Joan Jett Brings Some Rock and Roll to Newport
WEB-EXCLUSIVE: Joan Jett & the Blackhearts open Taste of Newport with a rockin' attitude.
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It’s not that Joan Jett & the Blackhearts weren’t thoroughly dedicated to their set at opening night of Taste of Newport 2011 on September 16. It’s that their audience wasn’t.
Now in its 23rd year, the food, drink and music festival held each year at Fashion Island kicked off with Joan Jett & the Blackhearts, the first of the weekend's performances that included Bare Naked Ladies September 17 and ABBA: The Concert September 18.
Jett took to the stage in a black hoodie and coal-rimmed eyes ripping right into “Bad Reputation” to what seemed like a delighted crowd. She wasted no time in moving pointedly into “Cherry Bomb,” a hit from her first band, The Runaways. But her pleads for audience participation were met with a tepid response at best and it really felt like something was missing. Not quite loud enough, not quite rockin’ enough, the lack of energy was coming from around me, not in front of me. And it made Jett’s enthusiasm seem hokey. Before she could even get to “Do You Want to Touch Me?” part of the crowd was already losing interest, wandering back to the food.
But like an edgy cheerleader leading a pep rally, the raven-haired rocker was congenial and energetic performing as if she was playing to a crowd of diehard fans. Although, whether or not Jett was choosing to ignore the apathy or was simply oblivious to it is unclear. Calling the audience's mediocre “oh yeahs” perfect might suggest it was the latter.
Her voice is still strong and though one might argue that her songs aren’t the most vocally demanding, her characteristically bourbon-soaked tough girl voice is no worse for wear even after all these years. The riffs sounded heaviest on The Runaways tracks like “You Drive Me Wild” although she left most of the heavy lifting to the Blackhearts.
Her dip into The Runaways catalog is a treat she’s been serving since the release of the 2010 biopic of the same title for which Jett served as executive producer. But here, it also served as a way to connect with an audience whose attention was fleeting.
“How many of you saw the movie?” she asked at one point, to mild cheers. “Cool. So you saw Kristen do this one,” she said, referring to Kristen Stewart, who played Jett in the film, before jumping into “I Love Playin’ with Fire.”
The crowd was less amused by lesser-known songs like “Fetish,” “Go Home” and “Fake Friends.” Cheers were reserved for the songs they could all sing along and dance to like “Crimson and Clover” and “I Hate Myself for Loving You,” and of course, “I Love Rock and Roll,” garnering an energy from the audience that was never matched, even during the encore, which included her cover of Sly & the Family Stone's “Everyday People.”
