Thursday, February 25, 2010
Cream Calendar Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers to Play Sommet Center, Aug. 12. Crosby, Stills and Nash to Open
Posted by Adam Gold on Thu, Feb 25, 2010 at 11:29 AM
With all the emotionally charged bickering happening on the Cream this week, I thought it would be good to talk about something we can all agree on: the music of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. Yes, even here at the Cream we love get to the point and roll another nooooiiiiiish to the sweet sounds of the only good rock band to emerge from the state of Florida in the 20th century. Such being the case, I'm thrilled to announce that Petty & Co. are coming to the Sommet Center -- or Bridgestone Arena, as it'll lovingly be referred to by then -- on Aug. 12. Up and coming California folk trio Crosby, Stills and Nash will open the show. Unfortunately Neil Young will not join them on this outing, and it also appears that he won't play at Bonnaroo this year -- we just can't get a break with that guy these days. I think he owes us another Ryman show or something. Doo it, Neil!
Anyhow, if you've never seen Tom Petty, then you really owe it to yourself to make it out to this one. His voice is still in top form, and at 59 years old he's still infinitely cooler than you'll ever be -- he even smokes more. His confederates The Heartbreakers are masters at making rock 'n' roll their bitch, and I know we can always learn a thing or two from watching people do that.
Now, I've seen Petty twice, and basically what happens is this: He and the band flawlessly execute a set chock full of their two dozen greatest hits over the course of a couple hours using a different guitar for each song. While it basically felt like I saw the same exact show twice -- I'm partial to spontaneity -- it was at least the same AWESOME show twice. So awesome that my heritage-rock boner is at full mast right now, just thinking about getting to see it a third time.
Petty's 2010 tour will be in support of his and the Heartbreakers' forthcoming album Mojo, which is slated for release this spring. Tickets for the Nashville show go on sale Monday, Mar. 8 at 10 a.m. right here. No word yet on how much they'll cost, but you have until August to save up, so don't fuck yourself with your penchant for poor planning this time. Purchase a piggy bank or start a savings account, whatever.
And if this post didn't meet your entertainment needs, maybe this clip will:
Comments (20)
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It's a metaphorical boner, Steve. Don't get it twisted.
Wouldn't you say you have a boner for Spongebath? Wow, that sounds weird.
No Patrick, Steve's right, it's my real boner. I LOVE ROCK 'N' ROLL!!!...splurge.
No wonder you still haven't come into work today. Wank fest to Damn the Torpedoes?
i clicked on "comments" so that i might be the first one to (i almost said "play") with Gold's metaphor but i see you guys have got your hands all over it. for every worm there are 5 birds earlier than i.
it would be pretty awesome to go to this show.
ah, florida...we have more old people, hot people, fast people, struck-by-lightning people, shark attacked people, skin cancered people, descended-from-or-lived-down-the-street-from-some-member-of-lynyrd skynyrd people and tom petty people than your state.
Shit. The rest of the tour has My Morning Jacket, Drive-By Truckers, or Joe Cocker as openers and we get stuck with Crosby, Stills, & Nash? That sucks.
Love me some Heartbreakers, though.
I'd take CSN over Cocker or DBT and MMJ are already playing their own arena show here in a couple months. I'm not complaining. I still wanna see Neil Young though.
This seems like a good place to mention that ridiculously-good live box set Petty put out last year. Anybody else have that thing? Holy shit!
I haven't heard that yet, but is it related to the thing Ticketmaster did where they were releasing classic shows of his for download, putting them onsale like they were concert tickets?
Ah, I have no idea about that. This is a 4-CD set made up of songs recorded throughout his career but arranged like a full show. That means it jumps from '81 to '93 and back to '80 and so on but it has been mixed so that the crowd and instrument levels remain consistent like one big long show. It's pretty slick! Plus, Mike Campbell's live playing is always spot-on and worth checking out. He has to be the most underrated lead guitarist in 'classic' rock-- he's always tasteful and he always uses the finest gear for the job. A legend!
Agreed. Campbell is a God, as in Benmont Tench. I also love that Mike Campbell is a strong practitioner of the anti-guitar face, the dude plays his solos with a look like he's playing Texas Hold'em. A question about the live box: Does the entire set feature the drumming of Stan Lynch? Or is Steve Feroni on there as well?
It's from both eras. There's a fair amount of Stan represented.
Damn, I wish this show wasn't at Sommet. I know there's no other reasonable venue for him to play, but I swear to God he'd sell out the Ryman even if it was $400 a ticket. Oh well, maybe I can get a floor seat for once.
Oh yeah, I didn't even mention Benmont, who is by far my favorite B-3 guy (sorry, Jimmy Smith!)
As ryan mentioned, both drummers are represented, as are Ron Blair and Howie Epstein on bass. Don't ignore the mighty Phil Jones on tambourine too! (My buddy Zach and I delighted at his contributions throughout the set-- "Dude, check out Phil! He's gettin' it!" and "Is Phil on this one? There he is! Yeah!" and even "Phil's gonna come in and save this one, just wait...aw yeah!" and so forth...
While we're on the subject, why not give a nod to Scott Thurston as well. He does a great job with Roy Orbison's vocal part on their live version of "Handle With Care," plus he was in The Stooges.
Excited to see Tom Petty and excited to drink 3 dollar Coors at the Brewhouse while the Grandpas of Americana Folk open the show. Way to open a rock show with a butt scratching yawn.
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