Heart came and they went crazy on us all.
They also gave us fair warning: they cleared all the stage furniture out of the way. The performance space was wide and barren when Heart came out to prowl around CN Centre. The light show was minimal, there were no elevating drum kits, no pillars of fire, even their back-of-house screen showed only bare basic visual effects.
As I watched, I was reminded of what Ann Wilson told me last week on the phone, when we discussed Heart's induction into the Rock 'N' Roll Hall of Fame. She appreciated its gesture of thanks but said it was "mostly useful to booking agents and insecure performers."
Here we got a demonstration of an act motivated by the courage of their substance. I get that a big-name act wants to give their audience maximum pizzazz for their hard-earned ticket money. But I also instantly understood what Heart was doing by stripping away the siss-boom-bah. The one thing they had to prove was that they had nothing to prove.
It had less to do with their veteran status, although no doubt that was some of it. Ann and Nancy Wilson are both in their 60s after all (but look sharp) - and more to do with being in a marketplace competition with all that youthful sizzle. Heart has what far too few upstart performers do: steak. They don't just have the glitter, they own the gold mine. So why not let that stand on its own for the world to see?
Another choice Heart made on this tour was to skip right to the core of their musical substance. Yes, they played hits, and what monster hits they were: These Dreams, What About Love (a song co-written by Vanderhoof's Jim Vallance), Alone and so forth. But they spent a patch of their career using the songs of other songwriters and giant though they were on the charts, the Heart team never felt much kinship to them. All I Wanna Do Is Make Love To You would be considered a career-maker for most acts, but that hasn't been a regular part of their repertoire for years. Likewise tunes like Will You Be There In The Morning, Stranded, I Didn't Want To Need You, and many more. The latter is a personal favourite of mine from back in the day, but I had no trouble sacrificing it for the classics they did choose and the new stuff they introduced.
It may be that Ann Wilson's voice is so uniquely gifted and crafted that few other singers wish to take on her material. It's the only reason I can think of that more of the Heart catalogue isn't reworked today. Yes, Alone has been somewhat ubiquitous, but so many others are ripe for the covering.
It would take some swagger on the part of the vocalist, though. Only the likes of Carrie Underwood or Adele have the pipes to pull a lot of it off as-is.
Which is why it was such a privilege to see a confident, warrior-like Ann Wilson belt it out right before our eyes. It's also why, after they burned the house down with Crazy On You and Barracuda, that the three encore songs were all Led Zeppelin covers.
And not just any covers.
It takes a special kind of rocker to attempt the wailing intro to The Immigrant Song.
It takes a special kind of band to wrestle with the twisted instrumentation of No Quarter.
By the time Misty Mountain Hop dropped, you at least subliminally knew the answer to the question "why would Heart close out with a Zeppelin tribute?" Because they could!
It was part salute but it was also part trick shot - a challenge to go ahead and try to doubt their skills and authenticity. (The three Zeppelin songs they chose also had a northern flavour, and a travelling theme to them. Coincidence, on a Canadian tour, for the once-upon-a-time Canadians?)
Certainly it's a band effort with Heart, not the Ann Wilson show. Nancy is also a force on voice and guitar. The two of them look and sound as though they're ready for a long haul still ahead, and not at all beyond the range of more hits. With the right producer, and the right lyric stories to tell, Heart could be back to P.G. for a crowd just as big.
The show was packed with more than 4,000 highly charged fans, which is quite a remarkable feat considering Heart and tourmate Joan Jett have both been here before and neither has had a jolting hit single in recent times.
Jett, like Heart, looked fierce and fresh. To be blunt, she looked freekin' hot. She was ready to go 12 rounds with anyone. Her trademark burnt vocals were there, but she also has smooth singing chops that surprised me, and she flashed a lot of emotion as she hit Cherry Bomb and I Hate Myself For Loving You over the wall. Of course the audience took over I Love Rock 'N' Roll and Crimson And Clover completely, to her genuine satisfaction.
She was not going through the tired motions. She was proud of new material, had some jokes to tell, had some flexing to do. She wanted you to know more about this Joan Jett character you've heard of before but is still making fresh music.
Like Heart, with the right story wended into the right punk-rock hooks, she could be back in the Top 40 without any trouble.
It took quite a vocalist to stand up on the Wilson /Jett stage and take on opening act duties. Serena Pryne and her guitar partner Nick Lesyk from their band The Mandevilles were given a chance to shine, but they had to do it acoustically as a warm-up duo. A bonus for them was how the bulk of the audience on Thursday night was politely in their seats when their set started.
What a perfect harbinger they were. Lesyk didn't have a lot of guitar ground to work with, since they were confined to the acoustic opening slot, but he clanged and coaxed and coddled the strings with humble mastery. It was easy to tell that, with an array of guitars and an array of songs, he could paint all sorts of musical colours.
Pryne has Jennifer Nettles moxy, Sass Jordan sensibility, and Melissa Etheridge vocal cut. She slammed down the Mandevilles tunes like a boss. Although she whipped her hair like she was used to the nightclub setting much more than the "properly sitting" setting, she offered up much more personalized audience dialogue than the headliners. (I dislike it when acts speak only generically to their audience, my only true displeasure with Joan Jett and Heart). Her ease on the stage, her muscle on the mic, and her sharp songwriting skills will, if there is any justice in the music scene, bring her and Lesyk back around with the rest of the band.
Thursday night was a flavourful taste but I went home and started digging on YouTube for the real Mandevilles sound, and now I want the whole meal. After wearing out the replay button on songs like Hangovers, Heaven On The Highway, the touching Warren Zevon cover of Keep Me In Your Heart, and especially the Fleetwood Mac-ish Turn A Blind Eye, I detect a high musical intelligence in this band. We owe Heart and Joan Jett a debt of gratitude for bringing The Mandevilles to our attention, and for reminding us where talent - hard-practiced, brain-based talent - came take us all. It can take you swimming with the barracudas or flying high on a zeppelin.
