Filed under: Music
Walking into Riverbend last night I was probably more stoked to see the opening act Black Crowes than the headlining Tom Petty, who I’ve always considered to be something of a poor-man’s Bob Dylan. I’m not an over-the-top fan of the Crowes, but I own several of their albums and enjoy their take on 70’s style southern rock a la Molly Hatchet or the Allman Brothers. Unfortunately, the Black Crowes disappointed. They played a rather lackluster set comprised mostly of covers of obscure 70’s tunes with very little energy. Lead singer Chris Robinson spoke perhaps twice to the crowd. In both cases it was simply, “Thank you.” Most disappointing of all were the omissions from the set list. Several of their studio albums were not represented by a single song. Of their familiar hits, they played only “Jealous Again” and “She Talks To Angels,” leaving out such gems as “Twice As Hard” and perhaps their biggest song of all, “Hard To Handle.”
That set the stage for Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, who could have really laid an egg and still blown the Crowes off the stage. Thankfully, Petty put on a high-energy show that more than made up for the anemic opening act. Playing in front of a large video screen similar to what Aerosmith has been touring with the past few years, Petty ran off hit after hit spanning his entire 30 year career, including a Traveling Wilbury’s tune and covers of “Not Fade Away” and Dylan’s classic “Everybody Must Get Stoned.” His set did have a few low points. Two new songs fell somewhat flat, and an acoustic take on “Learning To Fly” didn’t seem to resonate with the fans. Petty also made a habit of leaving lengthy pauses between numbers which detracted from the overall cohesiveness of the set. Those minor nitpicks aside, Petty kept the Riverbend crowd on their feet and singing along throughout his entire 2 hour performance, managing to squeeze in performances of nearly every of his many hits with “You’re So Bad” being the only notable absence.
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