Review | The Waiting is the Hardest Part with The Wallflowers

“The only difference that I see / Is you are exactly the same as you used to be.” 

That line, from track 5 of The Wallflowers’ Bringing Down the Horse album, kept going through my head as I watched the band up on stage at Lobero last week. 

In what sometimes feels like the blink of an eye, it’s been 30 years since The Wallflowers classic album Bringing Down the Horse was released to both critical and commercial success. With singer-songwriter Jakob Dylan at the helm, the band cemented their place in rock history with that quadruple platinum LP.  And they celebrated that triumph once again, onstage at the Lobero Theatre on October 14, by playing the album in its entirety, in sequence.

From “One Headlight” through “6th Avenue Heartache” (so catchy, it’s still in my head), “Bleeders,” “Three Marlenas” (one of my favorites), “The Difference,” “Invisible City,” “Laughing Out Loud,” “Josephine,” God Don’t Make Lonely Girls,” “Angel on My Bike,” and “I Wish I Felt Nothing,” the band sounded solid and the crowd sang along with enthusiasm, despite some weariness with the 7:30 p.m. weeknight show not beginning until well after 9 p.m. (not everyone works nights like you, Jakob).

It all sounded pretty great to my ears. Who’s your daddy? Who cares? I definitely still have a thing for the bedroomy-eyed, smokey-voiced Dylan, even after all these years. With guitarist Jason Orme filling in for Ben Peeler (celebrating his mom’s birthday) without missing a beat, The Wallflowers were still, well, The Wallflowers.

But it was the second part of the show — a tribute to the 50th anniversary of Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers (Dylan’s favorite band),  playing their 1982 album Long After Dark in its entirety and in sequence as well — where the band’s energy really, really amped up. It’s an interesting artistic reach and challenge to play the music of someone you admire, and someone so beloved by so many. Not everyone stayed for album number two, but those of us who did were well rewarded.

One of my favorite Petty songs, “You Got Lucky” was a highlight for sure, as was “The Same Old You,” with some lyrical parallels to The Wallflowers’ “The Difference,” as well as the theme of the night itself. 

But it was the final encore, Tom Petty’s “The Waiting,” that was really the capper on an excellent evening of song. With those wisest of lyrics strumming in my head — “The waiting is the hardest part/ Every day you see one more card / You take it on faith, you take it to the heart /The waiting is the hardest part” — we danced our way back to the realities of an early morning the next day, and knowing it was totally worth it!