This past summer on 6/29/13 my
wife Nadia and I went to see the timeless Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers at
the Target Center in Minneapolis, MN. We
had amazing front-row lower-deck seats right off the front-left corner of the
stage. At the age of 62 Tom’s hair was a
little thinner and he looked a tad road-weary but not much. Our show was the last
on the tour but he still had plenty of energy to put on a kick-ass show full of
deep cuts, covers and of course the hits from his vast repertoire of material
from the Heartbreakers and the Traveling Wilburys. There was not a lot of back-and-forth chatter
with the audience and not much moving around.
There was no real light show or stage show to speak of and he was not
even promoting a new album. He was just
out to play music and it was two hours of no-BS straight-ahead
rock-and-roll. He always comes off as a cool,
laid-back dude who is having fun and knows his sh*t.
Further proof that he ‘knows
his sh*t’ is his SiriusXM satellite radio show he has called ‘Tom Petty’s
Buried Treasure’ on the ‘Deep Tracks’ channel.
I listen to it in my car on the way home from work where Tom plays tunes
from the 50’s and 60’s that he grew up with and influenced him. Not only do the deep cuts bring you back, but
half the fun of the show is listening to Tom’s easy southern drawl between
songs when he talks about the history of the song or the band with little known
facts and stories and how they may relate to his life. It is fascinating and educational and makes
you wish Tom was your uncle.
During the concert I happened
to look down at the folks on the floor and directly below us was my buddy B-Dog
with his new girlfriend Beth, aka Li’l Treefrog. He came over and said hi and then after the
show he talked us into coming out for drinks.
B-Dog was extremely buzzed but in a fantastic mood as he told jokes and
showed off his incredibly hot and extremely nice new girlfriend. He had a surprise for us all as he led us to
a fancy downtown hotel suite a couple blocks from the arena. Despite a spilled bottle of vodka and some
B-Dog wardrobe changes we had a good time chatting, drinking, eating Cherry
Garcia ice cream and checking out the pictures I took from the concert.
As I said it was a great show
and it got me thinking back to the other two times I saw Tom Petty. The first time was 6/26/86 when Tom Petty and
the Heartbreakers were the backing band for Bob Dylan. It was at the H.H.H. Metrodome in downtown
Minneapolis with the Grateful Dead playing two opening sets. As a budding 20 year old college hippie I had
liked Tom Petty as a kid and of course I liked Bob Dylan, but I was really
there to see the Grateful Dead. It was
only my 3rd Dead show but I got bit by the bug a year earlier and
was really getting into them as I was phasing out of my Black Sabbath/Judas
Priest/Iron Maiden high-school metal music and into the Grateful Dead.
The Dead played two sets
including a strange but cool ‘Terrapin Station’ into ‘Estimated Prophet’ to
open the 2nd set but I could barely hear a word of anything that was
said or sung from the stage because of the atrocious acoustics in the 60,000
seat inflatable Metrodome. It was
seriously unbelievable how bad it was. I
had seats up in the stands so I jumped over the wall down onto the wood
planking covering the fake grass but it was just as bad. We stuck out both sets of the Dead but left a
few songs into the Dylan/Petty set because the sound was somehow even worse. On a good day Bob Dylan is hard to
understand, but in that huge inflatable bubble of white noise it was just sad
so we left.
My girlfriend Lona, my buddy
Mark and I went home and we packed for the road trip down to Alpine Valley, WI
for two more Dead shows in the coming nights.
I had a pet Ball Python named Damien back at my parent’s home near
Alpine Valley and for some reason I brought a rat with us for the road trip to
bring to the snake. Just outside of
Minneapolis we picked up a hitchhiker who was heading to the Alpine Valley shows. The guy thought we should name the rat so he
picked a name like ‘Julius’ I believe.
