Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers and Steve Winwood at Verizon Amphitheater

Last night I went to see Steve Winwood and Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers at the new Verizon Amphitheater in Alpharetta. As this was my first time to visit this venue, which is the new home of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, I expected the amphitheater to be a clone of
Chastain Park, only OTP. For those of you who do not live in the metro Atlanta area, "OTP" means Outside the Perimeter...meaning 285, the highway which encircles Atlanta. I am totally an "ITP" person.....I almost never venture outside 285, except to go to Costco which is almost ITP.

The weather was horrific! We drove through the rain for what felt like hours into the burbs. Parking was a nightmare. The amphitheater is huge...... more like Lakewood Amphitheater which is on the southside of Atlanta. I was shocked! Our seats in Section 101, Row E, at $125 each, were not very good. I know I am spoiled and a concert snob. My Chastain table is in the 4th row of the pit, right in front of the stage and I usually don't attend concerts where I cannot sit right up front.

The great news was the concert was great! Tom Petty looks exactly the same as he did 20 years ago and he cranked out all of his greatest hits. Steve Winwood, one of my all time favorites, was fabulous. I am a die hard Traffic fan and he played all of my favorites...Low Spark of High Heel Boys, Empty Pages and Dear Mister Fantasy. The best part of the show was when Steve Winwood joined Tom Petty on stage for Can't Find My Way Home and Gimme Some Lovin.

Cameras were prohibited and I really did not take alot of good pictures because we were not close enough to the stage. It started raining and lightening and we left before the concert ended as I have heard that it is a total cluster with 10,000 people trying to exit onto 2 lane roads.

In sum, I am happy I checked out Verizon once but I won't be going back again!! My concerts will be limited to ITP... Chastain, the Fox, Civic Center and Philips. That's it.