I first saw Tom Petty in the very early 1980s, and have probably attended seven or eight of his shows. The guy (and his band) have never let me down, never delivered anything short of a high-quality concert. And some of those concerts were nothing short of terrific. I can’t say that about many (any?) other of the hundreds of performers I’ve seen and reviewed over the years (decades).

Same thing happened last night at the St. Pete Times Forum. Petty and his five Heartbreakers delivered an enthusiastic two-hour set, exquisitely paced with moments that ranged from exalted energy to pensive reflection.

This article appears in Jul 16-22, 2008.

Eric Snider is the dean of Bay area music critics. He started in the early 1980s as one of the founding members of Music magazine, a free bi-monthly. He was the pop music critic for the then-St. Petersburg...