Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers Announce 2008 Summer Tour
I have been meaning to talk about this all week and I just haven’t had a fucking chance to sit and write about it, so file this away in your “A Day Late and a Dollar Short” folder.
Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers are, as I reported on the site earlier, playing the halftime show at the Super Bowl. You might have heard that elsewhere, but we were all over that one.
Now we’ve got even better news: Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers are going out on tour this summer. When the band toured last year for their 30th Anniversary (and gave a slight nod to Tom’s solo record Highway Companion), Petty hinted that the band’s days of extended US tours might be coming to an end; not so fast. The band is set to play 37 dates beginning at the end of May and running through August.
The even better news?
“I would like to see a set list that changed every night. I think it’s more fun. It’s harder on the production people,” he laughed (courtesy USA Today/Associated Press).
Last summer’s tour saw very few changes in the set list, the only noticeable changes being on nights when Stevie Nicks made guest appearances with the band.
Maybe TheWifeToWhomI’mMarried will get her wish and the band will play “All The Wrong Reasons” this time out. Maybe I’ll get my wish and we’ll get a proper, single-show live album from one of the great American bands. Here are the dates:
May 30- Van Andel Arena, Grand Rapids, MI
May 31- The Palace of Auburn Hills, Auburn Hills, MI
June 03- Air Canada Centre, Toronto, ON
June 05- Wachovia Center, Philadelphia, PA
June 08- Nissan Pavilion, Bristow, VA
June 10- Post-Gazette Pavilion, Burgettstown, PA
June 11- New England Dodge Music Center, Hartford, CT
June 13- TD Banknorth Garden, Boston, MA
June 17- Madison Square Garden, New York, NY
June 18- Prudential Center, Newark, NJ
June 21- Darien Lakes Performing Arts Center, Darien Center, NY
June 22- Blossom Music Center, Cuyahoga Falls, OH
June 25- Hollywood Bowl, Los Angeles, CA
July 02- United Center, Chicago, IL
July 03- Verizon Wireless Music Center, Noblesville, IN
July 08- Riverbend Music Center, Cincinnati, OH
July 09- Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre at Encore Park, Atlanta, GA
July 11- Charlotte Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre, Charlotte, NC
July 12- Walnut Creek Amphitheatre, Raleigh, NC
July 15- BankAtlantic Center, Ft. Lauderdale, FL
July 16- St. Pete Times Forum, Tampa, FL
July 19- TBD, Denver, CO
July 20- Quest Center Omaha, Omaha, NE
July 22- Sprint Center, Kansas City, MO
July 23- Target Center, Minneapolis, MN
August 07- Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre, Maryland Heights, MO
August 09- MTS Centre, Winnipeg, MB
August 11- Pengrowth Saddledome, Calgary, AB
August 12- Rexall Place, Edmonton, AB
August 15- The Gorge, George, WA
August 16- The Gorge, George, WA
August 20- Jobing.com Arena, Glendale, AZ
August 22- Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre, Irvine, CA
August 23- TBD, San Francisco, CA
August 26- Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre, Selma, TX
August 27- American Airlines Center, Dallas, TX
August 29- Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion, Woodlands, TX
Filed under: Tom Petty
Two nights at the Gorge! Whoo-Hoo!!!
-Glen
I really wish he’d have put Nashville on the list. I don’t want to go back to Atlanta a second time this year. On top of that, R.E.M.’s just announced tour dates are skipping Nashville; opting only for Atlanta. I’m not going to the ATL three times in one year and Bruce already has dibs.
Still, I’d love to see Petty again and I’ve never seen R.E.M.
Maybe you’ll get even better than a single-show live release, Josh. It seems like every time I see an artist readying a “changing song lineup” tour, it’s inevitably because they’re going to offer quick-turnaround live albums of each show. You might want to start hiding some money away now just in case. those can get mighty expensive.
I doubt I could be that lucky, but if it does I’m going to be so all over it! That would be incredibly cool.
Is the Tom Petty tour sponsored by Coors Light? Now that he’s playing the Super Bowl, I figure he’s running down a dreamy corporate sponsor.
I don’t think he’s taken corporate sponsors before and I doubt he is this time. He’s going to play three songs at the Super Bowl. I don’t see what the deal is.
Why would he have a problem with corporations? Petty has always recorded directly or indirectly for major music labels. Considering I haven’t even heard if his last album went Gold, it doesn’t seem unusual for an artist to play during one of the biggest pop culture events in the country, if not the world, to get himself some free publicity. A 30-second spot goes for almost 3 million during the Super Bowl. Keep track of how long he is on the air and then do the math. It’s called the music “business” for a reason.