RED BANK: A JETT ALL THE WAY
Joan Jett and the Blackhearts join Jesse Malin in helping radio’s Rich Russo celebrate six years of Anything Anything, in a Saturday night showdown at the Basie.
As a teenaged Runaway, she and her mates in that 1970s LA proto-punk girl group wound up on more magazine covers than they did milk cartons — and have been vindicated as that rare “concept” band that played their own instruments, and navigated their own way through the star-machine rapids.
When Joan Jett staked her claim to solo stardom, she did so with a crunch-guitar style that connected the dots between such disparate influences as Tommy James, Iggy Pop, Gary Glitter, the Rolling Stones — and The Arrows, whose “I Love Rock and Roll” she jukebox-jacked all the way to the top of the Billboard charts in 1982. As a platinum-plated rock star of her own classic style, she’s managed to build and maintain an awesome mountain of indie cred at the same time — and when Jett brings her 2014 edition of The Blackhearts to the stage of the Count Basie Theatre on Saturday, October 11, she’ll be returning to the backyard of the Jersey-bred songwriter who penned the title tune to her film acting debut, “Light Of Day.”