Ann Wilson has been through a lot in the last year and change.
The classic rock vocalist announced last summer that she had been diagnosed with cancer, leading her band Heart to postpone all of its remaining 2024 tour dates. She underwent surgery to remove the cancerous growth, followed by a series of chemotherapy treatments.
Thankfully, the procedures and treatments were successful, as Wilson informed fans via social media in September 2024.
“There’s maintenance going forward but I’m told the side effects are much less severe,” Wilson posted on Facebook. “The worst is over.”
That’s great news for Wilson — and fantastic news for her fans, who are once again able to enjoy her massive vocal talents on the live stage.
On Sunday night, Wilson and the rest of the Heart brigade — which includes sister Nancy Wilson on guitar and vocals — was back in action and kicking off the latest leg of its tour at Chase Center in San Francisco.
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Singing from a bench/stool, as opposed to the chair utilized during the previous run of dates, Ann Wilson delivered a triumphant performance and sounded every bit like the classic rock icon that she is as she belted out one fan favorite after another during the 90-minute-plus set.
Following a slideshow of images memorable events that have occurred over the decades since Heart first formed in Seattle in 1973 — from the release of “Star Wars” in 1977 and Pac-Man in 1980 to the horror of 9/11 in 2001 and the Jamie Foxx/Chris Rock Oscar incident in 2022 — the band took the stage and immediately found its grove with the title track to 1980’s “Bébé le Strange.”
The seven-piece outfit was performing to a relatively small crowd — occupying some 4,500 seats in the lower bowl, with the top decks of Warriorsville closed off for the night. But it was also an appreciative one, singing along with gusto as the band ran through the defiant love anthem “Never,” one of night’s three major bangers from Heart’s eponymous outing from 1985.
Ann Wilson did most of the talking from the stage, which, of course, is customary for the lead vocalists. Yet, Nancy Wilson also spoke a bit, recalling the band’s questionable hairdos and other memories from the MTV-slick ’80s.
“But we made it out alive with a couple of cool songs,” she said.
She then underscored that statement by singing lead vocals on “These Dreams,” yet another landmark cut from 1985’s “Heart.” It was Nancy Wilson’s sole lead vocal turn of the night, although she would get the spotlight all to herself on the gorgeous solo acoustic-guitar instrumental “4 Edward,” a tribute to Eddie Van Halen that appeared on her solo album “You and Me” from 2021.
Nancy Wilson was absolutely marvelous on guitar — especially during the legendary extended guitar intro (known as “Silver Wheels”) to “Crazy on You,” one of the marquee cuts from Heart’s landmark debut, 1975’s “Dreamboat Annie.”
Heart is a first-tier guitar band, offering up an fretboard-firework attack on Sunday that, at times, included four gunslingers at once. That type of firepower was put to incredibly good use as Heart embraced one of its favorite roles — that of a highly paid Led Zeppelin tribute act — and devoted three of the spots on the 17-song setlist to that the Wilson sisters’ musical heroes.
The multi-guitar brigade powered through stellar versions of Led Zep’s “Going to California,” “The Rain Song” and, best of all, “The Ocean,” underscoring not only how well-suited Heart is for this particular role but also the undeniable greatness of Jimmy Page (the Led Zep mastermind who originated these guitar parts all on his own).
Although the group specializes in Zeppelin, it can also handle other classic rock artists — as it proved during a groovy and decidedly ’80s take on David Bowie’s “Let’s Dance.”
Yet, these fans had turned out on this night not for covers, but for Heart’s own catalog. And they’d certainly get what they’d been waiting for as Heart neared the finish line with a pair of like-minded power ballads — “Alone” and “What About Love” — and then closed the show with the blistering “Barracuda.”
Todd Rundgren was also on the bill, setting the table for Heart with a disappointing hourlong opening set that featured roughly a dozen tunes. His vocals have noticeably deteriorated through the decades and, likewise, much of the songbook — especially the selection of tunes delivered at Chase Center — hasn’t weathered the years very well.
The crowd would’ve have been much better served by Cheap Trick, which was opening act set to perform with Heart at its originally scheduled Chase Center date in 2024. The change to Rundgren occurred when that date was pushed back to 2025 due to Ann Wilson’s cancer diagnosis.
Heart setlist:
1. “Bebe Le Strange”
2. “Never”
3. “Love Alive”
4. “Little Queen”
5. “Straight On”
6. “Let’s Dance”
7. “These Dreams”
8. “Crazy on You”
9. “Dog & Butterfly”
10. “Going to California”
11. “4 Edward”
12. “Magic Man”
13. “You’re the Voice”
14. “The Rain Song”
15. “Alone”
16. “What About Love”
17. “The Ocean”
18. “Barracuda”