Joan Jett and The Blackhearts 04/16/2022 at The Palace -Review By: Peggy of Troy

Saturday April 16th, Albany’s PALACE THEATRE was the place to be as the legendary Joan Jett And The Blackhearts came to the Little Apple Albany. Joan has been a personal favorite of mine since day one, a symbol of feminine power in a male dominated rock music industry, which often had sexist lyrics in many of the top bands songs. Joan was in the right place at the right time for commercial success as punk rock rose to power in the late 70’s and in the 80’s. MTV showed a different way of presenting music with the videos showing the performers in all their glory, rather than just an auditory presentation in a recording. A true independent artist she formed her own record company in 1980, Blackheart Records after being rejected by 23 labels. Defiance and perseverance paid off for the raucous rebellious Jett after a 4 year stint with the all girl band the legendary Runaways which included the Runaways movie. Joan Jett and the Blackhearts formed in 1980 giving us anthem after anthem of video airplay and punked out in your face attitude.

Soulmates to Strangers followed Jett’s first ever song, You Drive Me Wild, a Runaways pure sexual energy song that reminisces our teenage love fantasies. The crowd seemed to know all the words of this perfect playlist. Light Of Day written by the Boss himself, Bruce Springsteen, the title track from the 1987 movie with Michael J Fox, whom she gave praise to, was a film about the young trying to make it as rock stars. Fake Friends an oh so relatable anthem was followed by Androgynous, Oh Woe Is Me and Coney Island Whitefish.

The Sly Stone’s Everyday People cover preceded Love Is Pain. Then they revived the echoes of my MTV memory with the all standing most famous hit, I Love Rock N Roll! The Palace was pure passion and energy for the slow/fast Shondells cover of Crimson And Clover. I Hate Myself For Loving You, a crowd of varied decades screamed out as a testimony to her timeless universal appeal. She experimented with a 5 song acoustic set featuring an unplugged version of Cherry Bomb. I thought the high energy was diffused by non electricity and the timing of it was hard to place.

In the end I think none of the attendees including yours truly could cry disappointment to see the still beautiful leather panted Queen of Rock N Roll, Rebellion and Perseverance. The Blackhearts did not miss a note or a beat on any of the songs, true professionalism to polish the Apple of the Eye of Albany, Saturday night, Joan Jett forever!