Last night Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers tore up the house at
Shepherd's Bush Empire in London - a really small theatre packed to the
rafters with rabid fans who seemed to know every word of just about
every song. They played two and a half hours. The final encore came
when they had already started the music on the PA and the roadies had
started to switch off the amps on stage. Petty came on and said he'd
been halfway to the car that time...
It was the usual mix of classics old and new, but what was most
fascinating was a long acoustic midsection, during which Petty cracked
open the Everlys' Lucille, the Delmore Brothers' This Old Guitar(?) and
Little Maggie, along with rearrangements of some of his own songs
(including American Girl). He prefaced Little maggie with some talk of
seeing Ralph Stanley; he said "I don't know if any of you know him". I
was going to scream "yay - bluegrass rules" at the top of my lungs
(which would've given him a fright, since he was only six feet away from
me) but didn't. Which was either really good or a missed opportunity,
as the Ralph reference drew a blank with the rest of the crowd. Anyhow,
it was pretty slow (well, compared to Skaggs' recent recording) and it
desperately needed a banjer (tho Mike Campbell thrummed on a mandolin).
But Scott Thurston (an ex-Stooge, I understand) did a great lead vocal
on it - he has a surprisingly bluegrass-friendly voice.
Petty also did some blues and r'n'b songs and jams, including a stunner
which I feel I should know about and don't - it's probably called
"County Farm" ("... Another man's done gone...") Can anyone help me
out?
Great show. Go see him in an arena near you this Summer. The man's the
real deal.
Stevie
