June 15, 2013

Klipsch Music Center - Noblesville, IN

By population standards, 25,000 people might be considered a big town or a small city, but when the same amount of people stretching back as far as you can see all stand up at the exact same time and erupt in screams and cheers, it sucks all the oxygen out of the space and literally takes your breath away.

That’s what it felt like standing on the lip of the stage Saturday night at the Klipsch Music Center outside Indianapolis when the house lights dropped and Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers returned for the first time since 2010.

The band has a long history with the venue formerly known as Deer Creek, having played many great shows there over the years including a legendary sold-out show in 2008 amid a thunderstorm that culminated with lightning striking the venue and knocking out power during “Refugee.”

Saturday night was also a sell out, with 24,765 fans packing the outdoor amphitheater to set a new venue attendance record. Internet chatter prior to the show speculated on what Tom and the band would change from the recent shows in New York and Los Angeles, which focused more on the deeper album tracks and special covers. “Rock & Roll Star” remained in the lead-off spot and got things off on the right foot, but it was “Mary Jane’s Last Dance” – moved up to the fifth song in the set – that was the highlight of the night and got the crowd rockin’ early with its nod to their home state:

“She grew up in an Indiana town,

Had a good lookin' mama who never was around.

But she grew up tall and she grew up right

With them Indiana boys on an Indiana night.”

Set List:

Rock & Roll Star

Love Is A Long Road

I Won’t Back Down

Here Comes My Girl

Mary Jane’s Last Dance

Good Enough

Free Fallin’

Woman In Love

Listen To Her Heart

Tweeter & the Monkey Man

You Wreck Me

Melinda

Learning to Fly

You’re So Bad

I Should Have Known It

Refugee

Runnin’ Down A Dream

E:

Don’t Come Around Here No More

American Girl

Check Out Photos From The Show Here!