by Jackie Klapak

TOM PETTY ROCKED!!!

     It’s August already and by the time you read this I will be back in school, back in good ol’ Muncie, Indiana.

    Classes for me start August 8th. Talk about not having a summer!

   Thinking back on it, though, I suppose I had a pretty eventful summer. Although I spent my days working at the Lake County Clerk’s office in Hammond and my evenings at rehearsal for the Highland Community Theatre’s production of “West Side Story”, I was able to get a lot in during the summer.

    One of the best nights I had this summer was on July 15, when I went to see the Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers and The Black Crowes concert at the Tweeter Center with three of my friends: Colleen, Shannon, and Melissa. I don’t exactly know what was so amazing about the concert, but it’s one that I will certainly remember forever.

    The four of us left my house in Shannon’s killer BMW, and the ride itself to Tinley Park was nothing short of extremely entertaining. When we got onto the expressway and drove for a bit, a certain person in our group (not me, thank God!) realized that she had forgotten her ticket, so we had to turn all the way back around and get it. We could have all killed her!

     Fortunately, we were all laughing too hard to do any serious damage to her. (She’ll hear about it forever, though.)

    Though we were definitely on the right track, there was so much construction on I-94 that we somehow got lost. I have no idea how it happened, but pretty soon we were paying a lot of tolls and seeing billboards advertising for Wisconsin. We weren’t in Wisconsin yet, but we were well on our way, it seemed.

    Shannon took the nearest exit and we were ready to pull over somewhere and ask some random gas station attendant what the heck we were supposed to do, when we pulled up to an intersection, next to a red car with two guys in it. They looked about our age, and we didn’t think anything of it until we saw one of the guys light a joint.

    Everyone in our car laughed at them, but I leaned out the window and yelled the only logical thing,

    “Are you guys going to Tom Petty?!?!,” I hollered to them.  “Hell yeah!” , the driver yelled.

    “We don’t know where we’re going!” Shannon added, so they told us to follow them. Perhaps it wasn’t the smartest thing to do, but it was either follow them or miss half the concert finding directions elsewhere.

     Luckily for us, we ended up at the Tweeter Center safely and soundly. We zoomed past the guys who led us there and cut a bunch of people off (and ticked a lot of people off as well). When we were stuck in the car waiting to get into the parking lot, we blared up some Petty songs and grooved to them. As we inched along, nearly everyone we passed clapped, yelled, or sang along. It was great—I already felt connected to all these strangers, and the concert hadn’t even started yet!

      After what seemed like forever, we were sitting in the lawn amongst thousands. The concert had been completely sold out, and there were people stumbling into us from all directions.

     The Black Crowes opened.  When they finally finished, Tom Petty ran onto the stage and the crowd went wild! It was amazing! Until 11:00, he played his greatest songs. I loved all of them, and I liked my favorites even more than I had before the concert.

    Actually seeing Tom Petty’s face as he screamed to “You Don’t Know How it Feels” or watching him dance as he sang “Free Fallin’” was astounding. The crowd sang along to most of these songs.

    After too short of a time, the band finished up and the lights went out, but no way were we or the rest of the crowd satisfied. We all chanted – “Petty! Petty!” 

    Slowly, lighter by lighter was put into the air. (I think I was the fifth person to put my lighter up in the air, and my friends were sixth, seventh, and eighth.)

    Pretty soon, the entire place was nothing but lighters (or cell phones, for the people who didn’t have lighters). It was beautiful, really. Barely anyone knew anyone else. There were people passed out all over the lawn, drunks stumbling around, stoners eating as much food as possible, and couples doing nearly everything they could get away with on blankets.

    Despite all that nonsense, we all enjoyed good music. Through Petty’s songs, we were united, and everyone in the crowd had this one passion in common, whether he or she was a teenager trying to figure things out, a partying college student, someone going through a mid-life crisis, or an old guy with long white hair remembering his youth.

     The Heartbreakers came on again and ended with “American Girl.” In those last chords, I could feel the closeness of everyone. The summer seemed more real, the stars in the sky seemed to shine a little brighter, and for the first time all year, without a care in the world or a worry on my mind, I felt invincible; I truly felt seventeen.

     I think that sometimes we need to just let loose and be ourselves. We get so caught up in other junk that we forget to live in the “here and now.”  The Tom Petty concert was one of the best times I’ve ever had in my life—certainly one of the best times I’ve had as a seventeen-year-old. Thanks for reading about the experience, because wow, I wish all of you could have been there.

     Anyway, I didn’t get a chance to listen to the Rilo Kiley CD that I had planned to, so it looks as if you’ll have to stick around until next month. I send my sincere regrets to anyone who was looking forward to that. (I guess I got too caught up in the “here and now!”)

     Well, stay tuned, and I’ll see you next month.

    Good luck on your first days back at school! To all those going away from home as I do – travel safely!  As always, my e-mail is: jackie@midwestbeat.com

Well, that’s all. If you have anything to say, drop me an e-mail at: Jackie@midwestbeat.com

Check back next month and have a safe end of the summer!

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