Heart: Live Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		0.0
Overall		4.5

Heart: Live Blu-ray Movie Review

Make Way for Bad Animals

Reviewed by Michael Reuben January 23, 2012

No roster of durable rock veterans would be complete without Ann and Nancy Wilson, the sisters who have fronted the band Heart for nearly forty years. The sisters may not have founded the band, but they quickly became its public face, and Ann's smoking vocals defined its sound, even as its musical format shifted with changing times. Their performing style and their song-writing talents provided definitive proof, as Janis Joplin had before them and Chrissie Hynde would shortly join them in doing, that a woman could rock as hard, as dirty and as unreservedly as any man. They sang about losing their virginity, having one-night stands and raising children on their own without apology, and Ann's tough delivery brought to the lyrics a distinctive mixture of relish and regret that made the songs memorably ambivalent. But they could also write delicate ballads, which Nancy often sang. One of their biggest hits remains 1978's gentle duet, "Dog and Butterfly".

When Heart first gained U.S. attention with singles like "Magic Man" and "Barracuda", everyone thought the band was Canadian. In fact, all the original members were American, including the Wilson sisters, but the band worked in Canada throughout the 1970s after a founding member fled there to avoid being drafted and sent to Vietnam. Even while in Canada, Heart received attention at home, but its reputation soared after the general amnesty by President Carter allowed everyone to return home in 1977. By 1980, it had achieved a string of hit singles and two double platinum albums.

Heart's fortunes declined in the Eighties, a victim of personnel changes and the vagaries of taste. So the Wilson sisters changed with the times, reworking their style into power ballads like "Alone" and heavy metal-inflected rockers like "If Looks Could Kill". Just in time to help them out, MTV appeared, where the Wilson sisters' looks did kill, especially Nancy's, whose aggressive and erotically charged style of guitar playing was not only camera friendly but an instant hit with the channel's male audience, which kept the video for "Never" at number one week after week. Today I look at the band's album covers from this era and can't help but laugh at the big hair and circus performer outfits—but the musicianship never flagged.

By the Nineties, the sisters began pursuing separate projects, although they continued to work together with Heart. In part, this reflected Nancy's increasing involvement in the film work of her (now former) husband, Cameron Crowe, for whom she scored Jerry Maguire, Almost Famous, Vanilla Sky and Elizabethtown. (They also raised a family.) But in 2002 Heart resumed touring, and in 2004 the band released Jupiter's Darling, its first studio album in over ten years.

It was at this point that Heart was invited to perform for Soundstage, the concert series presented on PBS by Chicago's local station, WTTW, in partnership with HD Ready, LLC. The two-hour concert was first broadcast in two parts on July 28 and August 4, 2005. Koch Vision released the concert on DVD in 2008, and Image has now released it on Blu-ray.

In addition to the Wilson sisters, the version of Heart that performed for Soundstage consisted of Craig Bartock on lead guitar; Mike Inez on bass (who has since left the band); Ben Smith on drums; and Debbie Shair on keyboards.

But the show opens with just Nancy and Ann Wilson on stage, and they're received with thunderous applause. When the crowd finally quiets, the sisters launch into a simple acoustic rendition of "Sand" (which they would not release until their 2010 album Red Velvet Car). Then they're joined by the entire band for a hard-driving version of "Kick It Out" from their early album Little Queen. These two numbers establish the twin poles of the program, which takes Heart back to its origins in ballads and hard rock, skipping over the middle period with its heavy metal inflection. (I confess to some disappointment here, having never lost my affection for the 1985 album Heart.) Even the power ballad "Alone" from Bad Animals (which the sisters didn't write) is stripped down to its essentials so that it can be assimilated into their earlier style.

