04-27-2026, 12:40 PM
This was a last minute thing. I was down in Monterey. We went to see a friend play an afternoon gig at a Carmel Valley tasting room. I saw that the Wallflowers were going to play their 3rd album: "Bringing Down the Horse" (the one with all the hits), but what caught my eye was they were going to follow that with Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers "Long After Dark" which is one of my favorite TP&H albums. We were already down there, so we decided to see if there were any decent/cheap seats for the Wallflowers - there were. We got some tickets and then went out for a light dinner. Came back and sat in the balcony.
I've sat balcony middle there before. I don't recall the seats being below budget airlines class before, but for these seats, my knees were jammed into the back of the next row seats when my back was fully against the back of my seat. It was moderately acceptable until someone sat in those seats and made the fit even more tight...
The opener was pretty talented. Aaron Lee Tasjan...Country-ish. Had a great range and did a great job accompanying himself with complex rhythms.
The Wallflowers came on next and busted right out with One Headlight, 6th Avenue Heartache, Bleeders and Three Marlenas. That is the complete catalog of songs I know by the Wallflowers and after that, the rest sounded similar. The band was tight and Jakob Dylan has a good, distinctive voice. He often would stop playing and gesture while singing, and he was interacting with the folks right up at the stage, but stagecraft-wise, he didn't talk to the audience much (although he did address us as Montgomery, before correcting himself and saying Monterey).
I thought they'd take a break and them come back to do the Tom Petty stuff, but no, they just plowed right into it. It was great! Great material and Jakob was perfect for that material. Again, the band was awesome and nailed every song. They came back for an encore and did 3 more songs, one I didn't recognize, and two more Tom Petty songs.
Really fun, except for the uncomfortable seats.
--tg
I've sat balcony middle there before. I don't recall the seats being below budget airlines class before, but for these seats, my knees were jammed into the back of the next row seats when my back was fully against the back of my seat. It was moderately acceptable until someone sat in those seats and made the fit even more tight...
The opener was pretty talented. Aaron Lee Tasjan...Country-ish. Had a great range and did a great job accompanying himself with complex rhythms.
The Wallflowers came on next and busted right out with One Headlight, 6th Avenue Heartache, Bleeders and Three Marlenas. That is the complete catalog of songs I know by the Wallflowers and after that, the rest sounded similar. The band was tight and Jakob Dylan has a good, distinctive voice. He often would stop playing and gesture while singing, and he was interacting with the folks right up at the stage, but stagecraft-wise, he didn't talk to the audience much (although he did address us as Montgomery, before correcting himself and saying Monterey).
I thought they'd take a break and them come back to do the Tom Petty stuff, but no, they just plowed right into it. It was great! Great material and Jakob was perfect for that material. Again, the band was awesome and nailed every song. They came back for an encore and did 3 more songs, one I didn't recognize, and two more Tom Petty songs.
Really fun, except for the uncomfortable seats.
--tg