Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers Concert, Dallas, 8/27/08

Opening act Steve Winwood’s distinctive voice had the crowd cheering throughout his set of familiar songs, including “Higher Love.” He writes some pretty great pop songs including "Roll With It" and "Back in the High Life Again". Great voice for a 60 year old, especially approaching the end of the tour.

Then, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers (Mike Campbell, Scott Thurston, Ron Blair, Benmont Tench, and Steve Ferrone) took the stage to standing crowd.
Tom Cruise sings “Free Fallin’” in Jerry Maguire

Click below for the setlist and the review:

Setlist:
1. You Wreck Me
2. Listen to Her Heart
3. I Won’t Back Down
4. Even the Losers
5. Free Fallin’
6. Mary Jane’s Last Dance
7. End of the Line (Traveling Wilburys cover)
8. Can’t Find My Way Home (with Winwood – a Blind Faith cover)
9. Gimme Some Lovin’ (with Winwood – a Spencer Davis Group cover)
10. Saving Grace
11. Breakdown
12. Honey Bee
13. Learning to Fly
14. Don’t Come Around Here No More
15. Refugee
(Encore)
16. Runnin’ Down a Dream
17. Gloria (a Van Morrison cover)
18. American Girl

The concert started strong with Petty and company in sync playing some essentials from the greatest hits album and the Wildflowers album. The lights and stage were solid as well and Petty played the crowd beautifully, encouraging them to participate. Petty’s best song (“Free Fallin’”) was played early on and the strongest performance by far immediately followed. The punching guitar and subtle harmonica in “Mary Jane’s Last Dance” blending beautifully in the American Airlines Center and the vocal harmony sounded terrific. A delightful surprise followed next with the Traveling Wilburys song "End of the Line" (if only they could have played “Handle with Care”, too). Tom Petty was a member of the group which included Bob Dylan, Roy Orbison, George Harrison, and Jeff Lynne. Steve Winwood then shared the stage for 2 songs, which were a slight letdown after the great opening. “Can’t Find My Way Home” nearly put the crowd to sleep. I like “Gimme Some Lovin’” though, but it needed more bass or louder drums or something.

Winwood then exited stage right and Petty sang “Saving Grace” from his 2006 album Highway Companion (which I didn’t know). This didn’t exactly wake up the crowd and the next 2 numbers ("Breakdown" and "Honey Bee") were over-extended and gave many a reason to visit the restroom (myself included).

A terrific drum-less version of "Learning to Fly" followed and the opening set finished strongly with "Don’t Come Around Here No More" and Petty’s best pre-Full Moon Fever song: “Refugee”. An encore followed and Tom went all Jim Morrison during the middle of “Gloria” with an extended anecdote while the organ played Ray Manzarek-style. The concert ended where Petty began back in 1977 with “American Girl”.

Brooke Smith sings “American Girl” in Silence of the Lambs. This is well before Buffalo Bill asks her to “PUT THE F@CKING LOTION IN THE BASKET!”

The first third and last third were great but the middle dragged. I could have used more songs from Wildflowers. The most glaring omissions were “You Don’t Know How it Feels” and “To Find a Friend”. But the band played great and most of the classics were covered. Overall, a great experience. B+