On July 25, 2017 I saw one of Tom Petty’s last concerts.  He died this week at 66 yrs old.  It’s taken me a few months to write about the show for a variety of reasons. I’m glad I waited.


Looking through my show notes tonight, they clearly talk about the music being great and Petty and band looking grey skinned and sickly. No shit.


My pictures were terrible as I wasn’t there on the clock… too bad, we had great seats.

The pictures (below) in The Brooklyn Vegan are much better!

With a gang of 10 people, most carted in by train from NYC (the only way to go) to the wonderfully beautiful Forest Hills Tennis Stadium in Queens. The crowd knew every word to every song and Tom looked like he enjoyed playing them.


I particularly remember enjoying the spunky version of “Learning to Fly”. Petty flapped his wings during the chorus like a circus ape on tranquilizers.


Again, Petty, guitar man Mike Campbell and the band sounded great, but looked like death.


It was the first time since the late 80’s that I had seen Petty (then opening for Bob Dylan at Giants Stadium) and was very entertained and happy.  My entire crew was too… Angela from Lithology Brewery especially, who is a hard-core Petty fan. The fans were a great part of the fun.

The weather was perfect and then so was the venue. Tree-lined and quaint. What a treat to see this rock legend peel off anthem after anthem. “Don’t Come Around Here No More” was also notably super.


Here is the full set list.

The encore was “American Girl”, which still makes me think of that poor girl in Silence of the Lambs having fun in her car just before she is abducted and put in the hole with nothing but a bucket and lotion.

Much has been written about Petty this week and his hits have been plastered all over the radio (even my morning Nyack Bootcamp class had a special memorial playlist) so I won’t rehash the age old story of rock star abuses body and mind, then dies young. Here is a link to his final interview with the LA Times.


What I can add is two things…


1. Catch the Tom Petty radio show on Sirius. He was entertaining and introduces listeners to some cool friction off the beaten path music.

2. Although the hits are great, my favorite album (and yes album) is the soundtrack to “She’s the One”. The songs are thoughtful and the words tell a great story.  Here is a story I did on that album a few years back.


While some buddies like Rebels and Mary Jane’s Last Dance, I like the haunting “Don’t Fade on Me”.


In honor of a musician I truly enjoyed for many years, I pulled out my guitar and strummed one this full moon evening to memorialize his passing (here is link)…