Article by: Glenn Woodell and Wendy Podmenik Darugar
Photos by: Wendy Podmenik Darugar
NORFOLK, VA – How often do you get to see three bona fide rock legends in one night? Dubbed the Rock Hall Three for All, this tour features Rock Hall of Famers Cheap Trick, Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, and Heart. Only five dates remain on this tour, which began in July.
These bands’ entries into the Hall of Fame are well deserved – each one of them has been creating and touring since the 1970’s, and what’s especially impressive is that they haven’t kicked back and rested on hits of days gone by, but all three continue to produce new material and put on as much of a show as they did 20 years ago.
Openers Cheap Trick featured most of their original line-up with the only exception being the replacement of original drummer, Bun E. Carlos, with guitarist, Rick Nielsen’s son, Daxx. The show in Virginia Beach featured an early start time, and given it was a weekday, the crowd didn’t fill in until their set was halfway over. The momentum of the show started to build when lead vocalist Robin Zander stepped forward and announced, “Well… I want you…to want me”, which drew some screams from attendees and people rose up from their seats to dance to one of Cheap Trick’s greatest rock anthems. Dream Police followed, which highlighted a spoken word solo from Nielsen, who temporarily moved front and center along with his mic stand and dozens of picks that he liberally showered onto the crowd. Visually, it was a beautiful stage setup with vibrantly colored lights, a video screen in the background, and bold graphics. Stat: multiple guitar swaps which included ten unique guitars by Nielsen, concluding with his famous five-necked guitar.
Joan Jett aggressively took her turn at the stage with “Bad Reputation”, leading into The Runaway’s classic, “Cherry Bomb”. Taking off her black jacket, revealing a red-sequined body suit, she addressed the gathering with a greeting and encouragement to chant the chorus for the next song, her 1980 cover of glam rocker Gary Glitter’s “Do You Wanna Touch Me (Oh Yeah)”. She then directed her set onto new material from their newest CD “Unvarnished”, the song, “TMI”, which received very positive response. Jett took time to relay background stories about her musical history and personal inspirations for songs, such as collaborations with Bruce Springsteen and Foo Fighter’s Dave Grohl.
The final act of the show was one that everyone has a favorite song from – Heart. They strolled down memory lane right away with “Magic Man”, a song that is surely played on a daily basis by most classic rock stations today. The first third of their show was all the classics from them that many had hoped to hear and included, “What About Love”, “Even it Up”, and “These Dreams”. Their new song, “Two” was a beautiful ballad about disregarding what others think of two people who are in love and was sung by Ann Wilson while a video of ballet dancers played in the background. The show was concluded with a duo of Led Zeppelin covers, “Immigrant Song”, and Stairway to Heaven”, which was no surprise to anyone who knows much about this timeless band.
Virginia Beach was not disappointed by the evening’s lineup of truly classic rock powerhouses.