Orange County Register

The Heartbreakers may rule this summer with shows at Verizon Wireless Amphitheater (Aug. 22) and the Hollywood Bowl (June 25), but it’s Tom Petty’s original band, Mudcrutch, that will stir up excitement in spring.

Mudcrutch, Pettyphiles will recall, was the band he and fellow Hall of Famers Mike Campbell and Benmont Tench (and friends Tom Leadon and Randall Marsh) started in the early ’70s back in Gainsville, Fla., and which eventually morphed into the Heartbreakers. More than three decades later, the band has resumed activity, having cut a new album in just two weeks last August. The self-titled “debut” drops April 29.

To promote it Petty and Mudcrutch are embarking on a brief tour of small California venues, concluding with a four-night run at the Troubadour in West Hollywood, April 25-26 and 28-29. (I pray I can get in for the final show. I’m at Coachella the rest of the time.)

Other stops include Santa Cruz Civic Auditorium on April 14 … April 16-17 at the Fillmore in San Francisco … April 19 at the Arlington Theatre in Santa Barbara … April 20 at the Ventura Theatre and April 22 at Alpine’s Concerts in the Park. The group will kick off its Cali jag with an appearance at the Benefit for the Midnight Mission, April 12 in Malibu.

A presale for all Highway Companion Club members starts at 10 a.m. tomorrow, March 21. Something tells me there won’t be many tickets left after that. So sign up now!

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