October 15, 2018

​

Rock and Roll royalty hit the campus at the Indiana University of Pennsylvania on Saturday night.  Two original members of Heart, Steve Fossen and Michael Derosier, brought their tight five-piece band to play the music that helped them get inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2013.  

​

Backing up the Hall of Famers were Lizzy Damont on guitars, keyboards and backing vocals, Chad Quist on lead guitar, and Somar Macek, who did an incredible job on lead vocals.   It's not an easy task to try and replicate the vocals of Ann Wilson but Macek was spot-on throughout the evening. 

 

As a matter of fact, the entire band played the songs note for note just as they were originally recorded.  It was nice hearing all of the drum fills and bass lines on those classic tracks in a live setting.

​

Speaking of classic tracks, the set list was full of Heart classics, some deep album cuts and even a few tunes from the mid-80s.  

​

The show kicked off with "Bebe La Strange" and "Kick It Out" from the 1977 album Little Queen. 

​

Many other hits were played like, "Magic Man," "Straight On" and "Crazy On You."  However, it was the deep cuts that really got my attention.  Songs like "Little Queen," "Mistral Wind" and "Devil Delight" have rarely been played in Heart's set list over the past couple of years and they were a joy to be heard again in concert.

​

Even though Fossen and Dirosier left Heart in the early '80s, the band played two of Heart's biggest mid-80s tunes, "Never" and "Alone" where Macek hit it out of the park.

​

The band ended the set with "Barracuda" which Fossen noted that Michael Derosier got a song writing credit.

​

With the audience finally on its feet, Heart By Heart came back to encore with the Zeppelin classic "Rock and Roll."

​

It was well worth the trip to PA to check out Heart By Heart.  Now, if they would only play in Northeastern Ohio.

​

​

Review and photos by Greg Drugan

​