Rock out in Reno

Reno has the Rodeo, Hot August Nights, the Best in the West Nugget Rib Cook-Off, The Great Reno Balloon Race and now, Petty for Cash.

In celebration of their 22nd Anniversary on the air, KTHX, 100.1 THE X, threw a concert in the John Ascuaga’s NUGGET Celebrity Showroom. Tickets were 20 bucks each and ALL proceeds went to “Keep Truckee Meadows Beautiful” and the Washoe County School District Fine Arts and Music Program. Surely a worthy cause but I was hooked by the music concept:

20 Bands play 1 Tom Petty Song each.
How cool is that?

I didn’t waste time before ordering tickets for me and C, Brian and Natasza.

The Celebrity Room is a nice room, just the right size for such an event; much the same size and feeling as Yoshi’s in San Francisco. Tables and booths are arranged on tiers, with seats way too close together, but generous aisles for the food and drink ladies. We sat at a table for six that would have been really uncomfortable with six, but was just right for four. So the room was about 2/3rds capacity, just right.

All of the familiar Tom Petty songs were represented;
Learning to Fly
Stop Draggin My Heart Around
Refugee
I Won’t Back Down
American Girl
and the rest…

What caught my attention were the names of the bands. I could imagine the guys (and/or gals) sitting around over a few beers (or something) to come up with a name.

Lonesome Tom
Charm of Hugo
Mental Floss
Saddle Tramps
Burnin Earl
Paper Mache Bambi
String Beings
Chris Good
Catherine Dunn Elementary School Choir
Crush
Delta Cat
Long Gone
Paisley Brain Cells
Strange on the Range
Tyler Stafford & Friends
Drinking With Clowns
Eric Anderson
Guitar Woody
Jelly Bread, and finally,
The Scot Marshall Band.

As you might imagine, some of the bands were hardly bands: Lonesome Tom was one guy with a slide guitar, there was a string trio — guess which — some real bands were really awful, but there were four or five that were very good and rocked out:
Guitar Woody, Running Down a Dream
Strange on the Range, Into the Great Wide Open
and closing the show, the Scot Marshall Band was joined by assorted other musicians on Don’t Come Around Here.

All in all, a rockin’ good time was had by all.