It seems a bit odd that Heart would have waited until 15 years into their career to put out a full-length live album. (The live portions of Magazine<\/i> and Greatest Hits Live<\/i> don\u2019t qualify.) It also seems a bit odd that, on Rock The House Live!<\/i>, Ann & Nancy Wilson and crew would leave off \u201cAll I Want To Do Is Make Love To You,\u201d the song that really made their Brigade<\/i> album take off.<\/p>\n
So what better way, one would think, to follow up an album that had proven to be a smash hit for Heart than with a live disc? If only they had put out a memento from that tour which was as memorable as the studio album. Rock The House Live!<\/i> is not a bad album; the problem is that it\u2019s also not a great album. It just\u2026is<\/i>, and that\u2019s a problem that a lot of live discs have.<\/p>\n
Oh, things start off good with a one-two punch of tracks from Brigade<\/i>, \u201cWild Child\u201d and the criminally-forgotten \u201cFallen From Grace.\u201d Following this with a third<\/i> song from the same album, the tepid \u201cCall Of The Wild,\u201d isn\u2019t as solid of a move.<\/p>\n
In fact, one mistake of this disc is that six of the disc\u2019s 14 songs — 13 if you don\u2019t count the 57-second throwaway \u201cThe Way Back\u201d — are culled from Brigade<\/i>, and by doing this, a good portion of Heart\u2019s catalog, and thus their more memorable songs, are left off this set. Now, I\u2019m all for including lesser-known tracks in a concert setting — you need to remind people that an artist is more than one or two songs. But the overreliance on these ends up hurting the album. I mean, can we really justify putting a cover of \u201cYou\u2019re The Voice\u201d on this over including a song like \u201cDog And Butterfly,\u201d \u201cEven It Up\u201d or \u201cAlone\u201d?<\/p>\n
Mistake number two is the all-too common pitfall with a live album, namely, transferring the energy of the live show to a little plastic and aluminum disc. In this case, listening to the Wilson sisters doesn\u2019t make me feel like I\u2019m listening to them in concert — and I happened to see Heart on this particular tour, so I know how exciting their live show could be at this time. In all fairness, this is one of the most difficult things for any band to accomplish, so at least Heart is in good company.<\/p>\n
If anything, Heart comes off as a band taking themselves a little too seriously on Rock The House Live!<\/i> Whereas Heart was not above whipping out a Led Zeppelin song to cover in previous years, or just having some good-natured fun with the music, this disc seems like Heart is trying too hard to prove to people that they are a serious band. (Memo to the