Thursday, August 7, 2008

oh my my. oh hell yes.

Went to see Tom Petty down at the STL show, and it was amazing. My dad had gotten the tickets, and we had some just outside the overhang which, since it was a little cloudy, had us a little worried. The rain did come, but only briefly. We hung out under some cover until it passed, then grabbed a bunch of papertowels from the restroom to dry our seats. After the rain, it was a much cooler climate and perfect weather.

The opener, Steve Winwood, was not someone I knew by name. The name seemed familiar, but didn't ring any bells. That is, until he played. His voice was immediately recognizable, and with songs like Higher Love and Gimme Some Lovin', how could anyone not know him? And it seems like he's one of those people who's big, but not famous. I'd pulled out my phone to look him up, and a quick glance shows he's been a part of a ton of different acts and huge songs, just not as well known as the others he performed with.

And then came Tom and those Heartbreakers. Opened the show with You Wreck Me and I Won't Back Down back-to-back. Paused a bit, and the crowd just went crazy. You could really tell he genuinely felt the crowd and could only respond with, "You're out of control!" Then they went into Free Fallin', and Mary Jane's Last Dance. It was almost too good to be true.

At this point he said, "That's a pretty good lookin' crowd out there... This seems like a pretty good time to do a Traveling Wilburys song." For anyone that doesn't know the Wilburys, you definitely should. Seeing everyone in the crowd sing along with End of the Line, seeing Tom's face and those near me react to the line "even if you're old and grey... you still got something to say" just added to it.

Then they went back into it with Breakdown. At the middle of it there, leading everybody in the "yeeeaaahh. whooooaaa" made for a pretty surreal experience. Followed that up with A Face in the Crowd, which I didn't really know but was completely drawn into due to a huge musical interlude that completely rocked the song. Which led quite naturally into a semi-acoustic version of Learning to Fly, nice accent piano accompaniment made it seem very much like seeing an Unplugged show live.

Don't Come Around Here No More and Refugee rounded out the set. At this point, I was just in overload mode after seeing so many songs that I've grown up with and a truly stellar performance. Everybody was clappping, yelling "Encore!" And, of course, they delivered.

Right back with Runnin' Down a Dream, which just kept all that energy in everybody peaked to the excess. Then came Gloria, and really brought down the crowd. The whole place was going. Middle-aged men and women were standing on the seats shouting out "G-L-O-R-I-A" at the top of their lungs. It was truly a sight to behold.

"Are you ready?" he asked us.
"YEAH!" the crowd replied.
"Well, what's the loudest noise you can make, baby?"

As we were giving it our all, they started up American Girl. A great song to end the night on. While taking their final bow, someone in the front row handed him a marker and CD, and he very willingly signed it. That was pretty great to see, taking that quick moment for a fan. Then, as they were walking off stage, the bass guitarist, Ron Blair, turned around to take a couple quick pics of the crowd.

All and all, a really great show. When we were walking out, everybody was talking about their favorite song or how great it was to see them. Some random drunk girl (who wasn't too bad looking) even grabbed my ass, then apologized for it. I told her it was ok as long as she liked it, and how could she not? Even the drunk guy who was knocking over trashcans and coolers of ice couldn't bring us down, although the one he knocked over almost onto me and sent a wave of water rushing at me, drenching me from knee down, might've been a bit much. But just a great night.

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