Tom Petty at the Hollywood Bowl

The Hollywood Bowl is a mystical place. There are few venues in this world where, once inside, the rest of the world seems to fade away. Surrounded by hills, trees and a gorgeous Summer night sky, it seems like the Bowl is like a focal instrument for the Universe to speak through. Whomever steps on that stage has the whole of humanity listening. Or so it seems.

Anyway, I've been a Tom Petty fan since I was a wee one, so it was with something like awe that I responded when I found out that my lovely fiance's mother had gotten us all tickets to see Tom at the Bowl last Wednesday.

I spent most of my time during opener Steve Winwood's set in the beer and popcorn lines, which was fine by me. He never was my style. I noticed, in line for my absurdly priced Corona, that the crowd was about as diverse as I'd ever seen. Rednecks, hipsters, geriatrics, teenagers, and everything in between.

It struck me then that there are few American rockers that fall into Petty's category. Most of them (Springsteen, Aerosmith, etc) have all had careers that have waxed and waned. Moments of popularity due to particularly good albums and have then moved on to more subdued careers. They might still pack their shows, but it's with their fans from two decades past.

Petty seems to be one of very few who've avoided this. His songs seem to connect with everyone. Yet he never seems to be 'popular' or 'hot'. Just always there, below the roar. If you stop paying attention to the 'album of the minute' you can always turn around and find a good solid Tom Petty album right there.

He writes the songs that you can sing along to, that you can relate to, that you can drive fast to, that you can shout at your ex, that you can finish a beer with a friend to. He's always been a rebel, but never felt the need to prove it. He's the kind of guy who'd have you laughing your ass off to endless road tales, without ever seeming like he was boasting.

It's also nice that he has a love of L.A. Not so much because I'm in love with L.A, but like a begrudging relative, I understand the city, and know her and 'get' her. So when he sings song "Free Fallin'" and you can hear the whole crowd chanting along, it has an extra significance.

When Petty finally came on, he launched right into classics: "You Wreck Me", "Listen to Her Heart", "I Won’t Back Down", "Even the Losers", "Free Fallin’", and "Mary Jane’s Last Dance".

He followed with a B-side, and some rarities, before inviting Winwood back for a couple of his openers old tracks.

This was the only problem with the show for me. If you've ever played Guitar Hero III, you know there's this spot where the game is loading a song and the screen displays little bits of rock and roll advice. One that often comes up is: 20 minute free form jazz solos are NOT okay. Someone in the Petty/Winwood camp needed to remind them that that is a mighty fine bit of wisdom.

These 'extended' versions ate up much of the Bowl's allowable time limits on shows, which is a shame, because otherwise, Petty sounded amazing. The man has a ton of energy and doesn't sound tired even doing his oldest material.

The set picked up again with "Saving Grace", "Honey Bee", "A Face in the Crowd", "You Don’t Know How It Feels", "Learning to Fly", "Don’t Come Around Here No More", and "Refugee". After a brief break he encored with "Running Down a Dream", "Gloria", and "American Girl". All done, not only gorgeously, but with a packed house of fans that new every lyric.

My only complaint was that the 'free form jazz solo's' might have caused him to cut out a few classics that I would have loved to have heard, especially, "You Got Lucky". All said though, a fantastic experience.

Thanks to The Spaghetti Incident for posting the set list that I was too dumb to write down. And thanks to Stiletto Lawyer over at Flckr for posting pics. I couldn't get my giant camera in through security.

MP3: Tom Petty - You Got Lucky

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Tom Petty