We gave the guy a ride to Madison, WI before we parted ways…him heading
on to Alpine Valley and us going to Waukesha to crash at our parents’ house and
rest up for the next two nights. In the
morning we got up and drove the 20 miles to Alpine and set up our tents. Eventually we found my buddy Rinehart
Simpson, who had driven 18 hours straight overnight in his pickup truck from
New Mexico to meet us at the show. We
enjoyed two great nights with the Dead which made up for the acoustically
horrendous show in Minneapolis.
Okay, back to Tom Petty. The next time I saw Tom Petty and the
Heartbreakers was 9 years later at the same Alpine Valley Music Theatre on
9/16/95. I was living in Madison then
and working for WPS Insurance Company. A
horrible place to work but the birthplace of at least a dozen strong
friendships including my best friend Mitch.
Another friend from there was my buddy Glenn Kampson, one of the
funniest men in the United States. He
was a Tom Petty fan and when the concert was announced he asked if I wanted to
go. A full day/night with just me and
Glenn? I wondered if I could handle
it. I decided LSD would be required to
get through all that so I located some good clean paper acid mailed in from
California. It came in block sheets of
100 hits, and when 9 sheets were placed together it made up a picture of Jesus. Communion.
Lord help me. We filled a cooler
with beers and began the hour-plus drive to Alpine Valley.
Glenn drove his truck and we drank beers and laughed as we took a back roads short-cut that Glenn thought he knew about. We promptly got lost so Glenn decided to pull over at some out-of-the-way roadhouse strip-joint. I have never been a fan of strip clubs as I think it is very weird for a bunch of guys to sit around with boners staring at hot, bored-looking girls that they will never have a chance to touch or know. Weird, creepy and ultimately frustrating. But Glenn wanted some food so we strapped ourselves in and ordered burgers and beers and watched the show. I finally managed to pull Glen out of there by reminding him of the concert tickets we had and we hit the road with directions to Alpine. We got lost again but eventually found the lines of cars leading to the beautiful outdoor amphitheatre that I had seen 14 Grateful Dead shows and countless other concerts at.
It was a fantastic show and Glen and I had a blast out on the lawn. With him drinking and me tripping our two personalities were perfectly tuned to each other and that band at that venue on that night. We laughed uncontrollably for hours until my face seriously hurt and I thought my perma-grin cheeks were going to stay that way forever. I remember at one point trying to climb up on Glen’s shoulders but he shook me off. Besides our spirits in tune, so was Tom and his band as they tore up the Wisconsin night with all of our favorites. This was Tom’s ‘Dogs With Wings’ tour and it’s interesting to note that 12 of the 22 songs he played that night were also on the setlist 18 years later when I next saw him with Nadia. It just goes to show how great both shows were.
After the concert we hopped in Glenn’s truck and started the trek back to Madison. Of course we got lost within minutes as we bounced from small town to small town trying to find Madison. Glenn obviously should not have been driving and it was stupid of us, but I remember one particular quiet little town with actual cobblestone streets that was not ready for Glenn. It was a quaint little place and ‘downtown’ was nothing but a crossroads with houses lining the streets between the closed corner-store and several churches. When we pulled into the main square Glenn rolled down his window, leaned out and started yelling indecipherable gibberish at the few pedestrians who happened to be walking while his truck slowly rolled through town. I think he was frustrated and trying get directions but nobody including myself could understand a word he was saying and all I could do was cringe at the helplessness of the situation.
After getting no help there we rolled on and eventually found a main highway that brought us safely back to Madison. It was a fantastic night. One of three and hopefully more to come with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. As my musical heroes (and I) get older I am more and more of the feeling that I need to see them every chance I get when they come around in concert, as it may be the last time. Here are setlists for the shows:
6/26/86 – H.H.H Metrodome – Minneapolis, MN
Glenn drove his truck and we drank beers and laughed as we took a back roads short-cut that Glenn thought he knew about. We promptly got lost so Glenn decided to pull over at some out-of-the-way roadhouse strip-joint. I have never been a fan of strip clubs as I think it is very weird for a bunch of guys to sit around with boners staring at hot, bored-looking girls that they will never have a chance to touch or know. Weird, creepy and ultimately frustrating. But Glenn wanted some food so we strapped ourselves in and ordered burgers and beers and watched the show. I finally managed to pull Glen out of there by reminding him of the concert tickets we had and we hit the road with directions to Alpine. We got lost again but eventually found the lines of cars leading to the beautiful outdoor amphitheatre that I had seen 14 Grateful Dead shows and countless other concerts at.
