Tuesday, February 08, 2011

Heart in concert

Tonight we saw Heart perform at Centre in the Square here in Kitchener. The Centre is an auditorium and has great acoustics; it's also a bit smaller of a venue than, say, a stadium. We still got a stadium show that left everyone, including us, a bit deaf. I'm trying not to shout when I talk but it's not that easy.

Heart have been around for about 35 years and they're still amazing performers. They didn't change outfits a kabillion times and they didn't have a dance choreography and their light show was simple yet interesting; they just got up and played and sang and had a good time. Now *that's* a proper concert.

They haven't lost any of their vocal talent and they didn't forget the words to their songs (I saw Chris de Burgh in concert once and he did forget words to at least one song). Their performance was powerful and energetic and engaging and the songs they performed were as good or better than their studio albums. They sang old favourites (there's a lot of those!) as well as a few songs from their new album.

The only thing I didn't like was that the speakers in the auditorium weren't quite powerful enough for the amplified sound and so occasionally the highest and lowest notes sounded a bit muddy. It was worst at the beginning of the concert and got better through the show. This was really the only flaw I saw and since ours was the second show of the tour it's possible that they'll smooth that out over time.

The opening act was Carmen Townsend, a Cape Breton singer who stood up and sang with only her guitar for company. She had a great voice but we didn't love the way she sang: she does a lot of stuff with her voice (sudden changes in volume, pitch, etc) that we didn't like so much. If she'd just sing without all those tricks we'd have liked the act better.

Before the concert we had dinner at a new-to-me restaurant: The 41. It was delicious! I had the burger with sharp cheddar and bacon and it was wonderful. I wish we'd had time for dessert because the selection looked especially yummy. Ian's been there once before and was happy to go back. I'd like to go back to try some other things on the menu and to work my way through the desserts.

It was definitely a great night all around. If you get a chance to see Heart on their Canadian tour this month, it's well worth your time.

1 comment:

manchester fat acceptance said...

sounds like a cool concert!

you would think that it would be easy for a singer to remember the lyrics to their own songs, right? errrr no. anyone who struggles with memorizing lyrics or other written works will probably have a bit of difficulty remembering their own songs. really!

i suck at memorizing lyrics. when i record my songs, it takes lots of practice and lots of "takes" to get it right. and i still have to read most of the lyrics off the page when i get to the 50th attempt. i assume that i could perform those songs again and again and still forget the words!!!

love,
vicki