Within minutes of the 8:00 starting time Nancy Wilson was
already on stage banging out the chords of “Barracuda”, seconds later Ann Wilson
arrived and just knocked the house down, it didn’t stop for another 12 songs.
Ann’s voice is absolutely incredible, songs like “What About Love” and "Crazy On
You" sounded even better than the record. On “What About Love” she did some inflections
and emotional singing that the sterile studio produced record version doesn’t
have. She never missed a beat, her voice never faltered, all power but not
overdone, it’s all live no lip synch here.
Nancy always seems to be overshadowed but she must be one of
the finest guitarists out there, male or female. On the last Heart song “Crazy
On You” she was just stunning with her guitar intro but the best was the jump
and kick she gave at the opening chords wow, you’d never believe she was in her
60’s. Nancy isn’t a slouch at singing, far from it; I love her lead vocal songs as much as
Ann’s. Like a fan girl I rushed up to the front stage when she did my favorite “These
Dreams”, I was singing and miming the lyrics, she looked down on me and smiled,
that made my day. There was even 3 couples slow dancing up front. Her guitar playing on Paul McCartney “Let Me Roll” (while not
my favorite McCartney song) was just as impressive.
Can we talk about “Alone” there no words to describe it you
must hear Ann singing it live. On “Dreamboat Annie” she did a beautiful flute
solo. She played a few other instruments including guitar and an autoharp on a
new song called “Heaven”.
After the Heart set Ann told the audience there was a 20
minute intermission, not a Hollywood 20 minutes but a real 20 minutes, a Victoria
20 minutes, that didn’t stop people from coming back late, although the line up
at the washrooms were crazy. Speaking of the audience, Victoria has one of the
suckiest. Who sits at a rock concert especially with Heart and Led Zeppelin songs.
You don't want to stand during the song fine but at least stand up and give Ann
and Nancy (who are in the 60's rocking out like they are in their 20's) a
standing ovation after the song, seriously! They only stood up at the end for “Crazy
On You”, while most on the floor stood up for the Zeppelin set, the other off the
floor audience did not, not even during Kashmir.
Speaking of Zeppelin, The girls opened the second set playing acoustic
guitars with “The Battle of Evermore” a song that perfectly fits their catalogue, and
then they were joined by Jason Bonham on an incredible 7 song set, that didn’t seem
like a tribute but an authentic take. Who needs Robert Plant when you got Ann
Wilson (just kidding!) Wow. Her voice on “No Quarter” was stunning, they seemed
to have had some sort of echo or reverb on her mic, it was hauntingly beautiful.
“The Immigrant song” was sort of fun but “Kashmir” was incredible. The ending
with “Stairway To Heaven”, backed by Seattle's Total Experience Gospel Choir
was a show stopper.
My only complaint is that there wasn’t enough “Heart”, I
would have loved to have heard big songs like “Never” but they seem to be
shying away from their 80’s repertoire. Let’s hope they keep on rocking so they
can come back and play those songs.
SETLIST
1. Barracuda
2. Heartless
3. What About Love
4. Dreamboat Annie
5. Straight On
6. Little Queen
7. Let Me Roll It (Wings cover)
8. Heaven
9. These Dreams
10. Alone
11. Mashallah
12. Magic Man
13. Crazy On You
INTERMISSION
Led Zeppelin songs with Jason Bonham on drums
14. Battle of Evermore
15. No Quarter
16. The Ocean
17. Immigrant Song
18. Kashmir
19. The Rain Song
20. Stairway to Heaven
