Heart Plays With A Lot of Heart in Eagle Rock's Reissue of HEART: ALIVE IN SEATTLE

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Submitted by Dennis Russo on Mon, 07/10/2017 - 07:02

HEART: ALIVE IN SEATTLE on DVD from Eagle Rock captures the band Heart at the culmination of their 2002 tour in their home town of Seattle, Washington.

When I was growing up, there were not many female rockers who could play with the best all-guy rock bands of the day. Sure there were some who could rock, but few who could rock-out like the Wilson sisters. In fact, how many bands played covers of Zeppelin songs while Zeppelin was still playing music themselves, and got away with not being thought of as a cover band? (It didn’t hurt that Robert Plant had a girlie high voice in those days, which Ann could match and actually carry a tune better.) Heart proved they could play others’ rock as well as their own with equal aplomb.

They were the real deal then, and they are the real deal here.

Recorded in 2002, some 26 years after 1976’s Dreamboat Annie, this performance captures Heart in perfect form. Their energy and vocal prowess are all still there. It’s as if they were still in the 70’s. Playing original hits and covers that have spanned the decades as well as new music (at the time of the taping), this DVD has something for everyone.

Of course the hits like “Magic Man,” “Dreamboat Annie,” and “Barracuda” are here and performed wonderfully, as well as, yep you guessed it, Zeppelin covers such as “Black Dog” and “Battle of Evermore” sung as only they could perform them. The new original songs and covers fit smoothly into the mix to prove as I said earlier that Heart has not lost their heart for playing great music.

Do I have a favorite? No. Favorites, yes, but to name some would omit others, and these are all so good.

Extremely well shot and recorded, any Heart fan would consider this required watching/listening and a DVD worth owning. The imagery of watching Ann and Nancy perform in shots was striking--two performers so in tune with each other on stage they could read and feed off of each other simply by looking at each other.

The bonus interviews with Ann and Nancy give good insight into the making of the music here, but the real treasure is the performance itself.

It has been a while since I’ve reviewed something new from Eagle Rock, and it was nice to see they still haven’t broken stride in putting out a product that is both musically and culturally relevant. Even though this show was performed fifteen years ago, the video was done so well that it looks like it could have been performed yesterday.

I don’t know if the Wilson sisters are still performing now, but at least we can see them again in the not too distant past in fine form.

Songs Performed on this DVD: