Wednesday, June 7, 2006
4:44 PM
Tom Petty is now in his fourth decade of being a summer staple. The Post has devoted plenty of ink to covering his shows, and with rumors swirling that this may be the last time he mounts a big summer tour, here is a look back at reviews of Petty's area shows over the past 25 years.
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July 19, 1978
Tom Petty is not a punk. Monday night at the Warner Theater, Petty and his Heartbreakers put on a solid rock 'n' roll show that was ultimately worth every penny of the $1.01 that radio station DC-101 charged to see them.
Petty was swept into the "New Wave" surf when it first crashed onto the music press. Later, he was practially dismissed as tame. Now that punk music has lost some of its hype, Petty is starting to emerge as a reasonable compromise between "New Wave" and commercial pop.
The Heartbreakers do have limitations, and they were evident Monday night. All their tempos are variations on "2-4-6-8, who do we appreciate." Lead guitarist Mike Campbell was steady enough in support, but he recycled the same notes song after song.
Despite the group's debt to British bands such as the Searchers and the Animals, the music of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers is straight contemporary rock 'n' roll.The songs were simple, but they usually worked.
Mark Kernis
The Washington Post
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June 23, 1980
Tom Petty is a shameless imitator who borrows '60s musical styles with carefree abandon. Tom Petty is a slick showman who milks the crown for all it is worth. Tom Petty is a singer/guitarist with little or no redeeming social values.
Tom Petty is also quite awesome.
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers' concert at the Merriweather Post Pavilion Saturday night was, without question, the most stunning rock show to play Washington so far this year. The two-hour performance left both the group and the overflow crowd exhausted. And after three encores, the house lights were brought up to calm things down. No one wanted to leave.
Tom Petty has taken the best of the clinches - raunchy Rolling Stones chords, Byrd harmonies and Dylanesque lyric touches -- and fused them with a daring New Wave approach, producing a sound that is at once old and new. Branishing their instruments like sabers, Petty and the Heartbreakers stormed through the music with an energy and sense of raucous excitment that was as much an assault as a musical performance. Whether playing a slow R&B ballad or one of their hits like "Don't Have to Live Like a Refugee," the group lashed out with a carefully controlled fury that was irrestible.
Harry Sumrall
The Washington Post
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August 1, 1981
Tom Petty is a tuxedo in a world of leisure suits, Jamaican coffee in a world of Sanka, a Rolls-Royce convertible in a world of K cars. Not to overstate the matter, but Tom Petty has class.
Last night, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers curled a few acoustic tiles at the Merriweather Post Pavilion with a performance that was loud, raw, smooth, polished and brought off with style and panache. In short, a near perfect rock 'n' roll show.
Like many artists of the early '80s (George Lucas also springs to mind), Petty is aderivative creator -- he takes the devices of an earlier era (in this case '60s rock in all its guises) and adds his own personal touches. The result is music that is at once old and new, nostalgic yet fresh and surprising.
Backed by the Heartbreakers, a sturdy and sensitive group, Petty mixed R&B, folk rock and ybritish blues with a vaguely new-wavish approach.His vocals and stage manner were drawn from various musicians -- Dylan, James Brown, Roger Daltry, Ray Charles (to name but a few) -- yet somehow the end product seemed to be Petty himself. Likewise, his own songs and the classics that he also featured were welded together into a seamless whole -- songs such as "I need to Know" mixed quite comfortably with "Hit the Road, Jack."
He opened his encore with the first notes of "It's Alright," the number the Stones used for their finale in 1965. A nice touch to a very, very nice concert.
Harry Sumrall
The Washington Post
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June 10, 1985
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers haven't toured in three years, but by the time they polished off "American Girl," the opening number at Merriweather Post Pavilion last night, it was obvious that the hiatus hasn't done them any harm.
The addition of a horn section and a couple of backup singers brought a touch of Memphis soul to several new songs without sacrificing the no-frills approach that has served the band best. Petty, who injured his hand last year, was as adept as ever when it came to evoking '60s folk-rock on rhythm guitar, particularly on "The Waiting" and, along with lead guitarist Mike Campbell, on the psychedelic rave "Don't Come Around Here No More." A rousing version of the Dylanesque "Refugee" reinforced the mood.
By and large, Petty's songs are nothing out of the ordinary -- they're chiefly notable for the way they exploit catchy riffs and address traditional rock 'n' roll themes -- but the best of them proved to be immensely appealing in concert.
Mike Joyce
The Washington Post
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July 22, 1987
Tom Petty played a game of "Who Do You Trust?" with a large crowd at the Merriweather Post Pavilion Monday night. When he shouted out "Ronald Reagan" and "George Bush," a chorus of "no" rained down on him. Then he mentioned Oliver North and was greeted by a mixture of "yes" and "no." Thus answered, Petty led his band, the Heartbreakers, through a blistering version of the Buffalo Springfield's great government-paranoia song, "For What It's Worth." That Petty is now willing to challenge his audience instead of merely pandering to it is just one indication of how he has matured as an artist.
Another indication is the way his lustrous folk-rock songs like "Here Comes My Girl" and "The Waiting" contained a new, gritty undercurrent, suggesting that the songs' hopes are not so easily realized. It also helped that Petty has kept his sextet together long enough that it plays like a single animal; everything from Mike Campbell's counterpoint guitar fills to Howie Epstein's high harmony vocals served the needs of the songs. It further helped that Petty has evolved into a real singer, one who convincingly expressed a mixture of regret, affection and bewilderment on the best of his new songs, "Runaway Trains."
Anyone who fondly remembers the days when the Rolling Stones were just a bunch of juvenile delinquents who loved a good joke would have enjoyed the Georgia Satellites' opening set. The Atlanta quartet began with songs by Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley played as loudly and as loosely as if they'd been manhandled by Blue Oyster Cult. The Satellites then proceeded to bang out a series of originals as clever as Berry's songs and as irresistibly lowbrow as any B.O.C. hit. Most impressively, these bar band veterans seemed to be having the time of their lives as they bantered, sweated and took the three-chord route to glory.
Geoffrey Himes
The Washington Post
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August 24, 1989
Tom Petty served as both choirmaster and band leader at Merriweather Post Pavilion last night. On tour with the Heartbreakers for the first time in two years, he opened with the Byrds' "Feel a Whole Lot Better" (sticking with the faithful remake that appears on his current album, "Full Moon Fever"), reached back for the Byrds-like "American Girl" and then conducted a few sing-alongs that endeared him to the crowd at the expense of the songs.
Midway through the show, though, Petty began to bear down. On acoustic guitar, he sang a moving version of the brooding Dylanesque ballad "A Face in the Crowd," and later joined guitarist Mike Campbell in stripping away some of the pop sheen producer Jeff Lynne brought to the recorded version of "Runnin' Down a Dream." Even so, the Heartbreakers were at their best when resurrecting songs they originally recorded with Petty, whether it was the offbeat "Spike" or the caustic and rousing "Refugee."
The opening set by the Replacements was one of the summer's more memorable shows, but for all the wrong reasons. Though it clearly deserved better, the band failed to win over Petty's fans and eventually gave up trying. The set came to an abrupt, halfhearted close.
Mike Joyce
The Washington Post
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September 25, 1991
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers were clearly out to have a good time at Capital Centre last night. For starters, the setting was surreal: Chandeliers illuminated the stage, totem poles flanked it, and a huge gnarled "magic tree" served as both a backdrop and a prop for the band.
The theatrical touches didn't end there. Forty-five minutes into the show, during a strobe-lit version of "Don't Come Around Here No More," three characters masquerading as Presidents Bush, Reagan and Nixon chased Petty around the stage until he banished them by waving a mammoth peace sign. "If I'm going to do this every night," he told the crowd, "I'm going to have as much fun as I can."
And it was fun, all right, even when the songs were a lot more notable for their catchy choruses -- eagerly sung by the 12,000 voices -- than for their substance. By opening with "Kings Highway," one of the strongest tracks on his current album, "Into the Great Wide Open," Petty demonstrated just how tight and vibrant the Heartbreakers can sound when the song matters. Mike Campbell laced this and other rockers dating back a dozen years with alternately flowing and piercing guitar lines, Benmont Tench added rippling keyboard runs and drummer Stan Lynch delivered a booting wallop.
Petty, however, was the evening's star. Particularly impressive was the mid-show acoustic set, during which he paid homage to Van Morrison ("a great Irish poet") and Roger McGuinn (with the Byrdslike "American Girl").
There were colorful reminders of Petty's status as a Traveling Wilbury, just as surely as there were always reminders of fellow Wilbury Bob Dylan's influence on him as both a singer and songwriter. What's more, despite the show's often leisurely pace, the Heartbreakers had no difficulty turning the heat up when it counted, especially toward the end when a rousing "Refugee" gave way to the most Dylanesque performance of the night, an encore of "The Waiting."
The biggest challenge singer-songwriter Chris Whitley faced during the opening set was adapting to the stage his songs from "Living With the Law," his atmospheric debut album. He succeeded for the most part, by paring down "Poison Girl" and other tunes to the guitar-and-rhythm essentials.
Mike Joyce
The Washington Post
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April 11, 1995
Short of equipment failure or general Armageddon, it's probably impossible for a veteran performer possessing as much great material as Tom Petty to deliver a lackluster show. And such was the case for Petty's Sunday night appearance at George Mason University's Patriot Center, as the seasoned musician led his longtime backup band, the Heartbreakers, through an ardent set of new and old tunes.
