Mostly, this one is on the backstory.
First I must confess that I have been absolutely in love with Heart, and Ann Wilson in particular, since high school. I think she has the most powerful and sultry voice of her generation. Stevie Nicks is cutsie, but Ann is tough and passionate. After becoming famous she developed a condition that caused her to gain a lot of weight, and she faced a lot of pressure and judgement and humiliation for that (like, they would shoot just her face, and put that next to her sister dancing around), but she never wavered and kept on rocking.
The real show stealer in this performance is Robert Plant- who you see leap out of his seat and point to the drummer, John Bonham’s son- who is the spitting image of his late father, Led Zeppelin’s drummer, that died in 1980 effectively ending the band.
What a lot of people don’t know is that Robert Plant and John Bonham were closer than anyone else in the band. They had worked together doing music before Led Zeppelin was formed, back when they were kids and nobodies. And in 1977, when Robert Plant’s little boy died suddenly and unexpectedly of some virus out of nowhere, the only band member that showed up for Robert was John. The other two wanted to “give him his space” which is absurd, and Robert never forgot that or forgave them really, I think. He sank into a deep depression, and was only drawn out of it by his good friend and drummer John. Who would, three years later, die choking on his own vomit in Robert’s house after a long night of drinking.
Which brings us to this tribute performance. You can tell his friend’s son means a great deal to him, just by the way he jumps up and points- almost helplessly, against his own wishes and etiquette. What does he see, watching it? Does he see his friend, and himself- 20 years ago, as young and strong and carefree kids? Does he see his own son in him? The displaced father/son relationship they might have, in some small way? Whatever he sees, it’s enough to make him weep, and I join him in these feelings of loss and generational echoes.
PS: Choir music always gets me a little bit. Especially in person. There’s something to that many voices all singing at once. A very moving sort of power, indescribable.
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