When Heart’s Ann Wilson happily announced Saturday night that “a big, giant, Florida cockroach” she found onstage was now part of the show, you knew she’s having a great time on this tour.
It’s been a rocky few years for Heart frontwomen Ann and Nancy Wilson. The last time they stopped in Tampa was at the tail end of their 2016 Rock Hall Three For All Tour with radio regulars Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, and Cheap Trick. The other two names on that roster have continued touring, and have, in fact, stopped here again since then. The Wilson sisters, on the other hand, had a family falling out, causing them to go their separate ways for two years. This year, however, their Love Alive reunion tour was announced, with singer songwriter Elle King and of course, just like last tour, Joan Jett and the Blackhearts.
Elle King and the Brethren stormed the stage at 7:05, kicking off an evening featuring the trio of rock and roll goddesses. Elle was in Tampa as recently as 2018, at 97X’s Next Big Thing, also held at Tampa’s MIDFLORIDA Credit Union Amphitheater. She played for a half hour, which feels like it should be enough time, but there could have been much more for her to play. King, whose resume includes opening for Dashboard Confessional, Ed Sheeran, and most recently, Miranda Lambert, released her second album last year, entitled Shake The Spirit, which she has called her most personal work anywhere, ever. She wrote most of the songs on it, too.
Elle also saluted Florida boy Tom Petty, and Stevie Nicks, with a flawless cover of Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around, with the male co-lead vocals and all. Once she wrapped up her twangy, yet rockin’ set, a half hour passed until we got our first Hall Of Famer of the night.
Joan Jett and the Blackhearts arrived onstage at 8:00 sharp, all at the same time, to launch into Victim Of Circumstance, followed by Cherry Bomb, a Runaways song. If you didn’t know, The Runaways was Joan’s first band, from before The Blackhearts came around. That wasn’t the only time they were brought into play, though. You Drive Me Wild was squeezed out later on.
The rest of Joan’s set consisted of slightly more obscure album tracks, (as oppose to the no-stranger-to-radio ones to come later) along with the Bruce Springsteen-penned Light Of Day. “A real long time ago, I did a movie with Michael J. Fox,” Joan recalled. It was in reference, of course, to the film that shared a title with the song Bruce penned. “We were selling our record out the back of our trunk, and all of a sudden, we had a hit record!” original Blackheart Kenny Laguna recalled. Apparently, no record label in the late 70s to early 80s could fathom a woman fronting a group of all dudes. Way to beat the system.
She couldn’t skip the classics, though: You know, I Love Rock ‘n’ Roll, Crimson & Clover, and I Hate Myself For Loving You. Closing off her annual gig in Tampa were two covers by The Replacements, and Sly and the Family Stone, coincidentally on the 50th anniversary of Sly’s performance at Woodstock.
The stage was stripped, and at 9:25, as promised online, the Wilson sisters, Ann and Nancy, along with the rest of the band, came sneaking out in the dark. There were no extra introductions or anything: They’re (in terms of the front women, literally) a family, so why separate who comes out first, and who comes out last?
The recently reunited sisters blasted off their first Tampa show in three years with Rockin’ Heaven Down, a pretty deep cut that hadn’t been played on tour since over three decades ago. Immediately following was Magic Man, which was the first rocker from the first Heart album, Dreamboat Annie, appropriately released on Valentine’s Day 1976. Oh, and Ann actually blew into a flute during Love Alive. Who’d have guessed?
The Wilson sisters have been playing different covers on tour from the beginning, so it was no surprise that they whipped up some new arrangements of Paul Simon’s (okay, Simon & Garfunkel’s) The Boxer, and Yes’ Your Move. And these weren’t just mediocre attempts to salute some of their favorites. Ann and Nancy gave every song the Wilson sister treatment: New harmonies, transposition, and tweaking just about everything except for the lyrics. My dad, who is a massive Trevor Rabin-era Yes fan, even told me afterwards that it’s really hard to do Jon Anderson’s vocals justice, and that this was the first time he was ever thoroughly impressed by a Yes song not sung by, or at least including, Anderson.
After the covers, the Hall Of Famers dusted off album title tracks, such as Dog And Butterfly and Little Queen, along with the hits that appeared on, or alongside them. Nancy even lugged around a Flying V on Even It Up.
There wasn’t much commentary during their set, from anybody. That is, until Ann found someone who jumped onstage to hang out with them. “I was over on stage left for that last song. I look down and I see a big, giant, Florida cockroach. But we’re not gonna kill it – he’s now officially part of the show!”
Tampa was given a very generous encore after Crazy On You, which featured Nancy flawlessly plucking out the same acoustic guitar solo opener that started the song some 40 years ago. Another cover was given the Heart treatment, but this one sounded more like the original than any others. Stairway To Heaven, with Ann reprising her side-role as flutist, has been a regular on their setlist for many a year. At one point a few years ago, while on tour with Jason Bonham’s Led Zeppelin Experience, they were playing it onstage with Bonzo Jr. every night,.
The nostalgic evening of female-powered rock and roll ended with a slow rendition of Alone, and of course, an identical, head-bangin’, fist pumpin’ Barracuda.
Ann just released a new album, Immortal, which features deep cuts from rockers who have died in the last few years. Perhaps the next release that comes from her will include her sister. Who knows? The tour with Joan Jett is still a few months away from being over, and they’re having a great time not recording anything new.
Hopefully, there won’t be anymore roaches interfering with their shows.
Josh Bradley Live 