On Friday, September 9th, Mike Campbell & The Dirty Knobs rocked The Paramount In Huntington, Long Island. They played for two and a half hours mixing some Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers classics with songs from both of their albums. Their most recent album, External Combustion, which is also the name of this tour, came out in March.
Mike Campbell was the guitarist for Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers for over 50 years. He is responsible for some of the most famous guitar riffs in music history. Campbell co-wrote many of the band’s hits including “Refugee,” “Runnin’ Down a Dream,” “Here Comes My Girl” and “You Got Lucky.” He was inducted into the Rock Hall of Fame with the Heartbreakers in 2022.
Campbell started The Dirty Knobs in 2001. The original lineup included guitarist Jason Sinay, bassist Ron Blair, and drummer Steve Ferrone. Lance Morrison, Matt Laug and Chris Holt joined when Blair, Ferrone and Sinay dropped out of the group. The band became Campbell’s main priority after the death of Tom Petty in 2017. Their first album, Wreckless Abandon, was released in 2020. Until then they were just a live band that played when The Heartbreakers weren’t on tour.
They were on fire Friday night at The Paramount. Their set started with “Wicked Mind,” the first single off the most recent album. Other songs featured from Wreckless Abandon included “Dirty Job,” “In This Lifetime,” and “Electric Gypsy.” Many times during the set, Campbell went off into intricate psychedelic guitar solos. The rest of the band also sounded great as they backed Campbell on Tom Petty covers like “Even the Losers,” and “Runnin’ Down a Dream.”
Country Blues guitarist Alvin Youngblood Hart opened the show on Friday night. Bluesman Taj Mahal once said about Hart: “The boy has got thunder in his hands.” His debut album, Big Mama’s Door, came out in 1996. Hart received a Grammy Award in 2005 for his contribution to the album Beautiful Dreamer – The Songs of Stephen Foster.
They will be playing The Capitol Theatre in Port Chester on Friday, September 16th. Visit their website here for additional tour dates.
Setlist: Wicked Mind, Lightning Boogie, External Combustion, Even the Losers, State of Mind, Dirty Job, Fuck That Guy, Wreckless, Somewhere in London, I Still Love You, In This Lifetime, Electric Gypsy, Sugar, Southern Accents, Southern Boy, Runnin’ Down a Dream
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