The seats were pretty kick ass. Eight rows back to the right side and pretty eye level, so that was another plus. We'd seen Petty two years ago at Verizon Wireless Amphitheater in St. Louis.
The Drive-By Truckers were the opening act. They played 12 songs over an hour.
Set List
After the Scene Dies
Marry Me
Drag the Lake Charlie
Birthday Boy
Santa Fe
Carl Perkins Cadillac
Heathen
Ghost to Most
The Flying Wallendas
Zip City
Sink Hole
Shut Up and Get On the Plane
I'd gotten one of their cds and have enjoyed listening to it, but the didn't play their main track from it, This Fucking Job. They were okay but were cramped together and a muddy sound from our hearing on the side. My dad was about to fall asleep and the other fan reports go along with him. They brought out a friend who played the fiddle for a few songs, cramping the stage even more. I liked Mike Cooley's songs better than Patterson Hood's singing and the last song Shut Up and Get on the Plane was probably the best one.
After a half- hour set change, the lights dimmed and the main attraction came out, the familiar jangly Listen to Her Heart, one of my faves of his. I don't know what it is about KC crowds, but they don't like to stand up. The few rows ahead of us sat for almost the whole show, and I sat for the first four or five numbers. Hey, I had a good view and didn't need to.
Set List
- Listen To Her Heart
- You Don't Know How It Feels
- I Won't Back Down
- Free Fallin'
- Oh Well
- Mary Jane's Last Dance
- Honey Bee
- Breakdown
- Jefferson Jericho Blues
- Good Enough
- Running Man's Bible
- First Flash Of Freedom
- I Should Have Known It
- Learning To Fly
- Don't Come Around Here No More
- Refugee
The Highlights for me, were the bluesy Fleetwood Mac cover Oh, Well, which was a short and sweet jam. And You Don't Know How It Feels, another song he didn't do two years ago.
The set list was packed with a five song block from the new album, which the crowd was naturally lukewarm to. I Should Have Known It was probably the jewel out of these, though Good Enough had it's moments, no pun intended. I think they would have been better served broken up a little, and served between some hits or more well known songs.
And the biggest disappointment for me was the fact that aside from the new songs and two other I mentioned above, everything he played he'd played in St. Louis. A little more mix up with different songs would have been nice. Heck, a lot of his routine was the same, like they were on auto-pilot the last four-five numbers. I guess they all can't be like Dylan or Springsteen...
Several more songs period would have been nice. The set started a little after 9 PM and was over before 11 PM. Not even two hours....
That said it was still the kick-ass Heartbreakers making it look easy. We were on the same side as Benmont Tench, jumping around from piano, to keyboard to organ and Mike Campbell the "co-Captain of the team" on lead guitar. During the new songs he was probably the main attraction with his playing. The funniest thing was after every song, we saw him scratching his head like crazy. Good drugs or just a bad itch with his long hair in this heat?
Petty and Co., played the ones you expected and a few of the others. This was still a high performance show, with a few drawbacks. St. Louis two years ago probably was a little better. Tuesday night the view helped though. But I do know if I had never seen the group before, I probably would have had fewer problems and gripes. KC Star Review here
