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Thread: Saw Heart / Joan Jett Saturday Night - Review

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    Saw Heart / Joan Jett Saturday Night - Review

    Saw Heart with Joan Jett and The Blackhearts opening Saturday night at Van Andel Arena in Grand Rapids MI. Heart is one of the few bands that my wife and I can enjoy about equally, so it was fun from that perspective. I have seen them several times over the years and they always put on a good show. I had also seen Jett one time before back in the 80’s or 90’s. I have never been a huge fan, but always liked some of her stuff.

    Jett opened the show and did an hour of high energy straightforward punk-ish rock n roll. I loved the way the show started as when the houselights went down, the PA started blaring The Who’s “Won’t Get Fooled Again”. The entire song was played and right when it got to Roger Daltry’s big scream, Jett and her band hit the stage with a big power chord and they were off and running. It was a very very effective way to start the show. From a distance the 56 year old Jett looked just like she did 30 years ago dressed in all black leather and converse high top shoes. She has obviously kept herself in really good physical shape and was running around like a teenager the whole show. Her voice sounds exactly like it did back in the day, and I could detect no deterioration at all. She put on a high energy set with all her hits, plus several tracks from her most recent album which were impressive. The Blackhearts were tight as hell with the drummer being particularly impressive to me. As mentioned I am not really a fan of all of her stuff, but who can’t help but rocking out to “I Hate Myself For Loving You” which she did as her finale. All in all it was a great opening set that got the crowed pumped up just as a good opening should do.

    Heart came out of the gate running after a 30 minute Intermission opening right off the bat with “Magic Man”. Anne Wilson’s voice is still in fantastic shape, as she has lost very little power or range. A show highlight was “Alone”, which is not one of my favorite Heart songs, but Wilson totally killed it live. Nancy did a couple of tunes too and her voice was about the same as always as well. These days Heart is pretty much the Wilson sisters with a backing cast of ever revolving band members. The drummer, bassist and guitarist have been with them for a while, but I did notice that they have a new keyboard player as the girl with the pigtails (don’t know her name) appears to no longer be with the band. The keyboard player they had was good, but rather understated in the background most of the night. The set list had a nice variety of stuff from different eras including one track off of their latest album “Fanatic” that had Wilson basically screaming her head off. Along with the hits I enjoyed hearing some of the more obscure tracks like “There’s The Girl” (Nancy Wilson song) and the rocker “If Looks Could Kill”. They also threw in a killer cover of Robin Trower’s “Day Of The Eagle” which was cool. The encore was all Led Zeppelin as they pulled out 3 Zep tracks. “No Quarter” was particularly impressive. My only gripe would be, that for a big arena show, the production was rather pedestrian. This is the first arena show I have been to in many years that did not have big screens which seems odd these days. The light show was pretty sparse, although what they had they used effectively. All in all it was a great night of female fronted rock n roll.

    Here are the setlists:

    JOAN JETT:

    BAD REPUTATION
    CHERRY BOMB
    DO YOU WANNA TOUCH ME
    TMI
    YOU DRIVE ME WILD
    LIGHT OF DAY
    MAKE IT BACK
    ANY WEATHER
    THE FRENCH SONG
    I LOVE ROCK N ROLL
    CRIMSON AND CLOVER
    I HATE MYSELF FOR LOVING YOU

    ENCORE:

    REAL WILD CHILD

    HEART:

    MAGIC MAN
    HEARTLESS
    WHAT ABOUT LOVE
    KICK IT OUT
    STRAIGHT ON
    MASHALLAH
    BEBE LE STRANGE
    THERE’S THE GIRL
    THESE DREAMS
    ALONE
    DAY OF THE EAGLE (Robin Trower Cover)
    IF LOOKS COULD KILL
    CRAZY ON YOU
    BARRACUDA

    ENCORE:

    IMMIGRANT SONG (Zep Cover)
    NO QUARTER (Zep Cover)
    MISTY MOUNTAIN HOP (Zep cover)

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    All Things Must Pass spellbound's Avatar
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    Appears you saw a great show, Steve. I never knew Heart did a Robin Trower cover. Would like to hear it. Seems a good choice for Ann's voice.
    We're trying to build a monument to show that we were here
    It won't be visible through the air
    And there won't be any shade to cool the monument to prove that we were here. - Gene Parsons, 1973

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    Quote Originally Posted by spellbound View Post
    Appears you saw a great show, Steve. I never knew Heart did a Robin Trower cover. Would like to hear it. Seems a good choice for Ann's voice.
    I am not aware of them ever recording it, so not sure why they picked that particular song to play live, but it was killer. The guitar player did a nice job on the solo as well.

