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Heart featuring
Ann Wilson
A Concert Review |
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Sometimes I think I am cursed - that someone is up there saying
"How can we screw with The Dude today?" Their two favorite
ways to mess with me - One is that as my track record of finding
females to talk to in a bar setting goes, you can rest assured they
are either married, engaged, totally interested in one of my
friends, or a lesbian. The second is that in a concert venue full of
people, the idiots and assholes always seem to find their way
towards me. Such has been the case at many shows, and such was the
case as I was covering Heart featuring Ann Wilson.
It seems Ann Wilson is hitting the road sans Nancy, bringing
along a band comprised of Heart members, Lovemongers members, and
just some talented musician friends. Opening up the tour in Chicago,
Ann Wilson took the sold-out looking crowd at the House of Blues
through the past, present, and future, and made me remember how much
I really liked Heart, although through all of those years I had
never seen them live.
As the curtain opened, the band took the stage, Ann made her way
towards the microphone, the crowd was psyched from the start, but
there were some obvious signs that this was the first show. First
off, and maybe she always has this, but next to Ann was a music
stand of what looked like lyric sheets. Don't get me wrong, I'll
never hold it against anyone for using lyric helpers, hell I've seen
Sinatra do it, seen Rush use one, and even the Rolling Stones, but
it's usually just a sign of being the first show for most acts.
Second, as great as her voice is, at times it seemed to waiver,
sometimes unsure if it was heading the right direction, but by the
end of the night the confidence was there as if she moved from the
"can I still do this" stage to "you bet your ass I
can." Third, a big start-over oops as just about everyone in
the band seemed confused for a second on starting a song. But you
know, with these things, for me, it always makes the show special
because it shows that the band isn't just going through the motions,
but always working to make things slightly new, slightly different,
and hopefully slightly better.
So as I'm standing there and this dancing idiot boy makes his way
in front of me to almost hit me in the crotch time and time again
(the curse lives on), I get treated to a bunch of new songs that
sound just as cool as old Heart songs, I get some way-cool, head-bangin'
covers of some Zeppelin and Rolling Stones, and I get some classic
Heart songs. Maybe because it was the first show, but oddly the
Heart songs were the ones that sometimes seemed to lose a bit, and I
think that is mostly from the loss of harmonies from Nancy. Don't
get me wrong, the band sounded great, but the vocal punch lost a bit
without Nancy, although I think that may come in time as the band
plays together more. But even without the vocal edge, and even
losing just a little something, it was still way cool to hear those
Heart songs blasting in my ears. The opening guitar riff for
"Barracuda" brought the crowd into a frenzy, the shifting
tempo "Crazy on You" had the crowd singing along as loud
as they could, and I really loved the stripped down versions of
"All I Wanna Do Is Make Love To You" and
"Alone."
A night of old, present, and future; A night of really
appreciating the vocal power of Ann Wilson; A night of almost having
my testicles punched in; It was a night of Heart featuring Ann
Wilson, and as nights go, other than that testicle part, it was a
pretty good night. Ann showed me she can still sing her ass off, can
captivate a crowd even when they don't know the song she is singing,
and even sometimes she can just seem a little unsure, but she can
take her energy, her passion, just get over it, and sing on.
The crowd had a blast, and I don't think anyone went away
disappointed, even with some slip-ups for being the first show. You
know what that means from me, don't you? Yep, it's TWO HUGEMOUNGOUS
THUMBS UP for Heart featuring Ann Wilson.
That's it for this one, I'm The Dude on the Right!!! L8R!! |
