Not resting on their laurels, Rock and Roll Hall of Famers Heart keep cranking out new material and live DVDs as well. Heart “Live at Royal Albert Hall With the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra” is their third DVD release in the last four years. This is their first time playing in London since 2002 and the first time ever at the famed Royal Albert Hall.
Heart 2016 consists of both Ann and Nancy Wilson, longtime drummer Ben Smith, Craig Bartock on guitar, Dan Rothchild on bass and Chris Joyner on keyboards. The band has some history performing with an orchestra as they did the entire first album “Dreamboat Annie” by performing a portion with the Stockholm Strings. So having that under the belt, I’m sure, made the transition a tad easier to perform live.
Coming out and playing the classic “Magic Man” was just what the doctor ordered. It gave the crowd energy to feed off of for the rest of their performance. It’s a song that the band has played numerous times to date and a great way for the band to ease into their set and get their feet wet inside the hallowed walls of Royal Albert Hall.
For “Heaven,” the ladies mixed it up by having Nancy Wilson play her acoustic guitar with a bow and Ann Wilson played an autoharp while Bartock played a slide guitar. The orchestra joined in for this song. It was a good changeup for the what I would call a mid eastern flavored tempo type of a song. It showed there was going to be some diversity to the setlist. As Ann Wilson said, “we will be covering songs from our entire career and what’s a few decades between friends?” Going from the ’70s “Dreamboat Annie” to the ’80s “What About Love” to the new single “I Jump” off of their latest effort “Beautiful Broken,” that is about as career spanning as it gets, in my opinion.
The ballads “These Dreams” and “Alone” had even a more elegant feeling as the orchestra played along. They upped the tempo with the hard rocking title track from their latest record “Beautiful Broken” next. Too bad it took “Crazy on You” for the proper English crowd to rise out of their seats. For most of the show, the fans sat and I guess they didn’t get the memo that a fantastic ROCK band in Heart was playing that night.
The band came out for an encore and Ann Wilson stated “Thanks for being here, we will never forget this night…ever” as they went into the beautifully acoustic tribute to a fallen friend in “Sand.” What would a true Heart show be without playing a Led Zeppelin cover? They tackled “No Quarter” and really left an impression with the song. It was earmarked very close to the original. A fantastic job was done by the band pulling out this very tough song to perform live.
I loved the aerial shots of the entire theater during the performance. Two encores later, the band left an indelible mark on the audience at one of the most s storied venues in the entire world. The bonus material features an interview with Ann and Nancy. It also shows them the day before, going over the setlist with the conductor of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in Nick Davies as well as nice behind the scenes footage as they discuss key points on how they will set up the show. Another fine product by the band Heart and a great gift of music to the one you love this holiday season!