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    Member since March 2004 mozo-pg's Avatar
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    I wish I had your concert itenary. Sounds like a good time, nice review.

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    Geriatric Anomaly progeezer's Avatar
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    I would go to that double bill in a heartbeat (no pun intended) if it came to town here. Not a big JJ fan but certainly admit I wouldn't mind seeing her for the first time. I've always loved Heart,even in their 80s "These Dreams/Alone" period (the weakest period of their writing for sure, but it was still the other-worldly Ann Wilson singing). Nancy for me is a joy to watch live. I really like her voice when she gets a chance to shine. It infuses some delicacy into the mix.
    "My choice early in life was either to be a piano player in a whorehouse or a politician, and to tell the truth, there's hardly any difference"

    President Harry S. Truman

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    Quote Originally Posted by mozo-pg View Post
    I wish I had your concert itenary. Sounds like a good time, nice review.
    I am pretty lucky. I live in what would be considered a small market (Southwest Michigan), but we are half way between Detroit and Chicago so get a lot more shows than would probably be normal for cities the size of Kalamazoo and Grand Rapids. No traffic or parking hassles here either and the ticket prices are usually lower than in the big cities. It is generally a good place to live for a live music fan like me.

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    Heart didn't write some of those big 80s power ballads, to be fair. Interesting to see 'Day Of The Eagle' in the set.

    I'm surprised Joan Jett still does 'Do You Wanna Touch Me', particularly in recent weeks! But I suppose she made that one her own.

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    I wish Heart would stop doing the Zeppelin covers or at least limit it to one. They have many other good original songs they could play instead, imo.

    Mistral Wind, Sing Child, Cook with Fire, High Time, Love Alive, etc...

    It still sounds like a good show. Glad you had a good time.

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    ^^^^

    Indeed, I would be bummed if I went to see Heart and they didn't play Mistral Wind. What an epic song, even if it does sound much like Stairway To Heaven.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Joe F. View Post
    I wish Heart would stop doing the Zeppelin covers or at least limit it to one. They have many other good original songs they could play instead, imo.

    Mistral Wind, Sing Child, Cook with Fire, High Time, Love Alive, etc...

    It still sounds like a good show. Glad you had a good time.
    I was also surprised at the number of cover tunes that they did. Heart has traditionally covered Zeppelin over the years, so not a total surprise there, but covering 3 songs at the expense of some of their own stuff seemed a bit much.

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    Quote Originally Posted by BigSixFan View Post
    ^^^^

    Indeed, I would be bummed if I went to see Heart and they didn't play Mistral Wind. What an epic song, even if it does sound much like Stairway To Heaven.
    "Mistral Wind" is one of the greatest things they ever wrote. I would have loved to hear that one too.

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    Good review and sounded like a good show--I would have tried to go to it as well. I've only seen Heart once and they put on a good show. I'm pretty neutral on Jett, but would see her live. We hardly ever get any quality music in town locally. I have to drive to Dallas for anyone good.

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    Quote Originally Posted by SteveSly View Post
    I was also surprised at the number of cover tunes that they did. Heart has traditionally covered Zeppelin over the years, so not a total surprise there, but covering 3 songs at the expense of some of their own stuff seemed a bit much.
    A friend saw them at a show where they did four Zeppelin songs, which prompted a guy in the audience to yell "Play something you wrote!"

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    Quote Originally Posted by hippypants View Post
    Good review and sounded like a good show--I would have tried to go to it as well. I've only seen Heart once and they put on a good show. I'm pretty neutral on Jett, but would see her live. We hardly ever get any quality music in town locally. I have to drive to Dallas for anyone good.
    I believe Jett is the opening act on at least some of The Who’s 50th anniversary tour this summer. I am pretty neutral on most of her music as well, but have to admit she was a lot of fun live.

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    Quote Originally Posted by dropforge View Post
    A friend saw them at a show where they did four Zeppelin songs, which prompted a guy in the audience to yell "Play something you wrote!"
    I think that was when they toured the “Dreamboat Annie” album a couple of years ago. They did the album from front to back and then did a bunch of Zeppelin stuff. I saw it on Palladia or Axis TV at some point.

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