Joan Jett's still good at being 'bad'

By Marty Rosen
Special to the Courier-Journal

It's been more than 30 years since Joan Jett kicked off her rock career with the all-girl band the Runaways, and nearly that long since she recorded "Bad Reputation," the single and album that established her as a star. But if you'd wandered into Cardinal Stadium Saturday night, where Jett and her band, The Blackhearts, were playing a free Kentucky State Fair concert, you might have thought she was a bright young newcomer trying to make a name for herself.

She and her band were masters of furious ironies, couching rebellious lyrics in slash-and-burn guitar chords, rumbling bass lines and nimble drum textures. Her voice was rough and compelling -- and it was pretty clear she meant every word when she sang, "I Love Rock 'n' Roll."

Much of her classic catalog made the set list: "I Hate Myself for Loving You," a blazing version of "Cherry Bomb," the provocative "Do You Want To Touch Me?" and witty covers of "Love Is All Around" (the theme from the "Mary Tyler Moore Show") and "Crimson and Clover."

But those paled next to the fascinating sample of tunes from her 2006 CD "Sinner." Her musical vocabulary hasn't changed much over the years -- she and the Blackhearts still crunch like it's 1985. But these days the personal punk of her early days has developed into a bold and witty political sensibility.

And her bitter lampoon of political leaders and pundits was as sharply written as it was funny -- and seldom has former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's famous rumination on "known knowns," "known unknowns," and "unknown unknowns" been more deftly sampled in a rock tune.

Earlier in the evening, Louisville quartet Spanky Nyne opened the show with a confident performance of bluesy rock and R&B that ran the gamut from Stevie Ray Vaughan to Stevie Wonder.