Mudcrutch at the Troubadour

Last night Jacki and I got to see Tom Petty make a rare club appearance in the standing room only Troubadour in West Hollywood. He was playing a set with his original band from the 70's called Mudcrutch. The band includes a couple of members from the Heartbreakers and a couple of the original guys from the Mudcrutch days before Tom Petty became famous.

They are doing a small run of concerts in California and this was the 2nd night of 6 sold out nights at the Troubadour. Unfortunately they didn't distribute tickets in an effort to prevent scalping, so tickets were sold exclusively through Ticketmaster and could only be picked up by the credit card owner. Supposedly this standing room only I heard the venue only holds 300 people.

The band played a solid 2 hours, and although the audience knew very little of the material, it didn't stop the crowd from having a great time. The band threw in a few covers including a couple of Dylan covers that had the crowd singing along. Security was tight so no good pictures from the show.

Near the end of the set Jacki noticed that what appeared to be Tom's monitors on the floor of the stage were actually teleprompters. I guess after all of these years you can't expect Tom to remember 2 hours of new material. However I doubt anyone noticed the use of them all night.

Tom took an unassuming role settling in on bass for the entire night and even let some of the other guys sing lead vocals on a couple of the songs. Although Tom doesn't look like a bass player he sounded great plucking the country bass lines with his his thumb the entire show.

Highlights of the show for me were Summertime Blues, the bluegrass influenced instrumental June Apple and the Crystal River jam at the end of the song. Tom also turned part storyteller telling a hilarious story about coming to the Troubadour in the 70s and being invited on stage to play with the Knack after getting a bit intoxicated. When it was all said in done he thought he had a memorable appearance but in reality he ended up trashing the tables and ended up owing the club nearly 500 dollars.

A great show in a great venue.

Mudcrutch
April 26, 2008
Troubadour
West Hollywood, CA

Shady Grove
Orphan Of The Storm
Six Days On The Road
Scare Easy
You Go Your Way, I'll Go Mine
This is a Good Street
Love Of The Bayou
(Band Introductions)
Queen Of The Go Go Girls
Rip It Up
Summertime Blues
June Apple
(Tom Petty Troubadour story with the Knack and Bruce Springsteen)
House Of Stone
Love Please Come Home
Crystal River
Topanga Cowgirl
The Wrong Thing To Do
Bootleg Flyer
Encore
Rainy Day Women #12 & #35
High School Confidential