Stop Draggin' My ... Stop Draggin' My ... Alright I'll Stop! - TOM PETTY REPORT and More!

Tom Pet-ty!

Tom Pet-ty!

Yeeaaaaaeeeooowww!

Last night's Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers concert was off the chain! While last year's show was a jam-fest and hits-filled retrospective, last night's show had something old, something new, and a straight-up rock set-list that blew the roof (well, if there was one) off the Hollywood Bowl.

Tom Petty stuck mostly to The Hits, opening right off the bat with Listen to her Heart and Mary Jane's Last Dance, which, come on, has got to be one of the all-time great rock songs, ever.

After a few more solid rockers, including, of course, Freefallin', Tom began to veer off from the Greatest Hits a bit, but that's when things began to get REALLY interesting. The Mad Hatter of classic rock, in celebration of the Heartbreaker's 30th anniversery together, broke out some of the band's earliest songs, including a blues-y Yardbirds cover. Then, Petty introduced none other than Jeff Lyne of Electric Light Orchestra to the stage, and a mini-Traveling Wilburys reunion saw Tom and Jeff belt out Handle With Care.

Then came the biggest surprise of all. Okay, so to some it wasn't a surprise, I guess, since after the fact I found out that this was announced in advance. But I had NO idea that as Tom Petty introduced the Heartbreakers midway through the show, that he would then proceed to introduce "the only person who qualifies as an honorary Heartbreaker ..." -- STEVIE NICKS~!

Yes, Fleetwood Mac's leading lady got onstage, and was in top form, singing as only she can, swaying and grooving as if in a trance to the tunes like it was 1977 all over again. Petty and Stevie opened their collaborative efforts with one of my favorite Petty songs - STOP DRAGGIN' MY HEART AROUND - one which I definitely had not been expecting to hear, but earlier in the night had mentioned to my concert-going compadres, Liz and Liz, as a song that would be great to hear live. Since I had no idea that Stevie Nicks would be so involved in the concert, I couldn't believe my eyes at what I was seeing. I furiously text-messaged Ms. Liggett who had gone to grab a drink - she had better get back up to our seats ASAP!

I thought that Stevie would only stick around for a song or two, but was very pleasantly surprised that she was practically another Heartbreaker for the duration of the concert. She dueted with Tom on Insider, and danced her ethereal dances, played tamborine, and provided back up vocals on everything from Learning to Fly (a great, slowed-down version), Don't Come Around Here No More (awesome! one of my all-time fav songs), and even stuck around for the finale of American Girl, decked out in some kind of crazy headdress.

And man, by the time the cathartic rock n' rollin' sing-a-long of American Girl closed the show, it had been an amazing ride. I actually wouldn't have minded if Tom had played a few more songs from his excellent new album, Highway Companion, though he did play his first single, Saving Grace (not a huge fan of it) and also my personal favorite song from the new album, Down South, with its contemplative melody and cool, narrative lyrics. There were a few omissions from the setlist that bugged me, like 90's era hits You Don't Know How It Feels and Into the Great Wide Open, but for the most part, despite a few oddities like a cool if drawn-out psychedelic rendition of Mystic Eyes as part of the encore, Tom Petty delivered the classics, including plenty of fist-pumping rockers, from Refugee to Running Down a Dream to Mary Jane to American Girl.

As for the Hollywood Bowl, I thought it was a great venue except for a few things. The seating there is a little bit cramped for one thing, though the stage setup itself is great and makes for plenty of visibility even from way up in the back. My only other complaint is that the crowd felt a little too Hollywood, examplified by the uber-obnoxious twenty-something girls sitting behind us who would not shut up for a long stretch in the middle of the show, gabbing about random crap right as Tom Petty and Stevie Nicks were making beautiful music together live on stage. I had to use my "teacher voice" to politely tell them to STFU. And though I have driven by it many times now and seen how absolutely terrible the Hollywood Bowl traffic gets, even the shuttle bus we took to get there took FOREVER to get to the venue from just a few blocks down by Universal. I hope these people are satisfied with the fact that, literally, the traffic in front of the Hollywood Bowl on concert nights may actually be the worst traffic anywhere in the world. Seriously. Someone name me another spot where it takes longer to travel so short a distance.

Anyways, those small venue-related complaints aside, the concert last night was, pretty much, AWESOME. It had the feel of a once-in-a-lifetime special event. Tom Petty was in top form with a huge backlog of hits, spanning multiple eras, that would make any rock musicians shy of the Rolling Stones jealous, and a great new album in Highway Companion to boot. Tom spoke little and mostly moved about with the bare minumum of crowd-acknowledging gestures, but when it came down to it he was, as usual, a rock n' roll machine, a true storyteller, and a musical icon. The Heratbreakers were nonstop rockin' after 30 years and showed time and again their prowess on the guitars and drums and keyboard. And - bonus! - Stevie freakin' Nicks was present, there for multiple songs, and in rare form (now I can finally semi-relate from personal experience to Jack Black's praises of Stevie's live performances in School of Rock!). All in all a great show, and I think I can speak for Liz and Liz that it was a concert to remember.

- And now, it's back to the grind ... but more fun is coming ...

- Tommorrow is the big day. 24 Years old! Jack Bauer can't save me now. But, keeping with the rock n' rol ltheme of this entry, I always like to find songs that have my new age in the lyrics as my birthday nears. This year, there aren't many that talk about being 24, but the one classic rock ballad that DOES allude to it (and no, The Ramones' I Wanna Be Sedated doesn't count ...), is, well, pretty depressing.

From Neil Young's "Old Man" ...

Old man look at my life,
Twenty four and there's so much more
Live alone in a paradise
That makes me think of two.

See, I told you it was kind of depressing (though maybe semi-profound?). But hey, it's Neil Young, whaddya want?

Alright, I'm out for now. Fear not though, dear readers, I'll be back soon with my Badassss Birthday Blog Post of Doooooooom.

Until then ... the words of TOM PETTY:

Oh yeah!
All right!
Take it easy baby!
Make it last MAKE IT LAST all Night!

WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.