Wednesday, June 12, 2013

Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers at the Fonda Theatre (6/11/13)

tom_petty_and_the_heartbreakers-fonda_theatre_ACY7842 tom_petty_and_the_heartbreakers-fonda_theatre_ACY4077 tom_petty_and_the_heartbreakers-fonda_theatre_ACY8510 tom_petty_and_the_heartbreakers-fonda_theatre_ACY8241 tom_petty_and_the_heartbreakers-fonda_theatre_ACY3904 tom_petty_and_the_heartbreakers-fonda_theatre_ACY4036 tom_petty_and_the_heartbreakers-fonda_theatre_ACY7464

Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers capped their stellar six-night residency at the Fonda Theatre on a high note. Having been fortunate enough to catch their second night at the Fonda for Stereogum, it was hard to pass up the opportunity to photograph the legendary band one last time.

The Fonda Theatre was completely transformed for this six night run as everything from the lighting, the stage monitors and the air conditioned vents that blasted air directly to Tom Petty were brought in to make Petty look, sound and feel great. Petty is a class act and was all smiles as he kicked into "So You Want To Be A Rock 'N' Roll Star" strumming away at his gorgeous blonde Fender Telecaster.

Mike Campbell's guitar tone was simply phenomenal. It was probably the best live overdriven tone I've heard in ages as he switched out through an assortment of valuable guitars. The flight cases containing their guitars were probably worth more than the cumulative amount of money spent by the audience to attend the show. Both Petty and Campbell switched to Rickenbacker guitars for the hypnotic jangle of "Listen To Her Heart".

Petty hinted that it would be a long night and that the audience may have to pay the babysitter extra which garnered some cheers from the appreciative audience. In another class act move, Petty offered refunds for those who attended the fourth night of their run which was cut short due to a fire marshall claiming the floor was too crowded.

While the setlist pulled from prior nights, it is hard to complain about hearing "Tweeter and the Monkey Man" alongside "Rebels" and "Two Gunslingers". The four song hit parade to close out their set is a practice in audience karaoke as everyone sang along to "Refugee", "Runnin' Down A Dream", "You Wreck Me" and "American Girl". Tom Petty will probably return to the arena and amphitheatre touring circuit but hopefully you were lucky enough to catch one of these memorable shows.

Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers setlist (6/11/13)
"So You Want To Be a Rock 'N' Roll Star"
"Love Is A Long Road"
"Listen To Her Heart"
"Baby, Please Don't Go"
"Fooled Again (I Don't Like It)"
"The Best of Everything"
"(I'm Not Your) Steppin' Stone"
"A Woman In Love (It's Not Me)"
"Kings Highway"
"I'd Like To Love You Baby"
"Tweeter And The Monkey Man"
"Rebels"
"Two Gunslingers"
"Time To Move On"
"Image of Me"
"Willin'"
"Melinda"
"I Should Have Known It"
"Refugee"
"Runnin' Down A Dream"
"You Wreck Me"
"American Girl"
tom_petty_and_the_heartbreakers-fonda_theatre_ACY8000

No comments: