REVIEW: Heart still beats to its own rhythm in Sugar Land
- photomann1988
- 7 days ago
- 3 min read
The veteran rock group Heart returned to the road in 2025 after an unexpected hiatus in 2024 and left the Houston-faithful more than satisfied following its performance on Tuesday night.
Heart delivered a wonderful 90-minute set of classic hits, unexpected gems and spectacular cover songs at its concert inside the cozy confines of the Smart Financial Centre in Sugar Land. The venue was near capacity and the band surely felt the love and energy emanating from the audience.
The “evening with Heart” concert kicked off promptly at 8:15 p.m. as the band appeared on stage and quickly hit the opening chords of “Bebe Le Strange” from the 1980 album of the same name. Vocalist Ann Wilson’s voice still sounds amazing at age 75, although the higher notes might be more elusive, while guitarist, and sister, Nancy Wilson, roams the stage with the energy of a woman only one-half of her age (71).
The band bounced back and forth between material from the 1970s and 1980s, much to the delight of its legion of fans in attendance, and performed songs such as “Never,” “Magic Man” and “These Dreams.” A big highlight of the show was when Heart segued from its hit song “Straight On” into the David Bowie classic “Let’s Dance,” which received a huge roar of approval.
Along with some of the expected hits, Heart also dropped a couple of gems that casual fans may not have anticipated such as “Love Mistake” from the group’s 1983 record, “Passionworks,” and “Love Alive” from the 1977 album, “Little Queen.”
Surprisingly, the group performed a rather large number of songs by other artists during its 16-song set for the night. The tracks included the above-mentioned David Bowie song, as well as “You’re the Voice” by Chris Thompson, “Sand” by the Lovemongers, and a pair of Led Zeppelin tracks, “The Rain Song” and “The Ocean.” To be accurate, the Lovemongers was a side-project formed by Ann and Nancy Wilson which released an album in 1997, so it’s not exactly a cover song.
The highlight of the night was when Nancy Wilson told the story of the time Heart toured with Van Halen and how she and Edward Van Halen had a personal conversation, which led to her giving him an acoustic guitar. She then performed the instrumental “4 Edward,” which had written for the guitar-maestro following his passing.
Instead of leaving the stage and returning for encores, Ann Wilson just said the band was not going to tease the fans by doing such and thing and opted to just play on through as the group covered “The Ocean” and closed with “Barracuda.”
It was a great night of music and memories but many of the band’s well-known songs were missing from the set, such as “Heartless,” ‘Dog and Butterfly,” “Even It Up” and “All I Wanna Do is Make Love to You.” Unfortunately, as the show was billed as “an evening with Heart,” this writer and many others were under the impression the group would be performing two sets.
With that being said, and the only complaint, it was still a wonderful night of music from Heart, a group that has been true icon of American rock and roll for the past 50-years.
Heart setlist:
Bebe Le Strange
Never
Magic Man
These Dreams
Little Queen
Straight On / Let's Dance
Love Mistake
You're the Voice
Crazy On You
4 Edward
Love Alive
The Rain Song
Alone / What About Love
Sand
The Ocean
Barracuda