Joan Jett & the Blackhearts
Stubb's, Tuesday, Nov 14

Joan Jett is still a badass. The 48-year-old has managed to outlast many of her male punk counterparts, look good doing it, and still put out viable albums. Sinner, Jett’s first since Clinton was president, finds her hellbent for leather pants, with muscle from longtime band the Blackhearts. Is she still pissed? Just drive through “Riddles,” and order three-chord punk with a side of political doublespeak.

“I wanted to write about things other than relationships, falling in love, falling out of love,” Jett explains in her New Yawk drawl. “And ‘Riddles’ didn’t even have to be manufactured; it’s just about what America’s become. It’s about the way this administration has used language to distort. It’s we the people, right? They should be speaking to us straight about what’s going on.”

The band’s stint on this summer’s Warped Tour paired them with other politically minded bands, but politics aren’t the only thing on Joan’s mind. Many of Sinner’s tracks are directed at gender and sexuality. Since her time in the seminal all-girl Runaways, sexuality has been read between the lines, from “Cherry Bomb” to “I Hate Myself for Loving You.” Covers of the Sweet’s glam “A.C.D.C.” and the Replacements’ “Androgynous” give Sinner a confessional balance.

“They felt provocative,” Jett says. “They got me thinking about gender roles and how everything is just so rigid. I like being a woman, but I don’t like the roles. I’m much more comfortable sliding down the middle.”

With the mass production of “What Would Joan Jett Do?” T-shirts, it’s loud and clear that her blackhearted rock has been embraced by younger sinners. The recent passing of Runaways drummer Sandy West finds Jett suitably reflective on her scope of influence. “I think about [us] getting thrown out of Disneyland, arrested in England,” Jett says of her friend. “What’s been great is the outpouring. I was flipping through Time magazine, and there she is in the obituaries. Time fucking magazine.” – Audra Schroeder