Female rockers get the arena shaking

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This article was published 17/03/2016 (3871 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It was the biggest cheer heard for a Jett at the MTS Centre in months.

And why not? On Thursday night, Joan Jett and the Blackhearts put their feet to the floor with a take-no-prisoners set fans of the this season’s subpar Winnipeg Jets can only dream of.

The newly inducted Rock ’n’ Roll Hall of Famer was the semi-windup of a female-focused hard-rock show with fellow Hall of Famers Heart, who were inducted in 2013. Jett provided a 50-minute career retrospective, getting the crowd revved up with a pair of songs from her days with the Runaways, Bad Reputation and Cherry Bomb.

Jett was in perfect punk mode, grinding away on her beat-up six-string while dressed head to toe in skin-tight black leather.

Her version of Do You Want to Touch Me had the crowd joining in, and the diminutive singer crouched and inspected her loyal troops in the audience, and later offered her approval of their spirit.

A couple of tunes from her latest record, Unvarnished, kept the beat up, but didn’t get nearly the reaction of Light of Day, the song from the 1987 film she starred in with Michael J. Fox. Scenes from the almost-forgotten movie played on the video screen while the group played the Bruce Springsteen-penned song.

Her biggest hit, I Love Rock ’n’ Roll, naturally, was the highlight. The crowd erupted, got up and danced to the smash, which had a seven-week stay at No. 1 on the Billboard chart, an eternity compared with the music industry of the 21st century. They remained on their feet for Crimson and Clover, I Hate Myself for Loving You, and the encore, a version of Sly Stone’s Everyday People.

Heart led with Magic Man, one of the hits from their debut album Dreamboat Annie, and while the album is marking its 40th anniversary this year, one thing that hasn’t aged is the voice of Ann Wilson. Her vocal power hasn’t ebbed in 40 years, that’s for sure, especially after hearing an energetic rendition of Heartless and the power ballads What About Love and These Dreams.

They were expected to play chart-toppers such as Barracuda and Crazy on You, plus some Led Zeppelin favourites after press time.

In an interview with the Free Press last week, Heart guitarist Nancy Wilson, Ann’s sister, said the group’s continuing concert success is due to the songs being a soundtrack to people’s lives.

On Thursday, a lot of those people were mothers who grew up rocking to Heart and Jett, and were introducing their daughters to their personal soundtracks.

The Wilsons and Jett helped lay a solid foundation for future generations of female performers, and these days it is the women who are mostly ruling the charts.

Niagara Falls’ the Mandevilles, who stripped down their band to an acoustic duo, offered a taste of what was to come during their 30-minute set. Singer Serena Pryne didn’t hold back, rasping like Bonnie Tyler or Melissa Etheridge during their 1980s and ’90s heyday.

alan.small@freepress.mb.caTwitter:@AlanDSmall