Yesterday I had a fairly rough day at work, but nothing could bring me down from my seat on Cloud 9. My post-work plan morphed into one of my all time best rock show experiences. Early Tuesday morning I received an email reminder that not only was Petty playing the Garden later that day, but I had a ticket! This came as a more than welcomed surprise since the ticket had been discussed from time to time, but I never got the date of the show. In any event, by midday I knew that my evening would consist of my first Tom Petty show. (Wait, Gigs and I had this discussion - it isn't a "show" when you're at MSG; it's a concert.)

Noah waited outside the office as I finished up the day. We proceeded to walk through the ailing streets of midtown before ducking into Blaggard's Pub for some terrible pub food. From there we cruised over to Hickey's for a quick glass of whiskey and some locker room style BO. We got the call and met all the Beachs and Gigs in front of MSG. There was a tremendous amount of excitement in the air for Petty who looked to be the Pied Piper for white people of all ages. Trey was busy noodling as the opener so we figured our time would best be spent at the bar one level below our seats. After a few more whiskeys, we were all properly bevvied and ready for the Petty.

When we returned to our seats, Tumbleweed was there waiting for us. He quickly put Noah to work to ensure that we'd have a joint to smoke once the band hit the stage. As the band took the stage, the entire room took their feet. I've never heard a room of folks sing-a-long so passionately, (was I blind to it at the Rolling Stones show). The two hour set consisted of huge jams like "You Don't Know How It Feels", "Free Fallen", "I Won't Back Down", "Runnin Down a Dream", a psychedelic light show for "Don't Come Around Here No More", "Learning to Fly", "Mary Jane's Last Dance" and "You Wreck Me Baby". Just rest assured that my intoxication prevented my memory from retaining the order. What it does remember is one outstanding piano solo that felt like it clocked in just under 10 minutes and another guitar jam that did the same. With each hip shake, Petty whipped the crowd into a bizarre frenzy of noise that became deafening when he requested to hear "The Garden louder than ever before." The show was everything I wanted it to be. The jams, the acoustic rock, the old folks sneaking down to smoke joints, the persistance of Stevie Nicks to to be on stage, the company and the Sean Bones text messages added up to a Tuesday night that has to be considered for "Top of the Pops" - at least in terms of Tuesdays.

After 30 years of rocking, Tom Petty still has the stuff to make 20k people go apeshit. Here's to hoping he can pull another 30 out of some magical hat.