Arena Rock

There’s a reason why arena rock’s got that name — because it’s able to bring thousands to their feet, stomping the floor and shouting along to every last word like Queen did with the bleacher-bashing percussion and call-and-response choruses of “We Will Rock You.” Some more examples on the crowd-pleasing side of things: the Middle Eastern Led Zeppelin licks of “Kashmir,” the rolling synth line and seared Eddie Van Halen solo of “Jump,” the triumphant Styx build of “Come Sail Away,” and the nine-minute Lynyrd Skynyrd epic you insist on requesting at every single show, “Free Bird.”

And the night’s not over yet, folks. We’ve got some Next Steps that wanna rock still.

Be honest with us here: you’ve thought about reenacting the “Bohemian Rhapsody” scene in Wayne’s World before, right down to the part where Garth headbangs so hard his neck might well snap. No? How about cruising down an open road with “Burnin’ for You” on full-blast, or turning it up like Ronnie Van Zant’s request at the start of “Sweet Home Alabama,” a song that’s been sampled by Kid Rock and covered by the Charlie Daniels Band, Alabama, and even Jewel?

Yeah, that’s a good start to getting an arena-rock vibe going in your living room, and with Boston, Journey, and Foreigner waiting in the wings nearby — and some Deep Cuts up next — let’s just say you’re in for a long one.

You know, we thought about changing the whole Deep Cuts name for this playlist at first. After all, most of these songs have reduced arenas to rubble before. In other words, they’re hardly cult hits. Ah, never mind. The whole point of these tracks is to crank ’em up to 11 — sorry, we had to do it — and think about nothing but standing tall and screaming at the top of your lungs. Which will be easy to do once you’ve hopped on Ozzy’s “Crazy Train” or fallen for the inescapable sing-along hooks of “High Enough,” “Wheel In the Sky,” and, well, the rest of this set, actually.

Let’s say you decide to be KISS for the week, rockin’/rollin’ all night and partying every day like the Army’s founding fathers: Ace, Gene, Peter, and Paul. You can plaster your face with paint and squeeze into a pair of leather pants all you want, but you’re gonna need a proper soundtrack as well — the sort of songs that take you higher than the nosebleed seats in Giants Stadium. Good thing we’ve got you covered in that department, courtesy of an A-to-ZZ Top rundown of arena rock’s glory days. This thing’s so thorough that Van Halen’s on the same bill as Sammy Hagar, not to mention the very best of Boston and Journey, REO Speedwagon, and Rush. All together now: “Are you ready to ROCK??!! Yeah, we thought so.