For my third concert at the SBC in six days (love this gig, and heading back soon), the 2013 Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame inductees HEART pulled into town for their "2013 Heartbreaker Tour", with very special guest Jason Bonham's Led Zeppelin Experience. This tour came about when Ann and Nancy Wilson of Heart performed "Stairway To Heaven" together at the Kennedy Center Honors tribute to Led Zeppelin in December, 2012. The show was divided into a one - two - three punch set. It came together as Jason Bonham and Heart would each do a shorter version of their shows so they could get together at the end to perform the only 30-minute live extravaganza tribute to Led Zeppelin.
        Bonham opened his set with his four-piece band doing outstanding justice to eight songs starting with "Rock and Roll", which ignited the near sell-out crowd to their feet with a sing-a-long. After ending the song, Bonham stood up behind his kit addressing the crowd to say, "This is my way of telling my father, every night, just how great he was". The rest of their set hit all the notes you'd expect. Lead singer James Dylan is no Robert Plant look-a-like but close your eyes and you'd think Plant was on that stage singing. They finished their 45-minute set with "Black Dog", "Over the Hills and Far Away", "Houses of the Holy", "Nobody's Fault But Mine", "When the Levee Breaks", a cover by Memphis Minnie & Kansas Joe McCoy ( how many knew that one?) and "Whole Lotta Love" to end their set.
        After a short break, for the roadies to vacuum the carpet on the stage (not a bad gig either), Heart hit the stage opening with Ann's vocals belting out "Barracuda", "Heartless", and "What About Love", before we were ushered out of the pit only to learn we had a surprise later in the show. Heart’s set drew mostly from their ‘80s and ‘90s catalog, and Ann sounded just like she did when those hits first came out. Keeping the songs and vocals in high gear brought "Magic Man" and "Kick It Out", with Nancy Wilson high-kicking and prancing around the stage while providing plenty of backing vocals for her sister. Next, "Mistral Wind" and “Even It Up", before slowing things down for an acoustic version of Elton John's "I Need You To Turn To", and mandolin on "These Dreams." The then cranked the music back up to close out their set with "Alone", "Dear Old America", and "Crazy On You."
        After another short break, us photogs learned we were now able to return to the pit to shoot the first three songs of the encore (this has never happened ever before). As the roadies wheeled out Bonham’s drum kit to the stage, the sisters hit the front of the stage with Ann carrying an acoustic guitar and Nancy carrying a mandolin to kick off the Led Zeppelin encore with "Battle of Evermore." Next Nancy introduced Jason back to the stage with his guitarist Tony Catania and the rest of Heart to finish this killer concert with "The Song Remains the Same", "The Rain Song", "The Ocean", "Kashmir", and for the closer, there was only one song: "Stairway to Heaven", with the opening notes plucked by Nancy on acoustic guitar. It was awe-inspiring! I’ve got to give it to the Wilson sisters - while a lot of the bands from the ‘70s and ‘80s are now playing state fairs, this band is on a major tour headlining amphitheatres and doing quite well. I wish them continued success. I had not seen them live in quite some years and they put on one hell of a rock and roll show. Heart deserves to be in the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame - good for them. You can bet I’ll never miss them again - and you shouldn’t either.
– Gary Crouthamel, concert photojournalist