You Gotta Hear Tom Petty’s Electrifying ’78 Boston Club Show

Here in New England we have a special connection to this great artist. Ours was one of the first regions in the country to embrace Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers on the radio.

WBLM in Maine and the gone and never forgotten WBCN in Boston were spinning Breakdown and American Girl among other tracks long before the breakout album, Damn the Torpedoes arrived in 1979.

Tom and the band rewarded our early New England adoration with a show in Bangor in July of 1978 opening for the J. Geils Band. They also played an historic show at the Paradise in Boston a few days earlier that was later broadcast on WBCN.

This was Tom Petty and the Heartbreaker's second appearance in Beantown. The first show was in 1976 at Paul's Mall. So yeah, this is a pretty special piece of rock history for the Northeast.

Thankfully, a recording of this memorable absolutely rocking moment in time is posted on YouTube. Even better, the sound quality is good. Let's listen while it's still there.