Pop Music Review : Heart Delivers Power, Cliches at Pacific

With Heart, you have to take the good with the bad: There’s the strength of Ann Wilson’s power voice, and the annoying cliches of that most manipulative of heavy-pop song forms, the power ballad.

Overall, the balance tilted toward the good on Friday at the Pacific Amphitheatre. Wilson sang with assurance and splendid control throughout the nearly two-hour concert, and the show’s pacing doled out the heavy-ballad syrup in well-spaced dosages.

Since “What About Love?” hit the Top 10 in 1985, power ballads have transplanted Heart from the intensive care ward to a platinum-plated state of commercial health. The form is utterly predictable, with its chiming keyboards, slab-like chords, soar-to-the-empyrean guitar solos, and chorus hooks so big, blatant and oft-repeated that good taste is no defense against them.

Until three suspect songs fitting that description landed in sticky succession late in the show, one could think of the five-member group as something other than the signature power-ballad band of the late ‘80s. In the show’s best moments, Ann and Nancy Wilson went back to the aggressive brand of music they played in the 1970s to break mainstream hard-rock’s gender barrier.

Ann has matured into a persuasive singer capable of tossing off high-reaching, melismatic cries without strain. If only she could abandon formulas and find some persuasive material to match her ability.