The Heart of the matter

I found out that the band Heart is bringing their Royal Flush Tour to a neighboring city later this fall. Earlier this year, I had entertained going to Chicago to see them, but Chicago is such a hike for me plus I felt like the total cost of the show (tickets, hotel, transportation) would have been prohibitively expensive, so I ended up deciding against it. But when I heard that they would be performing a mere 30 minutes from where I live, that changed everything. Suddenly, I was only really looking at the cost of the ticket instead of all the things that usually go along with traveling to a concert.

Heart is a huge bucket list artist for me, although it’s not like I haven’t had plenty of opportunities to see them live over the years. Back in 1987, when I was 15, I had the chance to see them on their Bad Animals Tour - only problem was that Tina Turner and Fleetwood Mac were also coming to the same venue around the same time. A decision would have to be made and I ultimately chose Fleetwood Mac, even though it was “Fleetwood Mac” because it was the tour for Tango in the Night and Lindsey Buckingham was no longer with the band and had been replaced by not one but two other guitarists. Still, it was a hugely formative concert for me, my first concert in fact. I still kick myself for not seeing Tina Turner because I saw Fleetwood Mac twice more since that first time and never ended up seeing Tina and now it’s too damn late.

Anyway, this morning, I got an email from Spotify that said “hey, thanks for being a Heart fan. Here’s a presale code for the tour!” I have no doubt that the only reason I got this email was because I listened to a metric shit ton of Heart last year when I was listening to their autobiography Kicking & Dreaming: A Story of Heart, Soul, and Rock & Roll. I’m such a sucker for memoirs read by the authors. Anyway, I logged into the ticket site and put in the presale code and while not all the seats in the arena were up for sale yet, I found a couple good ones for $65 each. In my world of Madonna tours, this is chump change comparatively so I jumped at the chance. My partner will be going with me and for various reasons they really need the front row of any section (mostly so they are not required to stand the entire time) and I was able to find that plus the end of the row so even more room for them.

So 37 years after my first chance, I’m finally going to see Heart live. They’re in their 70s but you know what, I’m not in my teens any longer so that tracks. I’m super excited and even moreso because I don’t have to drive to a major metro area to see them. That bucket list is sure getting short.

And if I may be so bold, I would highly recommend the Ann Wilson & Tripsitter album, Another Door, from 2023 which is better than most latter day Heart albums.