By Chris Varias
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Perhaps within the next 10 to 20 years the band Heart will have figured out a way to play nothing but Led Zeppelin songs in concert and still call it a live Heart show.

Judging by their stop at Fraze Pavilion in Kettering Tuesday night, they have established the pace to reach such a noble achievement.

Heart, the successful 1970s rock band who became a pop-ballad crossover act in the '80s, is on the nostalgia-rock touring circuit this summer. Sisters Ann and Nancy Wilson remain from the glory-days line-up, and, with assistance from a generic-sounding back-up band, they dragged out several classic-rock radio staples - both Heart songs and Zep songs.

Led Zeppelin's influence on Heart is plain to hear. Ann's vocals are as similar to Robert Plant's as those of anyone in rock, and Zeppelin set the template for Heart's mix of hard rock and folkie mysticism.

They've been called Led Zeppelin rip-offs before, but it obviously doesn't faze them, because they're not shy about doing Zep's material.

Heart went for songs from the fourth album: "Black Dog," with former Guns N' Roses guitarist Gilby Clark doing his best Jimmy Page imitation on a Les Paul; and "The Battle of Evermore," which Ann and Nancy recorded with their side band the Lovemongers. Also, Heart took the stage as Zeppelin's version of "When the Levee Breaks" blasted out of the PA system.

A handful of Heart's own early classics measured up to the covers, namely "Barracuda," "Straight On," "Crazy on You" and "Magic Man." The '80s hits - "These Dreams" and "Alone" - were also well-received by the crowd of 3,949 (about 350 tickets short of a sellout). But Heart passed on "What About Love," "Nothin' at All" and "All I Want to Do is Make Love to You."

Instead, Ann and Nancy gave the crowd a handful of new, bland songs from a forthcoming album. There wasn't a "Barracuda" among them, only the musical equivalent of minnows and algae.

A couple of the show's duller moments included the time when Nancy, the group's rhythm guitarist, sang and played a solo acoustic rendition of Elton John's "Mona Lisa and Mad Hatters," and when Ann busted out the flute on the last few bars of "Dreamboat Annie." On the bright side, the sound of that flute signaled the end of the show.

E-mail cvarias@enquirer.com