Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers: PBS Soundstage Series

By: Erik Swift

May 2004

DVD Features Video: 1.33:1 Audio: Dolby Digital 2.0 Includes bonus performances not seen in the broadcast. DVD  by PBS 150 Minutes DVD I: Baby Please Don’t Go Crawling Back To You Handle With Care I Won’t Back Down I’m Cryin’ Angel Dream Melinda Born In Chicago Red Rooster Carol Refugee DVD II: Love Is A Long Road You Don’t Know How It Feels Black Leather Woman Done Somebody Wrong I Got A Woman Thirteen Days Wake Up Time Rollin’ In My Sweet Baby’s Arms Lost Children Two Men Talkin’ You Wreck Me Bonus Tracks: Down Home Girl I’d Like To Love You Baby Not Fade Away Walls Yer So Bad Billy The Kid Like A Diamond Can’t Stop The Sun

Every few years since 1997, Tom Petty and his Heartbreakers have taken up multi-night stands at San Francisco’s Fillmore or Irving Plaza in New York. By playing intimate settings and delivering memorable shows at reasonable prices, Petty and co. are sticking it to the insane $150 - $350 the Eagles, Paul McCartney and the Rolling Stones have managed to command in recent years. Unlike those artists, Petty continues to improve with age and asked a mere $50.50 for any of the five gigs he played in the Windy City in April 2003 at the Vic Theatre. The lucky few that packed the 1400-seat venue west of Lake Shore Drive on North Sheffield Avenue on those evenings witnessed a musical history lesson steeped in Chicago Blues 101. Fortunately, he was also in town to tape a performance in front of 450 people for the first shows of the PBS TV series “Soundstage,” back from a lengthy hiatus. PBS asked for enough material for at least one hour-long episode, two if possible. They got enough for nearly three, and 28 of the 29 songs played that night are now available as part of a two-disc DVD set available only at http://www.outletplace.com

“When we rehearsed,” Petty says on the “Soundstage” website, “we tried to select the songs we really enjoyed playing…all of our favorites.” The Heartbreakers are clearly enjoying themselves across both discs. Observe how Petty stops the band on a dime during “You Wreck Me” or slows them to a driving purr on their cover of Muddy Waters’ “Baby Please Don’t Go.” Watch Benmont Tench jumping behind his wall of keyboards as a bubbling organ rises from The Animals’ “I’m Cryin’”, blending his vocals with that of Petty and rhythm guitarist Scott Thurston while Ron Blair holds a rock-steady bassline; marvel at guitarist Mike Campbell wringing every last note out of “Refugee” – all moments that the slyly smirking bandleader presides over as if to say “Check us out on this” before summoning spirits from the ashes of Chess Studios.

Expecting a greatest hits set? Sorry, MIA - these guys are having a blast playing songs from their influences, and rarely will this band ever dust off these blues and early rock nuggets again. Campbell’s slide weaves throughout “Done Somebody Wrong” with Steve Ferrone’s drumming and Thurston’s harmonica unexpectedly dominating the choice cut from the King of the Slide Guitar, Elmore James. Tench’s boogie-woogie piano prevails on Alvin Robinson’s “Down Home Girl,” a song that the Rolling Stones covered on 1965’s “The Rolling Stones Now.” Petty and the Heartbreakers also take the barely 140 seconds of the bonus song “Not Fade Away” and burn the Buddy Holly track to its raw essence – no trappings, just pure unadulterated rock and roll.

Cracking jokes, Petty is very much at home and his beautiful acoustic “Angel Dream” fits the warm settings. Of the three new numbers premiered here, the dark “Melinda” is a showcase for the talent of Tench, but it’s “Black Leather Woman” that could fool anyone into thinking it’s from somewhere beyond Robert Johnson’s unmarked grave in the Mississippi Delta. Thurston’s serious work on the axe and harmonica for the duration of this song confirms he is more than just a backing musician – he spurs the other band members to stop or top him. The sextet also rips up the great rocker “Lost Children,” and whether Campbell handles a Les Paul or an electric mandolin, his slide solo on the leadoff “Full Moon Fever” single “I Won’t Back Down” is one of the night’s many gems.

Totaling 150 minutes, there is no reason everything can’t fit on a sole DVD. With 28 of the 29 songs performed at the taping here, no one should be faulted for kicking Big Bird in his feathery ass and refusing any PBS pledge until the missing song is included. Each disc contains a separate 11-song episode, but the second is the meatiest, holding a half dozen unaired bonus songs from the “Soundstage” performance and a pair of tracks from the recently released “The Last DJ: Live At The Olympic” DVD/CD set. It’s a tough choice between the two sets because they’re very different. The latter is the live broadcast beamed around the planet on the eve of the release of “The Last DJ” album. Featuring the band’s stellar performance of the disc’s dozen songs with a six-song encore, it includes a CD with four covers from “Soundstage.” My pick is the former, not because it supports a good cause but because the verification of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers’ March 18, 2002 induction into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame is glaringly obvious. Their musical roots are showing, and do they ever climb their family tree to tell anyone that will listen.

Reviewer’s Opinion: BUY IT!!