Living Legends Concert Tour 2005: Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers

Date: July 21, 2005

Time: 7:00 pm

Location: Verizon Wireless Music Center, Noblesville, Indiana

Seats: Pavilion Section G, Row AA, Seats 21 and 22

"There's Pigeons there in Market Square, she's standing in her underwear." Tom Petty - Last Dance With Mary Jane

It's been a few years since I swore off Verizon. It was the Dave Matthews Band show. The show was sold out, it was absolutely packed, and it was miserable. Parking sucked...it took three hours to get out of the parking lot at the end of the show.

As the years ticked by, we started to make amends with the venue. But never again in the lawn (as we were for the Matthews show). We saw a few shows there, and it was ok...

Then came Tom Petty.

We left Columbus at 4:45. The venue is roughly an hour away. At about 7:00, we were still 1/2 mile from the exit. Stopped in bumper to bumper traffic. For 45 minutes! We finally entered the venue in time to see the Black Crowes play 2 songs from their set. It was, after all, nearly 8:00 at this point.

It had briefly rained, also, and our "pavilion seats", were not really under the pavilion. Needless to say (but I'm gonna say it anyway) the seats were soaked. Becky and I decided to make an exit strategy, because of the sold out nature of the show, and the impending second coming of rain, which loomed ever present during the night.

"God's Own Little Light Show"

When Tom Petty took the stage at 9:00, the thunder and lightning was crashing all around.

"Let's leave at 11," Becky said.

"I think we'll look at things at 10:30." I responded.

Well, we listened to about 6 or 7 classic Petty songs (and one Traveling Wilburys tune), when I turned to Becky and said, "Let's hit the road."

It was just before 10:00.

We got to the car, out of the parking lot (very quickly...duh, we left early!), and no sooner did we hit I-69, the rain hit us.

Hard.

We couldn't see the road. Cars pulled to the side. Not Becky, of course, cause she was unafraid. We got home around 11:45 or so, and hit the sack. The Black Crowes were really good (what we saw) and Tom Petty was excellent. It's just that damn Verizon. I'm going on record right now...unless someone else is driving, I will not return there. PERIOD. (it's too bad really, we had James Taylor tickets for this Tuesday...)
....

The next day, we found out the rain knocked out the power at the show, not 10 minutes after we left. Petty was mid song when it happened, and I guess the crowd kept singing the song. Tom was proud. He tried to play some more when the lights returned, but it wasn't happening. The power went out again, and the show was cancelled, leaving a sold out shows worth of people scrambling, wet, to the exits.

I bet that was fun.

Thank goodness we left when we did.