Music Matters

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Heart's flames still burn after all these years
By Joanna Horowitz

Special to The Seattle Times



Thursday night, WaMu Theater, Seattle

You know it's a real rock show when the lighters show up. None of this cellphone business. I'm talking real fire, old school.

Ann and Nancy Wilson, along with their other four Heart members, were happy to get nostalgic Thursday night at WaMu Theater as they tore through an hour and a half of classics, many of which were met with flames aloft.

Heart hasn't put out an album of new music since their 2004 offering, "Jupiter's Darling," which came after a period of love-song balladeering in the 1980s, an acoustic side project in the early 1990s and then a hiatus. The band's newest release brought back the power chords that made Heart's 1970s hits barroom-jukebox staples.

The Wilsons — along with guitarist Craig Bartok, keyboardist Debbie Shair, bassist Ric Markmann and drummer Ben Smith — reached deep in their pockets for "Magic Man," "Crazy on You," "Straight On" and, of course, "Barracuda." True to form, chunky electric-guitar strokes, throbbing drums and punchy bass lines were staples of Thursday's high-energy show.

Guitarist Nancy Wilson is the band's most dynamic performer, and she jumped, kicked and thrashed her red mane as she wailed on acoustic and electric guitars with equal fervor.

But Heart wouldn't have found success without the inimitable wail of Ann Wilson. More than 30 years into her career, she is still one of the best female rock singers, her voice pitch-perfect and crystal clear as she rockets from throaty growl to piercing howl.

Nancy did step up to the mic a few times, most notably for a cover of Tom Petty's "You Wreck Me," where she gave some of the lyrics a feminine twist ("You be the boy in the corduroy pants / I'll be the girl at the high school dance.") Later, Ann nailed a strutting, dead-on take of Led Zeppelin's "Black Dog." But the best cover of the night was a powerhouse rendition of The Who's "Love, Reign O'er Me."

The foot-stomping crowd brought the band out for three encores. During the first, Ann told the crowd performing at home (yes, Seattle can claim the Wilson sisters) is "the deepest, coolest, best feeling ever." They capped off the night with "Dreamboat Annie," going back, as Ann said, "to the very beginning of this wild ride we've taken."