4th Avenue Heartache

Hold tight! Concert detour to the mid-90s. Ladies & gentlemen, The Wallflowers!

Who I'd forgotten until just now that I have seen before! How does that happen?

Well...

Like pretty much every other 20-something in DFW, Jenny & I scored free tickets to BLOCKBUSTER RockFest in 1997, and spent a long day at Texas Motor Speedway with our friends & neighbors, Mardi & Kelly. The lineup at that show was a who's who of 90s rock: Sugar Ray, Third Eye Blind, Matchbox 20, Jewel, The Wallflowers, Collective Soul, Counting Crows, No Doubt & Bush. While I do remember alot about the day, the bands I most remember are Collective Soul, No Doubt & Bush.

So, 27+ years later, I gotta cut myself some slack for looking forward to catching The Wallflowers for the first time. 🤷

And here's another sudden realization: the Carrollton Festival at the Switchyard is on it's way to becoming RockFest Revisited! (last year: Collective Soul, coincidence or trend?)

4th Avenue & Elm Street, Carrollton TX

Anyway, back to The Wallflowers... they're good! Just like I remember em.

Jakob Dylan & crew do about an hour of their hits (One Headlight, 6th Avenue Heartache, The Difference, Three Marlenas) plus some others' (Wild World). All ya can ask for for a free festival show. And then the encore...

"I wanna be in Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers so bad. It's my dream!"

What follows is the set of his dreams: You Got Lucky, Refugee & The Waiting. And as a Heartbreakers cover band, The Wallflowers are a really good approximation. Not just the band itself with the organ, straight ahead drumming and Mike Campbell-esque guitar licks, Dylan's vibe is also very Petty. (with a little of Bruce Springsteen's strained vocal style) Kinda makes ya wonder if this was his plan all along. Since he couldn't be Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, he created his own.

I wonder if any other concertgoers old enough to have been at RockFest also recognize this structure.
Mid 90s: Robert Tilton's Word of Faith mega church rainbow landmark. (wonder where he is today?)