When this show was announced I was super excited about seeing Mike Campbell & The Dirty Knobs play in a bar, that bar being the Midway Music Hall. I've got his first two album with the Dirty Knobs and think they are great, so this was a must see show for me. After spreading the word to my buddies it was Buzzard, Cuz, Nazz, A-Bomb and I that were making our way to this show. What did disappoint me was a few weeks before the show I got an email from the event organizer saying that this would be a seated show. What the hell, I wanted to see this show because a general admission bar show where I can get up and close and shake my ass all night is what I signed up for, not to be seated at a rock n' roll show. Nonetheless, it was a seated show, not for me though, I stood at the back by the soundboard for all of Mike Campbell and danced the night away. There was no way I could have sat still for this show.
Opening the show was Shannon McNally from Long Island, New York. I had never heard of her before, so had to checkout her music before seeing her. I listened to a couple albums and thought they were alright, but nothing special. Seeing her perform live was really good, playing a folk/rock style of music. Within the first few minutes of being on stage she brought up the memories of her hometown hockey team beating the Edmonton Oilers in the Stanley Cup Finals way back in the early 80's. That brought out some laughs and boos. Though I can't remember the titles of the songs she played in her short half hour set, I did enjoy her set more than I was expecting. The highlight for me was when she brought out Mike Campbell's guitarist Chris Holt for a couple of songs including an awesome cover of Bob Dylan's "Tangled Up In Blue", they nailed it. Overall a great opening set.
It was now time for Mike Campbell & The Dirty Knobs. For those that don't know, Mike Campbell was the guitarist in Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers from the very beginning (1976-2016). Not only was he the guitarist but also wrote or co-wrote many songs with Petty. Mike was to Tom Petty what Steve Van Zandt is to Bruce Springsteen, songwriter, guitarist and friend. And if you have heard any of his three albums he has done so far with his band The Dirty Knobs you can't help but notice the similarity in his music style and voice to that of Tom Petty, bound to happen when you play in the Heartbreakers for forty years.
The Dirty Knobs band included and much to my surprise, longtime Heartbreakers drummer (1995-2016) Steve Ferrone, guitarist Chris Holt, bassist Lance Morrison and of course Mike Campbell. Looking at Mike Campbell and listening to him play, you would never guess he is 75 years old, unreal.
Mike Campbell & The Dirty Knobs hit the stage at precisely at 9 and didn't leave the stage until 11:20, a solid almost two and half hour show of loose rock n' roll. The whole night felt one big long jam session with Mike saying several times through the show that he was disregarding the setlist and playing whatever the hell he wanted to play. The band was great and Mike was looking to have a lot of fun in what I thought was a small turnout for the show, my guess would be maybe 300 people. The band played lots of Dirty Knobs songs such as "External Combustion","Dirty Job", "Wreckless Abandon", "Shake These Blues", "Hands Are Tied" and of course the song "Fuck That Guy", I was surprised how early in the set he did that song, that song had the crowd singing along big time.
Then there were the Tom Petty songs he and the band played, classics like "Even The Losers", "You Got Lucky", "Refugee" and "Runnin' Down A Dream" all songs that Mike co-wrote with Tom Petty. There may have been a couple other Petty songs but that's all i recall right now. there were a couple of covers too, the Beach Boys song "Lonely Sea" which was dedicated to Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys who passed away a week earlier. A cool cover of Van Morrison's "Gloria" and to end the night the Gordon Lightfoot song "Sundown".
An awesome night of rock n' roll. Good times!!!
Mike Campbell & The Dirty Knobs.
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