Heartbreakers satisfy crowd with array of hits

Petty knows how it feels to keep rockin'Heartbreakers satisfy crowd with array of hits
By DAVE TIANEN

Remember the last scene in "Jerry Maguire"?

Tom Cruise shows up unexpectedly at the home of his estranged wife and makes this impassioned speech on why she should take him back. He finishes his big speech, she looks at him and says, "You had me at hello."

Well, it was like that Saturday night with Tom Petty and a near-sellout crowd at Summerfest's Marcus Amphitheater. He had them at hello.

Of course, hello in this case was really a bright and kicking rendition of "American Girl," but the reaction was essentially the same. This crowd wanted hits, Petty gave them hits, and the result was an uninterrupted love fest.

They erupted in applause and recognition for songs after just three or four notes. They sang along without the slightest prompting to "Free Fallin', " "Woman in Love (It's Not Me)," "You Don't Know How It Feels," "Mary Jane's Last Dance," "I Won't Back Down," "The Waiting" and a half-dozen others.

Petty himself seemed relaxed and just out to have a good time. He occasionally did a little twist for the rockers and playfully directed the drummer with a punch in the air. He played one new tune, a folksy ballad that sounded as though it was called "Melinda." It's hard to say. The girls in front kept screaming even during introductions, and that was an hour into the show.

There weren't too many surprises. Petty dropped in a tune from the Traveling Wilburys, and he didn't get around to his most recent effort, "The Last DJ," until 45 minutes into the gig. For all its manifest crankiness, even that went over well. (Deadlines prevented a review of Petty's entire set.)

At bottom, Petty has a bulging catalog of hits, and those hits are tailor-made for summer and singalong amphitheater shows. There's no better friend a rock star can have than a cupboard full of platinum.

After all these years together, you have a sense that the Heartbreakers could pull off a show gagged, bound and blindfolded. What they couldn't do is pull it off if they were bored - and to their credit, there's no sign that that's become a problem.

Opening for Petty was the Grand Old Man of rock 'n' roll, Bo Diddley. He sauntered on stage as the drums, guitar and congas tore into the familiar shuffle beat, and the crowd responded with a rare salute for an opening act: an introductory standing ovation. In his mid-70s, Bo looks like a prosperous semiretired gunfighter.

He played this show sitting down, but that barely slowed the energy as he romped through some of the opening pages of the rock 'n' roll songbook: "Bo Diddley," "I'm a Man," "You Can't Judge a Book by Its Cover," "Roadrunner" and "Mona." He went out to "Who Do You Love?" and a second standing ovation.