MUSIC REVIEW: Tom Petty charms fans at Verizon Arena

Part singer and guitarist, part band leader, part ringmaster and part motivational speaker, Tom Petty charmed another sold-out gathering of fans, five years after his first Arkansas show. There were 13,551 of the faithful Sunday night at Verizon Arena in North Little Rock, and it was hard to tell who had the best time — the fans or the band.

For a tad more than two hours, Petty and the Heartbreakers poured it on, aided and abetted by great sound, lights and video screens behind and above the stage. There was no new album to promote, so Petty chose songs from throughout his 40-year career. Some were hits, others were, well, songs that perhaps should have been hits.

Early on, after a couple of songs, Petty asked the crowd, “Can you feel that mojo in the room yet?” He and the Heartbreakers then roared into “You Don’t Know How It Feels,” although most fans seemed to know exactly how it felt. The delivered hits included “You Got Lucky,” “I Won’t Back Down,” “Free Fallin’,” “It’s Good To Be King,” “Don’t Come Around Here No More,” “Wildflowers,” “Learning To Fly,” “Refugee,” “Runnin’ Down a Dream,” along with the lesser-known “Forgotten Man” and “Yer Bad.”

The encore featured “You Wreck Me” and Petty’s glorious 1977 single, “American Girl.”

There’s not enough room to detail the contributions of the Heartbreakers, especially guitarist Mike Campbell, who drove the crowd wild too many times to count with a barrage of electric guitar and even mandolin licks. Keyboardist Benmont Tench got a good share of the spotlight, too, as did two bopping blonde background sisters, Charley and Hattie Webb. Scott Thurston contributed fine harmony vocals as well as keyboards and guitar at times, and bassist Ron Blair and drummer Steve Ferrone provided a firm foundation.

And then there was Petty’s opening act, no unknown up and coming sort, not Joe Walsh, who could headline his own show, and has done so numerous times in central Arkansas. Walsh’s 60-minute set included “Ordinary Average Guy,” “In the City,” “Funk #49,” “Life’s Been Good,” “Rocky Mountain Way” and a salute to Walsh’s late Eagle band mate, Glenn Frey: “Take It to the Limit.” And from Walsh’s Barnstorm, a lesserknown but stunning album, came “Mother Says” and “Turn to Stone.”’

Walsh, a spry guy with a shock of hair that’s a blonder shade of gray, had a fiveman band and four backing vocalists that added to his sound, although fans would have loved Walsh if he had played acoustic guitar seated on a tall stool, I suspect.

Upcoming Events