|
All news is attributed to the source from which it was received so that readers may judge the validity of the statements for themselves.
Have Joan Jett news to report? Email us at jettfc@aol.com, and please include the source of the information so it can be validated.
Jett’s Rocking Plaza Set Gets Crowd of 20,000 on Their Feet
from: The Daily Gazette, Albany, NY
by: By Michael Lisi
She's a movie actress and she’s performed on Broadway.
She’s a humanitarian and one of the last independents, who does things she wants to do the way she wants to do them.
And make no mistake about it: JOAN JETT still rocks.
Jett, a pioneer of the grrrl punk movement who kept the 1980s hones with her hard-hitting, melodic punk-pop, plays her music with the same passion and fire that she had back in the day.
She more than proved that at the Empire State Plaza on Wednesday night.
Jett and her band, the BLACKHEARTS, ripped it up for almost 90 minutes on a humid but otherwise perfect summer night.
She played plenty of her hits and threw a few musical surprises in as well, ultimately offering up a knockout set that left the crowd of almost 20,000 screaming like it was 1982 all over again.
And the show was free, part of the state Office of General Services summer concert series.
If you missed this one, you missed out. Big time.
Dressed in low-cut leather pants and cropped leather vest and sporting a short, blond hairdo, Jett got stronger the further she got into the evening.
Opening with a less-than-intense version of "Bad Reputation," Jett and her rock-solid four-piece band - which featured her longtime manager/friend/songwriting partner KENNY LAGUNA on keyboards - quickly picked things up, firing off raucous renditions of "Long Time," "Light Of Day," The RUNAWAYS’ "Cherry Bomb" and an angst-filled, classic reading of "Love Is Pain."
Jett embraced the humidity, leading the BLACKHEARTS through songs such as "Roadrunner," "Baby Blue," The Replacements,’ "Androgynous" and a lighthearted, fun version of "Love Is All Around," the theme from "The Mary Tyler Moore Show."
Her trademark rasp was in perfect form on Wednesday night, lending vitality to older fare like "Love Is Pain," "Do you Wanna Touch Me?" and "Long Time."
That’s not to say her set was all retro. "Fetish" was downright erotic and "The Sweet Life," a new Jett-penned song she wrote for a movie she will star in this fall, was straight-a-head rock ‘n’ roll JOAN JETT style.
In a nod to her Broadway stint as Columbia in "Rocky Horror," Jett thrashed through an encore version of "Science Fiction" that sounded like the song was written for her.
Jett saved the best for last; she blew away the crowd with amped-up renditions of "I Love Rock ‘n’ Roll," "Crimson And Clover" and "I Hate Myself For Lovin’ You" without breaking between songs.
JOAN JETT wasn’t a blast from the past on Wednesday night. She was simply a blast.
Antigone Rising, a five-piece all-female band from New York City, opened the show with a credible, solid 45 minute performance that won them more than a few new fans.
With an unmistakable Melissa Etheridge influence and sound, Antigone Rising plays melodic blues-rock that packs a punch. This band can sing too, belting out some nice harmonies during a cover of Queen’s "Fat Bottomed Girls."
|
| |
This Week:
No shows scheduled this week.
Click on the LIVE DATES link for upcoming shows |
Item Of The Month:
|
