On This Day in History

On this date in history, 8/22/1978, I saw Heart for the first time. The show was at the Indianapolis State Fairgrounds, and Walter Egan was the opening act. I don’t have much recollection of Mr. Egan’s set, but I remember his one and only radio “hit”, called “Magnet and Steel”, and it was a pretty lame song by my teenage estimation. Mercifully, he only played about 45 minutes and was quickly forgotten as we all awaited the Wilson sisters and their band.

Heart were on fire that night, with Ann Wilson’s soaring vocals and bewitching stage presence, and her sister Nancy playing some fine looking Ovation acoustic guitars and singing angelic backups for her older sibling.

Nancy was a vision to me in those days…a super hot chick playing guitar in a rock band? It was love at first sight, but even with all that sensory overload it was the music that hooked me in the first place. “Barracuda”, “Magic Man”, “Love Alive”, and this song called “Devil Delight”, where Ann shrieks, “I see the devil” and the sound man panned the vocals left to right on delay so every time she hit the word “devil”, we heard it 3 or 4 times…a truly spooky effect.

Needless to say, I found myself at several more Heart shows throughout the years, but the first time was always my sentimental favorite.

Written By Braddon S. Williams aka The Concert Critic