This show was odd in that the tickets showed a 9:00 pm start time at The Warfield. We had front row on the balcony so we could lean right up against the rail. I took my seat at just before 9:00 and was a bit dismayed to see an opening act on stage. I had figured we’d be treated to ‘an evening of…’. This had me worried that the opening act was cutting into Heart time – assuming the standard 11:00 pm cut-off. The opening act was a solo acoustic act. Kara Grainger was her name and she’s from Australia. The first couple tunes I heard were pretty mellow but the last two got the crowd going a bit. She had several acoustic guitars, including a Dobro guitar. I learned that the metal portion is actually a resonator that gives it that unique, bayou sound. The name originated in 1928 when the Dopyera brothers formed the Dobro Manufacturing Company. "Dobro" is both a contraction of "Dopyera brothers" and a word meaning "good" in their native Slovak language. An early company motto was "Dobro means good in any language." In any case, she played this one song with the Dobro guitar & a slide that totally reminded me of Bonnie Raitt. BR is obviously a huge influence on her guitar style as well as her voice & music style in general. She was talented but a lot of her music came across as a bit snoozy for me.
We enjoyed scoping out the renovated theatre in between acts. Since Kara was solo-acoustic, there wasn’t much to pull away and most of Heart’s equipment was already set up so the break was relatively short. Ann has a tattoo on her right arm, the hand she holds the microphone with. Apparently she got it in July of 2008 and it is a tattoo of some Iris’s in memory of her mom. Heart has pretty much the same band since 2006. This show turned out to have a similar set list to last year, when they opened for Journey, although there were some huge additions to their set. I’ve always wanted to hear them play Mistral Wind and I’ve seen them several times over the years (1985, 1990, 2006, 2008) but I missed the one tour when they played it (2005). Tonight, I got my wish and they rocked it out. In fact, this was the best Heart show I’ve seen. The whole band rocked!
Ann’s vocals are still golden, so powerful and so soulful. I think they keep the set to less than two hours (as a headliner) so her voice can withstand the stress of the tour. Normally, I’d expect more but in this case, the length of the show seemed appropriate. That’s true especially in light of her performances in Mistral Wind and Alone. Alone isn’t one of my favorite songs but she did just an amazing performance with only Debbie & Nancy for accompaniment for most of the song.
Nancy is still the cheerleader in the band. She’s in her 50’s and still dances & high-kicks like she did 24 years ago. She’s nearly always smiling and keeping up the energy level in the band and the audience. Jim & Mischelle were surprised that Nancy is such a good guitar player. She’s quite an accomplished guitar player, in fact, and did a lot of lead work throughout the show. Craig does all of the blistering solos, but Nancy shows her versatility and talent in ways that aren’t so flashy. During Barracuda, she does the thunderous rhythm guitar gallop in the beginning, as well as during the solo. In Straight On, she & Craig trade riffs in extended versions of the intro and outro groove. Her acoustic guitar is primary for most of Mistral Wind. She plays the baby guitar & sings lead vocals in These Dreams. She even has her own acoustic solo during the heavily extended into to Crazy on You. I’m always amazed at how she can dance, twirl, kick & spin so much yet never trip on her guitar cord. I guess after all these years it’s kinda like her tail.
Craig Bartock provides many faithful renditions of Roger’s solos. He’s been with the band long enough so he’s very comfortable, which is evident in some of his embellishments. Ric Markmann was jamming out more than perhaps I had noticed in previous shows. Ben Smith really laid the lumber on drums. He was probably the most stand-out musician of the bunch (aside from Ann’s amazing voice). We were a bit amused because, to look at him, he appeared like an old dude behind the kit. To hear him, though, was to realize he was singularly driving the rest of the band to kick-ass. I can’t say enough about how much his performance propelled the music. He wasn’t just powerful, though. He showed nuance swapping out drum sticks during a couple numbers (forgot which ones) and he even played with his hands during their take on Immigrant Song.
Together, these guys made a power trio that made them a bona-fide hard rock band. Honorable mention to Debbie for rounding out the music on keyboards. The songs they played kept her pretty busy and she did a good job. Unfortunately, the speakers blocked our view of her, as she was off to the left and set back on the stage.
What an outstanding set list! Seven of the fifteen numbers were Heart classics from the ‘70s. They opened with Barracuda, which was a great tone-setter for the evening, and rocked old-school the 5 of 6 tunes. Oh yeah, they chased that with a twisted version of Immigrant Song – very cool. I’m not a big fan of their ‘80s pop music but I understand that period represents great commercial success for them and there is definitely a contingent of fans here for that music. I give them a lot of credit for not overdoing that period. Back in 1990, they punished us with one of the worst shows I’ve ever seen; just a parade of garbage pop. Tonight was full-on redemption for that blemish. Even the ‘80s tunes came across well. You know Nancy is going to have her moment in the spotlight with These Dreams, but they changed the arrangement on it to make it fresh. The stripped down version of Alone was a great showpiece for Ann’s talents. Because of the better balance of songs, even their foray into the ‘90s – Back to Avalon – wasn’t unwelcome.
It seems several of the ‘70s bands that had commercial success in the ‘80s have re-discovered their edge. I’ve also seen Foreigner and Journey, who now favor their ‘70s rock hits to the pop crap of the ‘80s in their performances these days.
Heart has a long history of playing Led Zeppelin tunes, back in the ‘70s and now again in the ‘00s. Their music in the ‘70s reflects this (a la Mistral Wind). Tonight, they treated us to Immigrant Song, which I mentioned, as well as Going to California. They added a third cover tune, The Who’s Love Reign O’er Me, which was the highlight of their show (opening for Journey) last year. I got goose-bumps from Ann’s delivery. Her voice had a little more grit than other shows I’ve seen, but it’s still so big and beautiful that it was a welcomed texture; not at all did it come across as weakening.
Once again, this was easily the best Heart show I’ve seen and I can’t overstate how great the sound of the band and the song selection was. This was the show I came to see!