Heartbreaker

I am 13 years old and riding in the back of a beat-up relic somewhere in Eastern Maryland.  I am in the middle seat, on either side of me are Ronnie Schwartz and Eric Nederlander, my roommates at nearby Don Budge Tennis Camp.  I am holding a Mickey's Wide Mouth, my first beer.  The bottle is green and in the shape of a barrel.and feels like a grenade in my hand.  We are headed to the Merriweather Post Paviliion, July, 1981, on our way to see Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.  Our counselors are in the front seat pounding their hands on the dashboard in rhythm to the cassette playing "You don't have to live like a refugee.."


It's 30+ years later and my 12 year old jumps out of a cab in London to meet her middle-aged father at the Royal Albert Hall to see Tom Petty on his first European tour in 20 years. The place is populated by aging rockers wearing concert t-shirts that are older than she is:  the Rolling Stones 1982, the Who 1980, Tom Petty 1981.  Instead of a Mickey's Wide Mouth we sit in a small bar in the basement of the hall eating popcorn and drinking sparkling water.  Surrounded by diehard fans, mostly American, she asks in a loud sweet voice, "Who are we seeing again?  Tim Perry?"  This gets more than a passing glance from the rest.

To my disappointment there is a warm up band who isn't even introduced.  I only learn their names because they are selling Jonathan Wilson t-shirts at the stand.  I thought we'd be home by 9, but the Heartbreakers don't come on until then, Petty in a three piece suit moving in cowboy boots like he's walking across an icy lake, but the voice and the guitar riffs don't disappoint.  At least they don't disappoint me.


At 10:30 we are home eating chicken wings over the kitchen sink and she tells me she thinks it will be fun bringing her kids to a Justin Bieber concert one day.  "I think it would be fun to bring them to see who I liked as a kid.  Maybe I'll take them to Usher too.  Well, no, he's already 40, by the time I have kids he'll be dead."