TD Garden
Boston, MA
July 20-21, 2017
On December 10 & 12, 1976, Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers played their first two shows in Boston, MA, opening up for Al Kooper at Paul’s Mall, a long-defunct club located underground at 733 Boylston Street.
Their self-titled debut album had been out for about a month on Shelter Records, and deejays in Boston were among the first in the country to spin it. Depending on who you ask in the Heartbreaker camp, the Boston shows were among the first ten gigs of the band’s storied career. The band and road crew stayed just around the corner from the club at the Lenox Hotel, the same hotel that Red Auerbach lived in while he coached the Boston Celtics. After sound check the first night, keyboardist Benmont Tench snuck back onstage to check out the drawbar settings on Kooper’s Hammond organ. These were the early days, and the road was ahead of them.
Over 40 years later, Tom and the guys returned to Boston for two shows at TD Garden that seemed to celebrate the joint history between the city and the band.
“This is the first song off our first album, Boston, and you were one of the first places it got played!” Tom told the sold-out crowd at TD Garden the first night before the band ripped into “Rockin’ Around With You” off their debut album. Night one saw the return of “You Got Lucky” to the setlist, and both “Into The Great Wide Open” and “Swingin’” made it into the show on night two.
07.20.17
Rockin’ Around With You
Mary Jane’s Last Dance
You Don’t Know How It Feels
Forgotten Man
You Got Lucky
I Won’t Back Down
Free Fallin’
Walls
Don’t Come Around Here No More
It’s Good To Be King
Crawling Back to You
Wildflowers
Learning to Fly
Yer So Bad
I Should Have Known It
Refugee
Runnin’ Down A Dream
You Wreck Me
American Girl
07.21.17
Rockin’ Around With You
Mary Jane’s Last Dance
You Don’t Know How It Feels
Forgotten Man
Into The Great Wide Open
You Got Lucky
I Won’t Back Down
Free Fallin’
Swingin’
Don’t Come Around Here No More
It’s Good To Be King
Crawling Back to You
Wildflowers
Learning to Fly
Yer So Bad
I Should Have Known It
Refugee
Runnin’ Down A Dream
You Wreck Me
American Girl