It's Camden... we're always busy!

On Friday, I took half the day off and went to see Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers at the Tweeter Center in Camden, NJ with my friend, Jesse. We had a really great time. One particularly funny moment was when we were pulling into the overflow parking lot (after taking us nearly FOUR hours to get there because of horrible traffic). We were stopped right in the middle of the crosswalk and I commented to the officers on duty what a busy night they must be having. One of them starts cracking up and replies, "It's CAMDEN... we're ALWAYS busy!" (for those of you that don't know, this city has been the murder capital of the USA the past two years). Jesse and I had a good laugh over that one.

We also laughed at our picnic dinner. We had made plans to bring small personal coolers with subs and sodas to eat when we got there. When we opened our coolers, Jesse apologized for his ghetto meal - instead of packing a sub, he opted for the cheaper route by making his own sandwich out of lunch meat from home. I started laughing as I exposed my meal... also a sandwich made from home.

Some general concert notes:

- The concert was great, as the band usually is. A great mix of classic covers and their own greatest hits. Tom is at the top of his game.

- The Allman Bros. opened for Tom and were surprisingly stellar. I've never had a ton of interest in seeing them before, but thoroughly enjoyed their TWO HOUR opening set. Maybe it was a result of the beer I was drinking and the contact high I got, but I don't think so. Seriously.... I don't think I have EVER seen that much pot at a concert (including Jimmy Buffett). Wow... I was as messed up as those brownies Caitlin once made in 507...

- Tom's hair looked the best I've ever seen it. My mom always asks me about his hair when I see him play since it's usually rock-star bad. We like to laugh at it.

- What is up with Mike Campbell (the lead guitarist)? As good as Tom's hair was, Mike's was that bad. Each time I see them, his hair seems to get nastier and nastier and his overall appearance is going downhill. He has some sort of rasta-dreds-stringy-long-haired thing going on. Drugs? (photo to follow as soon as blogger will let me upload)

- I laugh at how these guys seem to be single-handedly keeping vest-makers in business. Who wears vests these days besides TP&HBs? Between the vests, jeans, rolled-sleeve shirts and loose ties, I think they try to pull a sort of modern-day gunslinger look. Oddly enough, it works and they look damn cool for 55-year-old veterans.