Entertainment: Tom Petty finally brings 'Mojo' to St. Pete Times Forum
By Lee Clark Zumpe
The Largo Leader - September 2, 2010
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers will perform Thursday, Sept, 16, 7:30 p.m., at the St. Pete Times Forum. 401 Channelside Drive, Tampa.
Tickets range from $29.50 to $125. Special reserved four-packs are now available for $99. The four-packs are available only in advance and supply is limited. To purchase tickets, call 813-301-2500 or visit www.sptimesforum.com.
The four was originally set to visit Tampa earlier this year but was rescheduled to accommodate the delayed arrival of the band's highly anticipated new album, "Mojo." The album, recorded between April 2009 and January 2010, was officially released June 15. It's the band's first studio album since 2002's "The Last DJ."
The new album showcases a wide variety of American music, including rock and roll, country, and both electric and acoustic blues. Petty's characteristic imagery is at work in the lyrics, synching up smoothing with the melodies.
Petty kept busy during the band's interim from recording new music. Along with a number of other projects, he reunited his first band, Mudcrutch, and cut the album they never got the opportunity to make back in the early '70s.
Petty brings some of the raw spirit of the Mudcrutch sessions back to the Heartbreakers. "Mojo" doesn't rely on studio trickery: it's all about the band playing the music they love and it shows.
"With this album, I want to show other people what I hear with the band," Petty said in a press release issued by Big Hassle Media. "'Mojo' is where the band lives when it's playing for itself."
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2002, their first year of eligibility. Since the band's debut album in 1976, Petty and the Heartbreakers have generated a string of familiar classics and chart-topping hits such as "Breakdown," "American Girl," "Don't Do Me Like That," "Refugee," "The Waiting," "You Got Lucky," "Don't Come Around Here No More" and "Runnin' Down a Dream."
In recent years, the band has continued to build on that success. The band's sold-out 2008 tour was the biggest of their career and came right after the band's acclaimed Super Bowl XLII half-time performance with a worldwide audience of nearly a billion people. The 2009 release of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers' career spanning "Live Anthology" earned glowing reviews from critics.
Rock and roll legends ZZ Top will share the stage with Petty.
ZZ Top, multi-platinum icons of rock, blues and boogie, have released a total of 14 studio albums and 42 singles in their decades-long career. Formed in 1969, ZZ Top consists of Billy Gibbons (guitar), Dusty Hill (bass), and Frank Beard (drums).
Beginning with a grungy blues groove that generated classic rock gems such as "La Grange," "Tush" and "Cheap Sunglasses," the band then embraced synthesizers in the 1980s with the albums "Eliminator" and "Afterburner." These successful releases included hits such as "Gimme All Your Lovin'," "Sharp Dressed Man" and "Sleeping Bag."