There was a time when Def Leppard was my everything. When I was in high school, I wore through several copies of Hysteria and Adrenalize on tape (remember when you could do that?). I poured my entire teenage heart into a hundred-plus page (handwritten!) fanfic about them. My bedroom walls were plastered with photos and posters of them ripped from the pages of Metal Edge, Hit Parader, and Circus.

I spent the night before my 22nd birthday at a Def Leppard concert–a concert that I had flown from NYC to Pittsburgh and then driven to Johnstown, PA for–and spent part of the next day (my birthday) getting a Lep design tattooed on my ankle.

My clearest memory of meeting the man who would become my husband revolves around my not having a voice because I had lost it at a Lep concert at Irving Plaza right at the start of their X tour. I used to see them every time they came through on tour (and on some tours that was multiple times), and as you can tell, lot of my best memories from my teens and twenties involve seeing Def Leppard in concert with various friends. Over the last few years, however, I pretty much stopped seeing them on tour. Part of that was because Lep has shifted into being more of a touring act than an act that produced new music–I didn’t feel compelled to see a greatest hits tour every summer, especially when I wasn’t excited by some of the bands they were touring with. I’d say it’s been at least seven years since I’ve seen them live, possibly longer.

This year, for whatever reason, I felt the need to go see them again. They were playing Jones Beach with Styx and Tesla and two of my fellow Rat Queens, Nancy and Frenchie, agreed that a beach day before the concert sounded perfect. We rented a Zipcar and drove out early enough to catch some quality time out on the beach with wine and snacks, and then headed in to see the show. We had missed Tesla’s set because we were a little too comfortable over on the beach, but we got to see most of Styx’s set, which made Nancy (our resident Styx fangirl) happy. And then, after some entr’acte music featuring Queen’s “Brighton Rock,” Def Leppard took the stage. I’m not going to review Styx here, just because I was only ever a casual fan and was really at Jones Beach for Lep. So what can I say about the guys from Sheffield (and London, and Belfast, I know)?

The guys are getting older, just like their fans, and Vivian Campbell’s cancer has returned, so I’m sure the shows are taking an extra toll on him, but they still play just like they did when I first saw them in 1991, which was Viv’s first tour with the band. From the opening notes of “Rock! Rock! (Till You Drop),” I felt something happening.

And I am instantly 14 again and screaming the lyrics back at the stage. @roesolo @bronxgrrl @lafemmeluna pic.twitter.com/bL3TcADj0I — Julie Hegner (@julz91) July 24, 2015

The years dropped away from all of us, audience and band, with those few notes. I sang along to every song at the top of my lungs for the whole set, glad for once that my brain had decided to retain all of the lyrics to “Bringin’ On The Heartbreak” instead of the algebra and geometry I had learned and promptly discarded. While some things, such as the photos of soldiers and random statistics flashing on-screen during “Paper Sun” made it feel like the band was trying a little too hard to be relevant, when they just cut loose and played it was a joy to behold.

Some things have changed over the years. It’s a time-honored tradition that Phil Collen doesn’t wear a shirt while performing (hello, nurse), but this is the first time I’ve seen him glisten:

I swear to you that I’ve never seen this amount of body oil on Phil. It’s impressive. #latergram #jonesbeach #defleppard A photo posted by Julie Hegner (@eviljulz) on Jul 24, 2015 at 7:22pm PDT

Joe can’t quite hit all the high notes he used to, but hell, he’s been singing for thirty plus years and that takes its toll on anyone. More things have not changed than have (right down to some of the lines that Joe’s been using for years), but the most important of all is still true: Def Leppard still knows how to rock.

A video posted by Julie Hegner (@eviljulz) on Jul 24, 2015 at 7:06pm PDT

This was my 17th Def Leppard concert, and before the final notes from “Photograph” had stopped ringing in the night air, I had determined that it won’t be my last. I saw the Foo Fighters at Citi Field the week before last, and while Lep doesn’t perform with the same frantic and electric energy that the Foos do, that’s not what I want from Joe, Sav, Rick, Viv, and Phil. From these five guys I’ve been listening to for over half of my life, I want what made the New Wave of British Heavy Metal great: soaring guitars, driving bass, thumping drums, and songs that root themselves in my memory for decades to come. Def Leppard still delivers that, and I will be here for it as long as they do.

Until next time, and there will be a next time…