Despite the melancholic image he projects in his folk-inflected rock, Petty's stage presence was positively frisky: He shimmied restlessly about while crooning through brisk melodies like "Driving Down to Georgia" and "Runnin' Down a Dream," and even the somber strains of "It's Good to Be King" couldn't wipe the grin off his face.
Lead guitarist Mike Campbell also enjoyed himself as he used a procession of oddly shaped vintage guitars to execute his passionate solos.
Song after song, Petty and the Heartbreakers performed with a near-mechanical precision, a mood somewhat at odds with Petty's languid folksiness. Thus, it was almost heartening to hear the group fumble "Mary Jane's Last Dance," as Campbell jumped in with his solo too early.
Nonetheless, the recovery was seamless, and as Petty picked up the second verse from his guitarist's aborted notes, the gaunt vocalist was still beaming.
Steve Kuhn
The Washington Post
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June 28, 1999
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers hadn't toured in four years, and Petty hadn't recorded with his longtime band since 1991, but there was no rust evident, or audible, when they performed at the Nissan Pavilion on Friday night for 15,000 fans hoping to be rewarded for their patience.
Which they were.
Though Petty performed a quintet of songs from his recent "Echo" album, he wisely served up an invigorating career retrospective, a 23-song set that ranged from 1976's breakthrough single, the tersely propulsive "Breakdown," to a wistful "Walls" from his 1996 soundtrack project, "She's the One."
Kicking off with "Jammin' Me," his smoldering collaboration with Bob Dylan, and the twangy-guitar driven "Runnin' Down a Dream," Petty moved easily between forceful roots rockers and emotionally scarred confessionals. The latter included "You Don't Know How It Feels," the roiling "You Wreck Me" and "Don't Come Around Here No More," whose languorous psychedelia and melodic ennui mask a simmering rage over romantic betrayal.
That juxtaposition is also evident in the new "Rhino Skin," in which a palpable vulnerability is barely muted by caustic asides, and "It's Good to Be King." Though grounded in melancholy bordering on self-pity--the title phrase is more ironic than boastful--"King" turned into one of the night's highlights when the Heartbreakers fleshed it out with thunderous cadenzas, including a somber one-note samba by guitarist Mike Campbell and an instrumental passage that suggested a man half drowning, half floating in space.
Campbell, Petty's longtime musical partner, got a pair of showcases--the punchless "I Don't Wanna Fight" and "Penetration," a twangy, reverb-heavy homage to '50s and '60s surf'n'spy guitar instrumentals--but was really at his best providing supple, supportive fills, chiming power chords and sterling leads on such songs as "Mary Jane's Last Dance," the swaggering and defiant "I Won't Back Down" and "Free Girl Now," and the jangling "American Girl."
Campbell isn't the only first-rate musician in the Heartbreakers, of course, just the most visible one. Keyboardist Benmont Tench provided his usual tasteful colorations, while drummer Steve Ferrone and bassist Howie Epstein maintained a lean rhythmic momentum that never overwhelmed the music but pushed it forward and outward as needed.
For instance, on an introspective new song, "Room at the Top," what started as acoustic meditation gradually shifted into raucous emotional venting. Another new song, the Dylanesque "Swingin'," used an insistent sway to champion independent spirits resisting seemingly settled fates--Petty updating his own "I Won't Back Down."
The encore offered the curious bookends of "Free Fallin' " and "Learning to Fly" sandwiched around a liberating but too-long version of "G-L-O-R-I-A." "I'm learning to fly/ but I ain't got wings," Petty mused in his show closer, adding, "Comin' down is the hardest thing." That may have been a challenge for the fans as well, but it's one they seemed eager to address.
Richard Harrington
The Washington Post
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July 2, 2001
Tom Petty's gray-white beard may be giving him a slightly weathered look these days, but his Saturday show at Nissan Pavilion emphasized undiminished energy and vitality.
This was a no-glitz, just-hits performance under a quintet of ballroom chandeliers and before a stained-glass cathedral backdrop that changed hues over the course of the concert, not unlike a mood ring. Petty and the Heartbreakers -- celebrating 25 years, mostly together -- opened with the hard-driving, propulsive "Runnin' Down a Dream," the insistently defiant "I Won't Back Down" and a sinewy "Breakdown" in which Petty "whooed" the crowd, which whoo-whooed him right back.
That tendentious trio of songs established the night's agenda: With no new album to promote, Petty and his chief cohorts, guitarist Mike Campbell and keyboardist Benmont Tench, served up proven standards and just a single nod to musical influences, a vamping cover of Booker T and the MG's "Green Onions." The recent past was addressed on the Dylanesque swagger of "Billy the Kid," but there was also a dip into the Heartbreakers song bag for seldom-played favorites, in this case, the triumphant "Here Comes My Girl" and caustic "Even the Losers," both from 1979.
