Rock Minutes

When I attend concerts it typically seems to be in bars, clubs and theaters. For whatever reason the bands I typically like seem to end up in these type of venues which is OK with me. I would prefer to have them play at my house if I could. I rarely attend arena or amphitheater concerts these days. It has to be someone I really like for me to put up with the bullshit and ticket prices that go with seeing a band in one of those venues. Well this past Saturday night one of those bands arrived in my hometown and I did not hesitate to check them out.

Tom Petty with or without the Heartbreakers is one of my all time favorite musicians. He has consistently made incredible music for the better part of 40 years and is rightfully in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. So when tickets went on sale a few months ago I quickly bought a couple of seats(in the 4th row in case you were wondering). I headed to my local amphitheater along with 24,000 other people to see what Petty and his long time band the Heartbreakers had to offer and to say he brought it would be one hell of an understatement.

First of all the Heartbreakers are one of the all time great backing bands. The band includes original members Ron Blair on bass, Benmont Tench on the keyboards who is one of the best keyboard players of all time, and the “co captain”, as Petty calls him, Mike Campbell on lead guitar. Campbell in my opinion is one of the most underrated players of his generation. He is a fantastic player that gladly lets his boss have the spotlight while displaying incredible skill at what he does. The band is rounded out by former Eric Clapton drummer Steve Ferrone and secret weapon Scott Thurston on about 5 different instruments. When you combine the talent of the Heartbreakers with the massive amount of hits Petty has you are guaranteed of a nasty evening of music.

The band hit the stage and launched into the Byrds inspired “Listen to Her Heart” while Petty soaked up the crowds approval. They then proceeded to follow that up with the hits “You Don’t Know How it Feels”, “I Won’t Back Down” and “Free Fallin’”. At this point the crowd was worked into a frenzy while they played the semi obscure Fleetwood Mac cover “Oh Well”. As Petty snarled the lyrics “Don’t ask me what I think of you, I might not give the answer you want me to” Campbell flexed his muscle for the first time of the evening playing the chords to the song every bit as good as Peter Green ever did with Fleetwood Mac. The highlight of the evning came next when the band launched into “Mary Jane’s Last Dance”. This is obviously a crowd favorite when Petty plays this song in Indiana and the crowd drowned out Petty as he sang the song. After the song was over he commented “sometime I think I live just to play that song here” which sent the place into even more of a frenzy.

In the middle of the show Petty played a 5 song mini set of songs from his new album “Mojo” that I thought was great especially the rocker “I Should Have Known It”. I thought the songs were perfectly placed in the middle of the set after giving the fans a healthy dose of hits and right before heading into the final stretch of the show. Petty closed out the regular set with three heavy hitters “Learning to Fly”, “Don’t Come Around Here No More” and “Refugee” where Mike Campbell pulled off one of the most inspired solos I have ever seen and I am not just saying that because he was playing it 20 feet from me.

Petty and the band came back for a three song encore that included “Runnin’ Down a Dream” the Van Morrison cover “Mystic Eyes” and finally “American Girl”.

That was the 4th time I have seen Tom Petty and the 3rd concert I actually remember. As always he was as good as it gets and I plan on paying too much for tickets, fighting unbelievable traffic, and drinking $11.00 beers the next time he rolls through town.

Later,

Nick

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