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Rock and Roll Hall of Famers Heart and JOAN JETT deliver hits, memories at Memphis concert
from: commercialappeal.com
By Bob Mehr, Memphis Commercial Appeal | Photo: Chris Kohley/USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin
Rock and Roll Hall of Famers Heart brought their "Love Alive" tour to Memphis on Friday night. The jaunt, which launched this summer, marked the reunion of sibling rockers Ann and Nancy Wilson, who'd been estranged for several years and off the road. The tour also saw the band enlist fellow Rock Hall inductee JOAN JETT as support. Their stop at FedExForum brought out an enthusiastic and relatively large (though nowhere near sellout) crowd for a powerful union of distaff rock icons.
Clad in her all-black uniform, Jett gave Memphis a loving nod, arriving on stage to the strains of the classic Stax track "Last Night" by The Mar-Keys. A fairly tireless road warrior - who's equally adept playing arenas, casinos, state fairs - Jett came out fists flailing, buoyed by an unassailable setlist.
The smartly paced performance moved easily between her early, punkish RUNAWAYS material ("Cherry Bomb"; "You Drive Me Wild"), classic '80s solo hits ("I Love Rock 'n' Roll"; "Do You Wanna Touch Me"), and latter-day tracks (including "Fresh Start" which helped soundtrack the recent documentary on her life, "Bad Reputation").
Fronting a lean but muscular sounding four-piece version of her band, the BLACKHEARTS (which included her longtime creative and business partner KENNY LAGUNA on keyboards), Jett worked the crowd with a mix of professional diligence and genuine enthusiasm.
Following a selection of deeper catalog cuts, and her signature version of Tommy James' "Crimson and Clover," Jett and company encored with a further pair of covers. They put a jaunty, twangy spin on The Replacements' fluid gender study "Androgynous," before closing out with a jubilant performance of Sly and the Family Stone's "Everyday People."
Taking bows with the band, Jett was the last to leave the stage, stopping to address the crowd with a bit of parting advice. "I bid you goodbye," she said, smiling and acknowledging the cheers. "You gotta have fun, man."
After a quick set change Heart emerged, led by the Wilson sisters, who opened with a fairly epic rendition of "Rockin Heaven Down" from their 1980 LP "Bébé le Strange," before following with "Magic Man," a top ten hit off the band's 1975 debut, and a permanent staple of classic rock radio.
"Good to see you," offered Ann Wilson, by way of introduction. "It's good to be seen."
The seven-piece Heart ensemble was engaging from the outset, if not quite as propulsive a machine as the BLACKHEARTS. Their myriad moving parts and more complex arrangements lacked the blunt power of Jett's wham-bam anthems. But, as the set wore on, Heart found its footing, bringing a grandeur and emotional resonance to their performance.
"Are you feeling adventurous," asked Ann. "We are too. So let's got to some place together, shall we?" She then broke out a flute, blowing the wispy melody that introduced "Love Alive." As she brought the song to a climax, it was clear that her voice â€" one of rock's great instruments - still retained every bit of its octave-vaulting power.
Early surprises came in the form of a pair lovingly rendered covers, including a lush take on prog-rockers Yes' "Your Move." Nancy Wilson then led the way on Simon & Garfunkel's "The Boxer," explaining that the songs were formative favorites for the Wilson clan: "This was our history growing up," she noted. "The songs that we grew up singing with our whole family."
The band seemed confidently connected to its rich past, segueing between the various eras of Heart - working up galloping '70s rockers like "Crazy on You" with note-perfect precision, while reworking '80s power ballad "These Dreams" with a plaintive folk flourish.
The band's cover of Led Zeppelin's "Stairway to Heaven" - which famously moved Zep singer Robert Plant to tears at the 2012 Kennedy Center Honors - was given an equally moving reading in Memphis, leading to a set-capping charge through the deathless riff-rocker "Barracuda."
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