Weekly Hornet

Issue date: 10/4/06 Section: Entertainment

Media Credit: Trevor Owens Hornet A&E Editor Tom Petty rocks hard at the Greek Theatre in Berkeley

It's been 30 years since the first Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers album was released. Can they still bring energy and fun to a young audience? The answer is a definite 'yes.'

Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers played at the Hollywood Bowl on Tuesday, September 26, as a part of their Highway Companion tour. On Friday, September 29, the tour
continued at the Greek Theatre in Berkeley, California. Good songs, great rock 'n' roll, and spectacular guests were the formula. The formula worked. While he surely doesn't bring to the table what he could in the early '80s, when the Heartbreakers would top the charts with every new album,
his live performance is still something to behold.

The Strokes opened for Petty at the Hollywood Bowl, and
the band played like they meant it. Highlights of their set were "The Modern Age," "Last Nite," and "Someday," from their
debut album, "Is This It?"

Despite vocalist Julian Casablancas' honest attempts at emotion, his voice was even more mired and indistinguishable than it sometimes appears on The Strokes' records.
Casablancas should try for more clarity, especially on new songs, when the audience doesn't know any of the words.

Aside from these shortcomings, The Strokes did their job, and
the audience was very excited throughout the opening act.
Frank Black started the show at the Greek Theatre, and played an astonishingly good set for an opening act. "Nadine" was a hard and rough, in-your-face blues number, with a stomping, staccato chorus ("There! Goes! Nay! Deen!"). The crowd did
not seem too impressed, though. Black's time with the Pixies is the most commercially successful part of his career, but only half of the crowd in Berkeley cared.

The set-list remained the same on Tuesday and Friday, except for a few surprises. The Highway Companion tour features only two songs from the recent Tom Petty solo album of the same name. The concerts took songs from every aspect of Petty's career, with a focus on the earliest Heartbreakers albums.
Petty began both shows with "Listen to her Heart," a hit
from 1978 which contains the then-controversial drug-themed lyrics, "You think you're gonna take her away with your
money and your cocaine..."

Continued...

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