A friend of mine from Michigan was in town & wanted to take in a show. This was what was happening when he had a free night. I've liked Heart since I was a kid although they lost me with their synth ballads in the mid 80s. For this tour they're playing with Jason Bonham's Zep cover band as an opener and joining forces at the end to do Zep songs with Ann & Nancy. I figured, if I'm ever gonna see them, this is proabably a good chance to see them do a set geared toward rockers.

It was a good choice. They surpassed my expectations. Ann Wilson still sings incredibly well, and when they're focusing on their best material they are very capable of a powerful show. Their current band sounds great. Ann has a kind of endearing stage persence where she steps to the back of the stage during guitar solos, like she's getting out of the way. Nancy's playing really well and her couple of solo turns were really well done. I'd have to give them an A+.

I also gained a new respect for Jason Bonham. His drumming was superb all night, he really does have that hammer-swing touch that his dad made popular. His band don;t look anything like Zeppelin but sound a lot like them, which is the right balance for a tribute band to strike. When I saw his band in the 90s he had a bare-chested golden haired singer who couldn't cut the singing gig. This was, if unoriginal, still a lot of fun to watch.

And the closing segment where they did Zep songs with Ann singing was kind of phenomenal. These must be songs she has sung since she was a teenager, and she really nailed them.

1.Barracuda
2.Heartless
3.What About Love
4.Magic Man
5.Kick It Out
6.Mistral Wind
7.Even It Up
8.Dog & Butterfly
9.I Need You to Turn To
(Elton John cover)
10.These Dreams
11.Alone
12.Dear Old America
13.Crazy On You
Encore:
14.Battle of Evermore
(Led Zeppelin cover)
15.Misty Mountain Hop
(Led Zeppelin cover)
16.Immigrant Song
(Led Zeppelin cover)
17.The Rain Song
(Led Zeppelin cover)
18.Kashmir
(Led Zeppelin cover)
19.Stairway to Heaven
(Led Zeppelin cover)

Mistral Wind might have been the highlight... really dramatic.