Tampa Review

By Philip Booth

TAMPA, Fla. (Billboard) - What's an uncompromising rock star to do when his earnest screed against the recording industry practically evaporates upon its release? Why, pretend like it never existed, of course.

That's the fate of Tom Petty's "The Last DJ," released in 2002 on the heels of the induction of the Florida-bred hitmaker and his Heartbreakers into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. At the third show on the band's summer tour, in front of a Ford Amphitheater audience of 17,000, 'nary a tune from that controversial CD was played.

Petty, longtime lead guitarist Mike Campbell and their four bandmates instead dipped into nearly three decades' worth of rootsy, jangling favorites on the way to demonstrating the continuing viability of a genuine American pop institution.

It was practically old home night for Petty. The two-hour Tampa show was closer to his old stomping grounds, Gainesville, than any other date on the concert trek. "I've got cousins and brothers and aunts and uncles and everything back stage," he quipped.

Perhaps as a result, the band sounded relaxed and confident, pausing only long enough to trade out instruments -- six- and 12-string acoustics and electrics, including plenty of Rickenbackers, and the occasional mandolin -- between songs.

"Listen To Her Heart," all sunshine-y guitar sheen, served as a friendly love-song opener, followed by the common-man pleas of "You Don't Know How It Feels," spiked with Scott Thurston's harmonica blasts; the raucous guitar rave-up "Makin' Some Noise," featuring Campbell's wah-wah solo; and "Free Falling."

Fans were treated to a long list of favorites, including a short version of "Don't Do Me Like That"; "The Waiting," with a slow-motion Petty guitar solo; the Eastern-tinged "Don't Come Around Here No More"; "Refugee," revved with Campbell's aggressive solo; and a triumphant, show-closing "American Girl."

But the band took the opportunity to veer off the beaten path, too, beginning with the slinky mid-tempo rocker "Turn This Car Around," taken from Petty's next album, due for release later this year. Benmont Tench's pastel-colored piano solo was a highlight of "Melinda," another new tune, a loping, twang-edged mood piece heard on a recently released concert DVD. The Heartbreakers also dug deep into the one-chord blues stomp of Big Joe Williams' vintage "Baby Please Don't Go," and offered a pleasant stroll through the Traveling Wilburys single "Handle With Care." Campbell's acid-washed bottleneck slide lines livened Bob Dylan's "Rainy Day Women #12 and #35."

The sturdy meat-and-potatoes sound of the Heartbreakers may not be in vogue in the age of Eminem, but it would be tough to find a group of rock'n'roll musicians as in sync with one another as these guys.

The recently reunited Black Crowes, another band that's improved with age, opened with a set mixing elements of greasy rock'n'roll, Americana and inspired jamming. Such familiarities as "Thorn in My Pride," "Jealous Again" and "Twice as Hard" bumped up against expansive covers of Marvin Gaye's "Baby Don't You Do It" and the Grateful Dead's "Brokedown Palace." Crowes singer Chris Robinson, given to a little hands-on-hips strutting ala Mick Jagger, had a famous fan club in tow: his wife, actress Kate Hudson, was seated on an equipment box on stage left, smoking, drinking and grooving to the music.