Heart thrills Boston with youthful energy

Normally when one hears of a concert featuring the likes of Heart and Peter Frampton one would expect the same old classic rock nostalgia act that fans keep showing up for summer after summer. However, in this case both artists had reason to be on the road other than just a taste of the good ol’ days. Both Heart and Frampton tried out new tunes but there was still plenty of nostalgia on tap during their Wednesday night show at the Bank of America Pavilion.

Heart took the stage under darkness as the image of a floating spaceman appeared on the screen. As Nancy Wilson began riffing on set-opener “Cook With Fire”, her sister Ann strode onto the stage with flute in hand to the triple percussion force created by band members Debbie Shair, Craig Bartok and Ben Smith. The group has a new album, Red Velvet Car, set for release at the end of August but it was 1978’s Dog & Butterfly that was featured prominently from the start as “Straight On” and the title track came back to back early in the set (with “Cook With Fire” also from that album).

The sisters are the only original members of the band but their importance and mere presence allows Heart to perform with an authentic sound that many classic rock acts who remain on the road each summer lack. It doesn’t hurt than Ann still has every bit of her booming vocals and Nancy’s enthusiasm and energy have not escaped her. Ann held the spotlight for the first leg of the show, belting out hits like “Heartless” and “Never” before Nancy took a turn at the mic with “These Dreams”. Shortly after, Ann really let rip on a mashup of “Gimme Shelter” and “Even It Up” that got the relaxed fans back on their feet again.

It seems the group has made the right choice for Red Velvet Car singles as “WTF” and “Hey You” were the best of the four song sample of new material they gave. “WTF”, a song that Ann described as “one of those conversations you have with yourself in the mirror”, was riff-heavy with a hint of psychedelia and served as a perfect springboard for the rocking run through to the end of the show. “Hey You” may have lacked some originality with a chorus filled with “Na Na Na’s” but one can’t say it’s not catchy (as those “Na Na Na’s” always seem to be). However, fellow new tunes “Red Velvet Car” and “In The Cool” played to less success thanks to their mellow sound and fans unfamiliarity.

Their biggest hits closed out the main set as “Magic Man” brought the fans to their feet. Nancy thrilled with an acoustic intro to “Crazy On You”, and dozens whipped out their phones for some amateur filmmaking during “Barracuda”. Fans would have sufficed with that ending but Heart still gave them an added bonus as they returned for their take on some of their 70’s contemporaries as Ann triumphed through Led Zeppelin’s “What Is And What Should Never Be” and The Who’s “Love Reign O’Er Me”.

While Heart lived up to their reputation for outstanding vocals, Peter Frampton lived up to his rep for guitar chops during his crowd pleasing opening set. Although, along with those chops comes his tired talkbox act, but he did put it to good use during an instrumental version of Soundgarden’s “Black Hole Sun”, as he sang the outro chorus with his favorite effect. Frampton got political with his new song “Restraint”, written about the greed and corruption of Wall St. However, the mood was surely lightened with the crowd-pleasing “Baby, I Love Your Ways”. Frampton closed out his set with another cover, this time with a take on The Beatles “While My Guitar Gently Weeps”.