Route 66: 2010

Sunday, August 29, 2010

Heart @The Paramount Theater, Denver 8/26/10



Tonight is Thursday 8/26/10.  We're seeing Heart at a great old theater in Denver, The Paramount.  The Paramount is basically on 16th Street Mall in Downtown Denver & has been around since about 1930.  This theater is one of my favorite small venues.  It's got a great vibe and is large enough to pull in national touring acts, but still considered small and intimate.  The capacity here is about 1500 people and nearly all the seats have an excellent view of the stage.

Heart is currently on tour promoting their new release Red Velvet Car which hits the streets on Tuesday 8/31.  Here's a touch of useless trivia for you, "Street Date" for new music is always on Tuesday.

Tonight they had a local Denver artist named Laura Brown (sp?), open the show.  We were somewhat surprised because there was nothing to indicate there was an opening act.  Laura was pretty good; she plays the 6 and 12 acoustic guitar and electric piano.  Her songs are OK.  I know that all sounds vague and perhaps it is.  She's pleasant enough, but really her songs lack a certain soul, as they say, IMO.  I also know this will sound odd, but she sounds like she sings in church and not like "gospel" type singers, just your everyday normal person singing.  She's now 20, I believe she said and has 2 cds out now, but I can't seem to locate them.  Anyway, big kudos to Heart for showcasing local talent.  Love to see more venues and artists do this.

Heart hit the stage around 9pm and rolled through 34 years of music; their first album Dreamboat Annie came out in 1976 and I've been a fan for at least 30 years.  I remember back in the day when I first heard my brother's 8 track of Dreamboat Annie & Little Queen.   For those of you wondering,  an 8 track was a funky thing that people used to have in their cars to listen music.  This was before cds and cassettes...you DO remember what a cassette was, right??  Ask your parents or grandparents about those things.  :)

The band started out with a revamped version of "Cook With Fire" and rolled with hits from nearly all of their albums.  They played "Magic Man", "Crazy On You", "What About Love", at least 4 new songs such as "Hey You", "Red Velvet Car" and a song by the title of  likely one of my favorite sayings, "WTF".  Of course, they also Rocked out "Barracuda".  I think "Barracuda" has one of the coolest guitar riffs ever and I knew this song WAY before Guitar Hero.  Their encores were Led Zep's "What is and What Should Never Be" and The Who's "Love, Reign o're Me."

All in All, an Excellent show.  I've been able to see Heart several times over the years.  My first time was back in 1981.  Here's a little story about how shy I really am; when I first saw Heart, of course the Ladies, (Ann & Nancy), were looking Amazing!  My brother Dave, who by the way, also saw this show with me, and I were hanging out in the hotel lobby in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.  As we were standing there the band came in & sat down, hanging out.  I was literally standing shoulder to shoulder with Howard Leese, the former lead guitar player and just couldn't bring myself to say anything.  I'm here to tell you that being shy is a HUGE drag.  If a person has the opportunity to meet someone new; famous or not, they need to step up and do it.  You can never get anywhere being shy.  Of course, that being said, to this day, I still can't bring myself to talk to a pretty girl...just a big chicken, I guess.  :)

Peace, may the music rock your world.

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