Tom Petty [ tickets ] and the Heartbreakers kicked off leg three of their triumphant 30th anniversary summer tour Thursday (9/14) with the first of two shows at Chicago's open-air, lakeside Charter One Pavilion.

Almost everyone, it seems, loves 55-year-old Tom Petty these days, especially on a cool, end-of-summer night like this. Thirty years on, Petty's uber-cool stature is a reward for following his own path in rock, somewhere between the singer/songwriters of the '70s and the British-invasion inspired new-wave acts, with only minor adjustments for prevailing trends.

If there was a minor complaint about Thursday's show, it was that an hour-and-a-half of the Heartbreakers simply is not enough. It's like three-quarters of a gourmet meal by Charlie Trotter. Petty's tales of small-town folks in the middle of nowhere looking for thrills (such as "Mary Jane's Last Dance," about a wild girl from Indiana) have extra resonance in the Midwest. The crowd was primed.

While the likes of Trey Anastasio and the Allman Brothers supported on recent dates, the leaner, louder Strokes opened this night, taking the stage at precisely 7:30 p.m.--while most of the crowd was still negotiating the parking lot and sidewalk stroll to the island. "Hopefully, we'll entertain you while you find some drinks and get comfortable," singer Julian Casablancas offered.

Five years ago--before the group's singles caught fire in the UK--The Strokes [ tickets ] were opening for cult-rock act Guided by Voices, but on this night it was playing for probably the most mainstream, grown-up crowd its ever laid eyes on. The New York quintet kicked off with "Is This It?" and ran through a baker's dozen of numbers with a mix of muscular, '70s-rock ease and overdriven punk gutsiness. Guitarist Nick Valensi, in particular, demonstrated that he's blossomed into an explosive player on songs like "Red Light," while guitarist Albert Hammond Jr. added flourishes to the band's early works that helped them gel with more complex tunes.

Between songs, an easygoing Casablancas gushed about the opportunity. "The honor and the pleasure is all ours. You guys are in for a real treat," he told the growing audience. The set's biggest rock moments came in "You Only Live Once," as lighting synched up with cymbal crashes. The Strokes closed with the surf-rock referencing "Juiceboxxx."

Tom Petty's newest album, "Highway Companion," is actually a solo record which favors lighter tones, introspective moods and a bit of jangle. It's a bit fanciful for him. This concert, however, was with the Heartbreakers, and the set snuck in the new material amid the spectrum of classics, from which Petty has a deep well to draw. The six-piece band went on just after 9 p.m., opening with "Listen to Her Heart," then segueing into "Mary Jane's Last Dance" with harmonica from utility man Scott Thurston, who would provide backing vox and a third guitar throughout the night.

Petty took the second solo on "Mary Jane," and the lights and video screens turned red. After a bombastic ending Petty switched to acoustic, and, obviously pleased with the city's official civil declaration of the day as "Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers Day," told the audience that "the mayor just gave me a joint backstage."

The crowd joined in to sing on "Won't Back Down" while Petty held his hands in the air and blew kisses. Dressed like a gentlemen troubadour in sparkling, black-velvet jacket, Petty played the showman, gesturing and stalking the edge of the stage like a snake-oil salesman from some kind of Western fantasy. Throughout the night, Petty and lead guitarist Mike Campbell also put on another show, changing guitars every song and barely using the same instrument twice as they exhibited enough Rickenbackers, Gibson Sgs, Fenders, electric mandolins and Gibson Firebirds to make the geeks drool.

After slipping in "Saving Grace"--the new single with a ZZ Top-referencing riff--Petty and company paid tribute to the Chicago blues and the British Invasion simultaneously, covering The Yardbirds' version of "I'm a Man" before Petty turned to shaking twin maracas for the Fleetwood Mac cover "Oh Well." Later, the band threw in "Too Much Monkey Business" as a nod to Chicago's legendary blues imprint Chess Records.

The band often extended songs like "It's Good to Be King" with dense soloing and dynamic breakdowns enabling Campbell and keyboardist Benmont Tench to deliver some satisfying bonus notes. Only once, really, well into the encore, did the group falter, as Campbell's noodliest solo in "You Wreck Me" seemed to reference Jerry Garcia and then Pete Townsend, and took the Heartbreakers out of character. But the ecstatic moments were many. The up-tempo ending for "Don't Come Around Here No More" was raucous as rapidly flashing white lights intensified it, and probably sent a few audience members into convulsions.

With some minor tweaks, the band played almost exactly the same set as it did in July with Pearl Jam in tow, and came across impeccably polished more than spontaneous. Petty hit-lovers might have been pained that "Stop Draggin' My Heart Around," "The Waiting" and "You Got Lucky" were conspicuously absent. And the man wasn't exactly chatty, but, rather, played a grinning conductor reveling in the limelight. Petty's only extra-thoughtful moment came during a psychedelic version of Van Morrison's "Mystic Eyes," in which he asked us "Wouldn't it be great if, for a moment, everything was all right?" But the band's command of its music spoke for itself, and well-worn iconic tunes such as "American Girl" seemed to have considerable life left in them.

SET LIST:
Listen to Her Heart
Mary Jane's Last Dance
Won't Back Down
Free Fallin'
Saving Grace
I'm a Man
Oh Well
Its Good to Be King
Handle me with Care
Cabin Down Below
Too Much Monkey Business
Down South
Square One
Learning to Fly
Don't Come Around Here No More
Refugee
American Girl

ENCORE
Running Down a Dream
Mystic Eyes
You Wreck Me