Tuesday March 17, 2020. That is the show date on my ticket I now have as a reminder of a great show. The Covid 19 virus outbreak in early 2020 forced the entire tour to re-schedule all the way to 2022. In the meantime there have been not one but two stellar albums from this incredible band released for all of the growing fan base. I reported on the first album as it released in the fall of 2020 after a delay again from the pandemic. “Wreckless Abandon” was the first album and every song on this debut record is insanely great.
March 2022. The brand new album “External Combustion” has just released and that album will be the subject of my next blog post and podcast. In the meantime I want to capture my thoughts from a few nights ago where I finally was able to see the band I had waited two years to see. I would have waited ten years to see this band!
As I have told quite a few people and most of you know I see live music constantly as I have all my life. I can safely say I was more excited about this show than I had been in a long, long time. If you have gotten this far in the article and don’t know who I am writing about I will just say Mike Campbell is a rock star, producer, song-writer, and well known as the lead guitar player with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. He also joined Fleetwood Mac on their last tour to fill in for Lindsay Buckingham. Many people don’t know he wrote “Boys of Summer” that Don Henley had a smash hit with all those years ago and the list really goes on with many of the best in the business. If you turn on a rock radio today you will likely hear a Mike Campbell song less than an hour. More to come. Read on.
Tuesday, March 29, 2022. I am standing outside the fabulous Birchmere in very frigid wind. There had been high winds and even snow flying at times over the last two days in the Washington DC area. The national weather service was even advertising a gale warning for the area. I have to admit I was not dressed for the weather in my light jacket and t-shirt but here I was standing in a line to get into the general admission show where your position in the line would ultimately determine your seat inside. Well I had been looking forward to this show so long I really wanted to arrive sooner but the weather had kind of put a bit of damper on that plan however I was early enough to get right in front of the stage inside. So let’s just say it was a two hour plus wait just to get in behind the blue doors inside and it was worth it.
I do need to stop for a moment and mention a friend. This guy was one of my lunch buddies who I worked with for many years at the gig that has allowed me to chase my musical passion all these decades. My friends name was Johnny Powell. Johnny and I spent many years sitting at a table during lunch talking about all the concerts we had seen and talking about all kinds of music related topics. He retired about a year before I did and before he left for retirement I told him I wanted to go to a show with him because we had never been to a concert together. It was my idea to introduce him to Mike Campbell and the Dirty Knobs as Johnny was a rocker and I knew he would get off on this show so I bought us two tickets and booked a hotel for the five hour road trip to Alexandria, Virginia. That was back in 2019 when these tickets went on sale. I would say I likely had two of the first ones sold as I follow this band closely and have for a long time. Johnny was looking forward to the show and we were even planning how we were going to have a great time in DC.
Soon after buying the tickets I got a phone call. A friend of mine told me Johnny was working in his yard and had died of a heart attack. Well all I can say is that was a very sad day for me as Johnny and I had shared many hours talking about music and eating our lunches together over the years. He had got me into this habit of bringing a bag of chocolate and sharing it with the table. He always had some great chocolate and soon I was adding to the collection so it was not hard for our lunch table to draw a crowd at times. It is the simple things in life sometimes that you remember and enjoy. I will leave it there. Let’s just say Johnny made it to the Birchmere with me in spirit Tuesday night. He was there rocking and I raised a toast to him and the band right in front of me.
The show? Well I had a photo of the set list that I followed throughout the show which was fairly close to what was played until the show near the end almost THREE HOURS LATER! As the band walked to the stage I felt my excitement almost get the best of me. As I have said many times I don’t get this way for just any show. As Mike was putting on his guitar I actually said “Man we have been waiting for this show for two years” to which Mike replied “Well we risked our lives to play this gig!” I thought yeah I would have walked to DC to see this show and waited ten years if I had to. I was already smiling and honestly tears of joy started flowing down my face. I knew this show was gonna’ blow my wig off.
Did I mention Margo Price is on the new Dirty Knobs album with an incredible song called “State of Mind?” Well her husband opened the show. Jeremy Ivey. He was great!
So the show started with a song from the new album called “Wicked Mind” and the entire show was just totally rocking. The intensity of the band originals and the occasional Tom Petty song added in just really amped the whole crowd up. Mike was so gracious with the crowd commenting on people dancing and engaging the entire audience to sing along to some of the songs. I have to admit I was singing quite a bit on the band songs and the Tom Petty ones. This crowd was a sophisticated listening crowd. They were there to hear the music and after thunderous applause the noise would lay down in anticipation of the next song. Mike even commented on how he liked that. To me this crowd made the show even more enjoyable. As I heard the crowd singing you just knew that everyone there knew the music and everyone was having a really special night. I know I was.
How would I sum up what I saw last Tuesday night? Well I saw three solid incredible hours of music. I heard some of the new tracks, some of the debut album tracks, a little Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley, (As Tom would say Diddley is Daddy), surf music, some Tom Petty selections with personal stories from Mike, and honestly I saw a show that will be hard to top for a long time. I mean only a few months back I was standing ten feet from Mick Jagger and Keith Richards with their gang on stage and how do I compare the two shows? The shows are not apples to apples except on the excitement meter which was pretty well pegged all night long in both cases.
Today I was on the phone with a friend in Florida making plans. I believe there is at least another road trip coming real soon to catch this tour while the small venue shows last. My advice to anyone is to go see this band as soon as you can as they will be on the stadium circuit soon.
Mike Campbell shares my birthday of February 1 and he is 72 years old. He still rocks with the energy of a 22 year old and he is an absolute master of the guitar. He writes incredible songs and has shared his career with some of the best in country and rock and roll. As I said earlier he and the band gave us THREE HOURS non-stop rock and roll. Most touring artists only wish they could deliver a performance like that. Thank you to this band you gave us one hell of a night and a whole lot of memories.
Mike ended the night with a couple of sentences from the stage. He said I will leave you with this “I was born to play guitar and I love my fucking job.”
Yeah, I got a passion for it.
Until next time I’ll see you, down the road.