Heart had a big place in my heart back in the day too. There was the local connection — Ann and Nancy Wilson are from Seattle, but the band really got off the ground in Vancouver — and they were gorgeous, but most importantly they could rock.
And they can still rock. Ann Wilson’s voice is a thing of wonder, high and clear but tinged with just the right amount of smoky rasp. Nancy wields her guitar with a swagger befitting her idol, Jimmy Page.
“Heartless,” from 1978’s Magazine album, was a standout — the inherent funkiness of the tune really came through on the big stage.
It was interesting to watch the connection the band made with women in the audience. I watched several gals well into grandparenting years elbow their way to the front of the pit to commune with the high priestesses of 70s rock. There, they swayed in nostalgic bliss to the romantic fantasia of the Nancy-voiced “These Dreams.”
But the band took it up to another level altogether with the one-two punch of “Crazy on You” and “Barracuda,” the former of which was a tour-de-force for Ann.
“I am the light of the world”