar and sounded as crisp as ever, mixing a variety of tracks and covers from The Runaways to her own classics. Guitarist Tony Bruno spoke to the challenges Joan Jett faced early on, with labels showing little interest in her earlier material until she did the groundwork herself and built a strong foundation of fans.

Her band’s 12-song set included Runaways hits like “Cherrybomb,” fun covers like S;y and the Family Stone’s “Everyday People,” and, of course, “I Love Rock ‘n’ Roll” and “reputation.”

L.A. rock band Classless Act, which unlike the other acts on this bill formed within the last decade (over TikTok, no less) and released its first album this year, opened the show with a raucous five-song set that served as an appetizer for the rest of the evening. The band’s songs showed clear influence from the various decades of rock that preceded the band—but the ’80s, with acts like Guns ‘N Roses, was clearly the decade that was most influential.

Another throwback to the ’80s: As the show ended and fans filtered out of the stadium, a line of San Francisco Police cars drove by with lights flashing as they escorted a van. Some mused it must have been Nikki Sixx, though no one knew for sure.

Follow writer Mike DeWald at Twitter.com/mike_dewald. Follow photographer Sean Liming at Instagram.com/S.Liming.