“Yo, Toronto. Long time no see.”
With those words, Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers took to the stage at the Air Canada Centre for an evening that ran through much of his catalogue with Petty promising the crowd that they were going to play as long as possible,”so call your babysitter.”
And play they did, opening things up with a rousing cover of The Byrds’ “So You Want To Be A Rock ‘n’ Roll Star” followed by “Mary Jane’s Last Dance” off of their 1993 Greatest Hits album, bringing me back to a time when people still bought greatest hits albums, probably from Columbia House. Ah, memories.
The production values on this tour were pretty barebones, with little more than a giant white sheet hung up at the back of the stage, making it seem much more like a band jamming together in a small space than a massive rock show, which somehow seems to suit Petty. With nothing too extravagant onstage, the focus was squarely on the music. Except when there wasn’t music to focus on. Midway through new song “Forgotten Man,” the sound cut out. The band played on regardless, with the glitch finally getting worked out near the end of that number. “Can you hear me now?” asked Petty after they finished. “Sorry about that. It’s all electricity, after all.”
Aside from that one mishap, it all sounded fantastic. The Heartbreakers have played together for such a long time (Petty joked at one point that drummer Steve Ferrone is still “the new guy” after 20 years in the band) and it’s always impressive to see the chemistry between such seasoned players onstage. To use Petty’s words in a different context, it’s all electricity.