Tom Petty Is Bringing Some Old Friends Along To Play The Riv Next Month
By Tankboy in Arts & Entertainment on Apr 25, 2016 5:24PM
Before he had The Heartbreakers, Tom Petty had Mudcrutch. After bopping around a number of groups in Florida during the late '60s, Petty finally settled into the southern grind sound of Mudcrutch.
Mudcrutch has a new album coning out, inventively titled 2, so Petty and the boys are hitting the road in support of it. For Chicago, that means they're playing the relatively cozy confines of The Riviera Theatre on May 28. There are currently only five dates listed for this tour, so expect tickets to disappear quickly when they go on sale this Friday at 10 a.m.
When Mudcrutch formed, the band specialized in a bluesier, more jamming take on rock, and paired Petty with Mike Campbell and Benmont Tench, two folks who would go on to collaborate with him for the following decades. But it was also where Petty met Tom Leadon, who influenced how Petty viewed composing songs for years to come.
Mudcrutch broke up in 1975 and would have remained a footnote in rock and/or roll lore, but in 2008 Petty reunited the band and released a new album of original material. Apparently there is something to the idea of just getting back together with childhood friends and just jamming, right?
The band's sound is swampier than you'd expect from Petty, but the Floridian roots that hold his catalog together were readily apparent. The germs of Petty's top ten chart-dominating sound lies within Mudcrutch, but the true joy of listening to the band is hearing Petty take on a darker and more churning approach to songwriting. If The Heartbreakers are a (mostly) friendly dictatorship, then Mudcrutch is the sound of a bunch of guys just jamming in a garage and having fun.