"I'm going to play whatever comes into my head," Tom Petty announced a few songs into his concert, and judging by the set list, that's exactly what he did. What came into Petty's head was a mix of his band's hits and a large number of classic rock and blues covers, making for an eclectic set that pleased both those who wanted the familiar and those who were looking for something a little more adventurous.
Opening with Chuck Berry's "Around and Around," Petty and his longtime backing band the Heartbreakers then loaded the early part of the set with well-known tunes like "Free Fallin'" and "Breakdown." But the middle was full of older Heartbreakers' tunes and covers of blues standards like "Born in Chicago" and "Little Red Rooster." Without a new album to shill, Petty seemed free to follow his muse, and other than the new song "Melinda," none of the songs in the set were less than a decade old.
Which might make it seem that Petty has become the sort of classic-rock nostalgia act that he's always worked hard to avoid, but the truth is that his last album sucked, and it's better if everyone (Petty included) forgot about it. And while half the band's set was hits, the songs in the other half were certainly not safe, crowd-pleasing choices, at least not in a conventional sense. Petty has spent years cultivating an unconventional audience, though, so the crowd ate up "Melinda," which featured an extended solo by pianist Benmont Tench, and an enthusiastic version of deep album cut, "What Are You Doin' in My Life?"
The hits got plenty of attention, too, with a pretty, mostly acoustic version of "Learning to Fly," and a more energetic take on the synth-heavy studio concoction, "Don't Come Around Here No More." Petty's band, even through its occasional lineup changes, remains one of the tightest in rock, especially Tench and lead guitarist Mike Campbell, the only two Heartbreakers who've been with Petty for his entire career. Closing out the show with an epic version of Van Morrison's "Gloria," Petty had the whole crowd singing at the top of their lungs even though it wasn't one of his own songs. They were happy just to hear what he had in his head.