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Review: Queens of rock Heart and JOAN JETT shake up Vancouver
from: vancouversun.com
BY FRANCOIS MARCHAND, VANCOUVER SUN
Heart with JOAN JETT AND THE BLACKHEARTS
March 8 | Orpheum Theatre
VANCOUVER - "Hello world, I'm your wild girl!"
JOAN JETT still hits with the explosive energy of a firecracker flushed down a high school lavatory.
Her rock can still splinter porcelain, crack mirrors and send the whole room gushing with reckless energy, and four decades after her first band The RUNAWAYS lit their first Cherry Bomb, Jett is still up on stage, clad in a polka-dot leather bodysuit, black hair and red lipstick, bashing a guitar adorned with punk rock stickers and countless pick scratches.
The Queens of Rock - in this case the Queens of Sheba - made the Orpheum their lair Tuesday night in Vancouver, Jett and her band The BLACKHEARTS teaming up with sisters Ann and Nancy Wilson of Heart for a rock and roll spectacular that drew out a sold-out crowd.
Backed by her four-piece outfit, Jett pumped out her New York City-bred punk 'n' roll fast and tight, her snarly vocals driving classic cuts like I Love Rock 'n' Roll and Bad Reputation as well as newer material like Fragile and Any Weather, a song recorded at Dave Grohl's Studio 606, from her 2013 album Unvarnished.
While the newer material didn't light up the room much as Crimson and Clover, which had everyone hollering, it proved that Jett is far from done writing rock songs with her heart clearly exposed in her sleeve.
The sold-out crowd - a mishmash of old and young, as well not-so-drunk and completely trashed - obviously enjoyed pretty much every lick and riff Jett tossed their way, and her one-hour set was just sweet and sour enough to whet people's appetites for Heart's bombastic brand of rock to come.
It didn't take long for Heart to Kick It Out.
Garbed in lace and glitter, Ann Wilson did what she does best: Belt out some of the best vocals in rock without even looking like she was trying.
Sister Nancy was as effortlessly hammering away on he guitar and shimmying and shaking in her spot on the left side of the stage.
The Wilson sisters haven't lost their youthful energy, and in the last few years they have truly owned their Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame status, playing almost every kind of stage in Vancouver, from the PNE to the Queen Elizabeth and now the home of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra.
From the "Little Led Zeppelin" riffage of Heartless to the '80s power balladry of What About Love, Heart carved out a spot in rock history by always beating the odds.
If rock is about survival, Heart are true warriors.
Sure, the band's current appeal still has a lot to do with nostalgia, and a lot of that nostalgia is deeply rooted in Vancouver.
It's crazy to think that Dreamboat Annie, recorded at the now defunct Mushroom Studios (Can-Base Studios back then) had its American release on Valentine's Day 40 years ago. The album spent more than 100 weeks on the charts, becoming a multi-platinum seller.
"What better place to start (this tour) than Vancouver, where it all started?" Ann Wilson said early in the set.
There was plenty of hometown love in the room, and many love songs to go with it, including synth-laden acoustic nugget These Dreams (with Nancy on lead vocals), and Two, a song originally written for TV show Empire.
The most poignant moment of the evening came as Ann Wilson announced the departure of Beatles producer George Martin, who had died earlier that evening at the age of 90.
"He was a brilliant guy," she said. "If not for him we never would have heard The Beatles."
The band dedicated the song Sand to Martin, and it was a fitting, emotional farewell.
The rest of the evening was pure Heart, from Alone to Even It Up, a song dedicated to the '70s and a time where women had to claw their way through the world of rock, and it was the perfect capper to the ideal concert to celebrate International Women's Day. |
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