Just because Tuesday night’s Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers show at Frank Erwin Center was part of the band’s 40th anniversary tour doesn’t mean that everything played was old hat.
“We’re gonna kinda drop the needle in different places across the years," said the iconic, shaggy-haired frontman after the evening’s appropriate kickoff of “Rockin’ Around (With You)”—the band’s first track off their 1976 self-titled debut—and crowd favorite “Mary Jane’s Last Dance.”
That approach gifted the 12,000-strong crowd through plenty of Petty’s old-school classics ("Don’t Come Around Here No More," "Refugee" and, of course, "American Girl" to cap the two-hour run), but one of the most memorable moments cropped up with the 2010 tune “Good Enough.” In recent years, that heavy, guitar-driven cut has served as a spotlight for lead guitarist Mike Campbell’s incomparable shred skills. But on this occasion, he shared it equally with local new-legend, Gary Clark Jr., who injected the song with a surfeit of soul by trading verses with Petty.
"It’s…kind of a big deal, Austin, Texas—I’d like to thank you all,” said Clark earlier in the evening during his own nine-song set, a one-off support slot before he hits the road for some solo and opening dates (for My Morning Jacket) across the U.S.
The 33-year-old Austin axeman was on an all-time high. He was hot off a pair of opening spots for Eric Clapton at Madison Square Garden in March, and now here he stood on the biggest stage in his hometown, warming up for Petty. No wonder his cameo became the gig’s crowning occasion.
Yet equal accolades go to Petty and co. for facilitating the moment in the midst of tack-sharp sonics (the addition of UK-based sister singers Charley and Hattie Webb helped songs “It’s Good to Be King” soar higher than ever) and a dazzling production (they employed a shape-shifting, glowing orb canopy that looked remarkably similar to Drake’s Summer Sixteen Tour array). Who knows if the past-tensed tone in Petty’s farewell—"Austin, Texas, I’m [going to] miss you so bad…I wanna thank you for every time you came back"—was meant to be weighted with such a sense of finality. But if this was indeed the Heartbreakers’ last proper stop in the Live Music Capital of the World (at 40 years in the game, it’s anyone’s guess), at least it was a fantastically electrifying and heartfelt finale.
Want more? Sign up here to stay in the know.