Much has changed now, and the imprint of lives fully lived are evident on the two sisters, especially Ann, who has acquired the girth of many hard-living, full-throated female singers who managed not to flame out at an early age. (Think Aretha Franklin or Etta James.) Nancy, too, is no longer the slight young thing she used to be, and she no longer goes for the "come hither" outfits that used to be her signature. But the sound hasn't changed, and if you close your eyes (or keep them open, but look at the right things, like the glint in Nancy's eye or the passion in Ann's expression), it's plain that their music has kept the Wilson sisters young at (forgive me) heart. When they perform "Magic Man", their first major hit, they use the original arrangement, and the performance is every bit as enthusiastic as the recording from 1976. And "Barracuda", which is the song that first got them a major following in America, and for which the crowd keeps clamoring, sounds as angry today as when it first appeared (inspired, reportedly, by Ann's fury at their former record label).

In addition to their own material and hits, the band plays entertaining covers of several well-chosen Led Zeppelin songs ("The Battle of Evermore" and "Black Dog") and a classic by Elton John ("Love Song"). After all these years of listening to admirers praise Cameron Crowe's instincts for picking the right music to complement his films, you look at Nancy Wilson's face (which always seems to be hiding secrets you'd just love to know) and have to wonder just who in that household was running the show.

The complete song list follows:

Part 1 (July 28, 2005 broadcast)


1. Sand
2. Kick It Out
3. Straight On
4. Oldest Story In The World
5. Perfect Goodbye
6. These Dreams
7. Battle Of Evermore
8. Love Song
9. Lost Angel
10. Magic Man
11. Crazy On You

Part 2 (Aug. 4, 2005 broadcast)


12. Bebe Le Strange
13. Fallen Ones
14. Make Me
15. Even It Up
16. Dog And Butterfly
17. Alone
18. Things
19. Love Alive
20. Enough
21. Barracuda
22. Black Dog
23. Misty Mountain Hop

Heart: Live Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

I was initially concerned when I saw that Image had chosen to depart from their usual practice with Soundstage concert programs by issuing this nearly two-hour concert on a BD-25. However, except for an unusual amount of aliasing and video noise in the opening pans over the audience members as they cheer the Wilson sisters' initial appearance, the image on the 1080i, AVC-encoded Blu-ray is entirely consistent with the discs I've previously reviewed in this series. The picture is generally free from jaggies or other artifacts from the interlaced format while the image is in motion. (Screencaps are a different issue.) Black levels and resolved detail are consistently good, and colors are rich and well-saturated. As is customary with Soundstage concerts, the audience is fully illuminated along with the performers, which no doubt contributed to the quality of the image capture.

Heart: Live Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The DTS-HD MA 5.1 track is up to the usual standards met by director Joe Thomas and the technical crew at HD Ready. As per the typical mixing approach for Soundstage concerts, the viewer is placed in the position of an audience member with the sounds of cheering and applause directed to the surrounds, while the band and vocalists remain spread across the front soundstage, with some degree of presence in the surrounds to create a sense of space and depth. Just how loud that applause can be will be evident in the opening moments of the program, when the Wilson sisters are welcomed by the audience. The quality of the audio recording is evident in the reproduction of Ann Wilson's vocals, which are rendered without the slightest crackling or shrillness, which is no mean feat given her typical range. The instruments are well-balanced, and, as I have said in previous reviews, Soundstage and Image continue to set a high standard in simulating the feel of a live performance in the home environment, as much as such an experience can be reproduced.

(Note: A PCM 2.0 track is also available for all selections.)

Heart: Live Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

No extras have been included, although the Koch Vision DVD is listed as including an interview with the Wilson sisters.

Heart: Live Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Many of the Wilson sisters' songs were written and released when both they and I were much younger. Perhaps it's just my own awareness spilling over into the experience, but watching and hearing these songs performed by the same women at much later stages of their lives seemed to lend the songs additional depth and substance—one might even say "gravitas"—in ways that are almost indefinable. Rock music used to be considered strictly a young person's game, but performers like the Wilson sisters have proved otherwise. Highly recommended.