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By Dave Miller

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Joan Jett must have liked what she heard when she looked into her past.

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The Runaways, a movie about her all-girl band from the 1970s, was released earlier this year. Jett was involved in its making, ensuring its accuracy from her point of view, and the time spent looking back no doubt caused her to re-examine her songs from that formative period of her career. On Sunday night, Jett treated a packed crowd at Northalsted Market Days with a rare dose of Runaways songs in her set.

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Joining the staple “Cherry Bomb,” Jett played three more songs from her Runaways days -- “You Drive Me Wild,” which she introduced as the first song she ever wrote, “I Love Playin’ with Fire” and “School Days.” Together, the four-pack made a case for The Runaways as serious rockers regardless of their age or sex.

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The Runaways formed in 1975. Thirty-five years later, Jett is now viewed as a rock icon. She treats the music like her religion when she plays it. To this day, she sings “Bad Reputation” and “I Love Rock ’n Roll” like she means it. She remains a no-nonsense performer, ripping through 20 songs in a shade over 80 minutes. Three chords and big hooks were enough to get the job done. Solos were a rarity.

The members of the Blackhearts have changed over the decades, but the current group has been a unit for years now, and it clearly follows Jett’s lead that less is more. Drummer Thommy Price has been her backbone for almost two decades. He plays with a quickness and force reminiscent of Keith Moon. Lead guitarist Dougie Needles is a fitting foil for Jett. With hair spiked high and guitar slung low, Needles rips off cutting notes while jumping and windmilling like Pete Townshend. The bassist known as simply Enzo lays down a big bottom. Jett’s longtime manager with bubblegum roots, Kenny Laguna, performs double duty by supplying keyboards and background vocals on some songs.

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While Grant Park served as the center of the music universe for Lollapalooza this past weekend, plenty of people were left to jam together shoulder-to-shoulder at the Market Days stage located in a 7-11 parking lot at Halsted and Roscoe. The street festival attracted a huge crowd in a celebratory mood. The U.S. District Court’s recent overturning of California’s Proposition 8, which outlawed same-sex marriage, played a role in that. The neighborhood’s gay community hasn't needed an excuse to have a good time, but this was a good one.

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Jett sure seemed to know her audience on this night. She commented that she was checking out the crowd before she took the stage. Her setlist included “The French Song,” “Naked,” “Fetish,” A.C.D.C.” and a Replacements cover, “Androgynous.” “Fetish” is a particularly hardcore song. Jett didn’t pull any punches in this show.

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Additional treats for her longtime fans were “Backlash,” which she co-wrote with Replacements leader Paul Westerberg, and “Fake Friends,” which she used to play regularly years ago. It’s from her 1983 Album LP, as was her final song, Sly Stone’s “Everyday People.” “Different strokes for different folks,” Jett sang before belting out the key line. “We got to live together.”

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I’ve watched Jett play about 20 shows since first seeing her in 1982. Taking into account the nod to her past, her reading of and response to the atmosphere of the festival, and the crowd's reaction to her, I don’t recall a better one.

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The setlist:

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Bad Reputation
Cherry Bomb
Light of Day
Do You Wanna Touch Me (Oh Yeah)
Change the World
Androgynous
You Drive Me Wild
Backlash
The French Song
Love Is Pain
I Love Playin' With Fire
Naked
Fake Friends
School Days
Fetish
I Love Rock 'n Roll
Crimson and Clover
I Hate Myself for Loving You
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A.C.D.C.
Everyday People

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Start: 8:35 p.m./Finish: 9:56 p.m.
Totals: 20 songs, one hour and 21 minutes

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