It was a fantastic show and Glen and I had a blast out on the lawn. With him drinking and me tripping our two personalities were perfectly tuned to each other and that band at that venue on that night. We laughed uncontrollably for hours until my face seriously hurt and I thought my perma-grin cheeks were going to stay that way forever. I remember at one point trying to climb up on Glen’s shoulders but he shook me off. Besides our spirits in tune, so was Tom and his band as they tore up the Wisconsin night with all of our favorites. This was Tom’s ‘Dogs With Wings’ tour and it’s interesting to note that 12 of the 22 songs he played that night were also on the setlist 18 years later when I next saw him with Nadia. It just goes to show how great both shows were.
After the concert we hopped in Glenn’s truck and started the trek back to Madison. Of course we got lost within minutes as we bounced from small town to small town trying to find Madison. Glenn obviously should not have been driving and it was stupid of us, but I remember one particular quiet little town with actual cobblestone streets that was not ready for Glenn. It was a quaint little place and ‘downtown’ was nothing but a crossroads with houses lining the streets between the closed corner-store and several churches. When we pulled into the main square Glenn rolled down his window, leaned out and started yelling indecipherable gibberish at the few pedestrians who happened to be walking while his truck slowly rolled through town. I think he was frustrated and trying get directions but nobody including myself could understand a word he was saying and all I could do was cringe at the helplessness of the situation.
After getting no help there we rolled on and eventually found a main highway that brought us safely back to Madison. It was a fantastic night. One of three and hopefully more to come with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. As my musical heroes (and I) get older I am more and more of the feeling that I need to see them every chance I get when they come around in concert, as it may be the last time. Here are setlists for the shows:
6/26/86 – H.H.H Metrodome – Minneapolis, MN
Bob Dylan’s backing band.
9/16/95 – Alpine Valley Music Theatre – E. Troy, WI
1)
Love
Is A Long Road
2)
You
Don’t Know How It Feels
3)
Listen
To Her Heart
4)
I
Won’t Back Down
5)
Free
Fallin’
6)
You
Wreck Me
7)
Diamond
Head
8)
Mary
Jane’s Last Dance
9)
Don’t
Come Around Here No More
10)
A
Higher Place
11)
It’ll
All Work Out
12)
Learning
To Fly
13)
Lonely
Weekends
14)
Breakdown
15)
Cabin
Down Below
16)
It’s
Good To Be King
17)
Drivin’
Down To Georgia
18)
Refugee
19)
Runnin’
Down A Dream
Encore
20)
Honey
Bee
21)
Gloria
22)
American
Girl
6/29/13 – Target Center – Minneapolis, MN
1)
So
You Want To Be A Rock ‘n’ Roll Star
2)
Love
Is A Long Road
3)
I
Won’t Back Down
4)
Baby,
Please Don’t go
5)
Here
Comes My Girl
6)
Mary
Jane’s Last Dance
7)
Free
Fallin’
8)
A
Woman In Love (It’s Not Me)
9)
Cabin
Down Below
10)
Tweeter
And the Monkey Man
11)
Rebels
12)
It’s
Good To Be King
13)
Learning
To Fly
14)
Yer
So Bad
15)
I
Should Have Known It
16)
Refugee
17)
Runnin’
Down A Dream
Encore
18)
Don’t
Come Around Here No More
19)
You
Wreck Me
20)
American
Girl