Petty paced the show smartly, tossing in acoustic-tinged favorites such as "Into the Great Wide Open" and "Learning to Fly" with the Eastern-flavored kiss-off "Don't Come Around Here No More" (with Campbell conjuring sitar sounds from his guitar to weave into Tench's cellolike keyboard figures). Also strong was the melancholy irony of "It's Good to Be King," given an expansive reading that spurred strong guitar solos from Petty and Campbell.
Sometimes, however, the Heartbreakers lapsed into meandering jam-band noodling, as on "You Don't Know How It Feels" and "Too Much Ain't Enough." The latter part of the show revisited the hard-rocking energy of its kickoff, with urgent renditions of "Refugee" and "You Wreck Me." As for the crowd, an evening of enthusiastic singalongs was rewarded with full-throated encores of "Free Fallin'" and the charming Byrdsian jangle of Petty's breakthrough song, "American Girl."
Since daylight can be as destructive to ballads and sensitive lyrics as it is to vampires, opener Jackson Browne wisely emphasized his more upbeat, rocking tunes. Browne's short, taut set opened with "Boulevard" and, aside from the elegiac "Fountain of Sorrow," favored such energetic character explorations as "The Pretender," a breezy "Somebody's Baby" and such '70s SoCal standards as "Doctor My Eyes" and "Running on Empty," something the eternally youthful Browne seems in no danger of doing anytime soon.
Richard Harrington
The Washington Post
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July 19, 2002
Rock star Tom Petty's lasting appeal has always been his accessibility, in his American bar-band music and his approachable personality. He looks like the neighborhood cool dude who would probably come to your kegger if you got up the nerve to invite him. Which is basically what happened Wednesday night at Nissan Pavilion: With no album to promote, Petty and his Heartbreakers simply came to jam for a large and boisterous summertime crowd.
The show kicked off promisingly with "Runnin' Down a Dream," in a tight, jangly version that would have been just as appropriate as an encore. After a few more of the hits -- "I Won't Back Down," "Even the Losers," "I Need to Know" -- the show ran into a roadblock with a new tune, a down-tempo ballad called "Have Love, Will Travel."
Things rarely got up to speed again. By the time "Refugee" came, well into the generously long performance, the show was made soggy with arena rock guitar noodling best suited for shoe-gazing and kicking the keg.
The evening's opening act, the Brian Setzer Trio, set a level of intensity Petty and company rarely reached. Thrash-and-burn versions of "Runaway Boys," "I Fought the Law," "Rock This Town" and "Stray Cat Strut" expertly put the "rock" in rockabilly. Perhaps the former Stray Cat frontman and big band leader was showing off for Fred Gretsch, who owns the company that makes Setzer's guitars. With Gretsch in the audience, Setzer polished off his set with a couple of superbly finger-picked instrumentals that may have inspired a few guitar sales.
Buzz McClain
The Washington Post
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July 29, 2005
The Black Crowes just aren't an opening act. The group founded and fronted by the recently reunited Robinson brothers dominated Wednesday's bill at Merriweather Post Pavilion.
The Crowes, who are using a slot as an opener for Tom Petty's current tour to end a four-year hiatus, appear to be leaving their boogie past behind and turning into a jam band. Singer Chris Robinson, whose stringy hair and bushy beard give him the Dirtball Jesus look that generations of rockers have desired, still has a fabulous, Steve Marriott-style blues shriek and all the stage moves an arena bandleader could want.
But on lengthy, Allman Brothers-style arrangements of deep album cuts such as "P.25 London" and "Wiser Time," the elder Robinson had little to do but dance barefoot as little brother-guitarist Rich Robinson and others in the eight-piece lineup worked the crowd into a state of rock-and-roll delirium.
The few familiar tunes the band put into its 80-minute set -- among them "She Talks to Angels," "Twice as Hard" and "Remedy" -- were lumped together at the end. But the Crowes' rhythm section and Rich Robinson's very Keith Richards-like rhythm guitar made every song sound as if it had been sampled from an early-'70s live double album recorded at the Fillmore East. Layoff be damned, this band is at the top of its game.
Headliner Tom Petty covered Bob Dylan's "Knockin' on Heaven's Door" and the Animals' "I'm Cryin'," and introduced "Melinda," a soft romantic tune of his own that will be included on a live DVD. The rest of the nearly two-hour set was made up of the pretty pop singles that Petty has produced over the past three decades. He saved his best for last, encoring with "American Girl," a tune with a riff so timeless the Strokes stole it.
Compared with the Crowes' perspirational set, Petty's performance seemed rote. But fans in and outside the sold-out amphitheater were ecstatic to see and sing along with Petty on tunes that obviously have left a mark. Before introducing members of his trusty backup band, the Heartbreakers, Petty told the crowd, "You know 'em all, you love 'em." He could just as well have been talking about his songs.
Dave McKenna
The Washington Post
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