You gotta love it! Red Rocks Amphitheatre seems to bring out the best in both performers and audience. Maybe it was the location, maybe a thirst for good old rock ‘n’ roll, maybe a yearning for transport, if only temporarily, to the high-spirited idealism of the ‘70s that brought out the crowds. Whatever the reason, in a Denver concert season notable for sluggish ticket sales, Tom Petty and Jackson Browne sold out two consecutive shows this week.

Jackson Browne appeared on stage for a late sound check after the concert-goers had already entered the venue. He was immediately embraced by the large crowd and readily acknowledged the audience, saying he might as well play songs (such as "Sky Blue and Black") that he wouldn’t be performing later in the show. After about 20 minutes, Browne exited the stage, wryly noting that he had to make a “costume change” before the real show.

He reappeared about 15 minutes later dressed comfortably in a Hawaiian-style shirt, jeans and cowboy boots, opening his set with "On the Boulevard," and "Everywhere I Go." Browne then slid over to the piano to play one of his earliest tunes, "Farther On." The small digital piano faced the crowd at center stage and provided a great opportunity to watch the artist’s fingers glide over the keys as his plaintive vocals pierced the night.

Browne spoke little throughout the set though he did get in a small dig at the Colorado crowd by saying, lightheartedly, “I hear you all are hard on Californians out here…we’re from California, you know.” Browne next got the crowd rocking with "The Night Inside Me," then moved once again to the piano to play one of his time-tested stellar pieces, "Rock Me On The Water," a still-relevant song that, in these greedy, “me-first” times, seems to have been undeniably prescient.

The rest of the set included "Barricades of Heaven," "I’m Alive," "Culver Moon," and a parade of hits that brought the crowd to its feet, "Doctor My Eyes," "Running on Empty," and "The Pretender." The set closed with "For a Rocker" from 1983’s Lawyers in Love.

After a 45-minute interlude, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, dressed snazzily in suitcoats, took to the stage. The set itself was startlingly schizophrenic. Framing the stage floor were five futuristic-looking, floor-to-ceiling clawed, metal tentacles mounted with powerful stage lights. However, the overall visual effect of the set was of a 1960s basement lounge. Large, worn, oriental rugs covered the floor and a black baby grand piano anchored the left side. Ethereal, abstract patterns of light floated on the rock wall behind the stage mimicking a giant stone-age lava lamp.

While Browne looks as if he hasn’t changed (or aged) in 25 years, Petty, the same age as Browne, truly looks the part of a patriarch of rock with his long, thin blond-gray hair framing angular features. The crowd immediately jumped up when Petty made his entrance and he stoked the excitement with his classic, "Runnin’ Down a Dream" followed by "I Won’t Back Down." Petty deftly mixed old songs and new songs, thanking the crowd each time he got a good response to the new material. In keeping with the “good times” atmosphere Petty projects during his shows, he introduced "Here Comes My Girl," by saying, “Here’s a real old song from the 1970s – when men were men and women took quaaludes.” Other songs included "Have Love Will Travel" and "Lost Children" (both new), "It’s Good To be King," "Mary Jane’s Last Dance" and a funky cover of the Rolling Stones’ "Down Home Girl."

Petty spoke wistfully about the meaningfulness of writing songs and lamented their later commercial use. He proudly proclaimed that the current tour had no corporate sponsors or as he said to the audience, “this concert is brought to you BY you.”

During a short interlude, Petty stripped down the sound and instrumentation, doing a medley of songs including "Learning to Fly," "Time to Move On," "Dylan’s "Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door," and John Lennon’s "Give Peace a Chance." Heck, it almost made one BELIEVE again.

The concert soon kicked into high gear again with hits such as "Refugee," but…how did it end? Maybe you can tell us. There’s something about that hour and a half drive home and possible hour wait to get out of the parking lot that makes a reviewer’s feet itchy to leave a little early, especially when an early morning appointment looms. One benefit – it’s pretty cool to walk out of the amphitheatre down towards the lights of the city, glance backward over a shoulder and hear music and the roar of the crowd echoing off the massive stone walls. I wondered why some people come hang out at the shows without tickets. Now I know.

Mountain West Music 2002