Some familiar musicians got together at Brooklyn Bowl on Tuesday night to play much-loved classics. Members of the Terrapin Family Band and Midnight North were joined by many of their friends for a tribute to Tom Petty billed as “Brooklyn Won’t Back Down.” It’s only been six months since Petty’s sudden and all-too-soon passing. Many bands have paid homage by working a Heartbreakers tune into their setlists, but this all-out celebration was a reminder of just how many great songs Petty and company produced during their forty-plus-year history.

Kicking things off with “Don’t Do Me Like That”, Grahame Lesh shared vocals with his bandmates throughout the evening. The lineups of Terrapin Family and Midnight North include some overlap, with Lesh and drummer Alex Koford acting as members of both. Midnight North songstress Elliott Peck was also on hand, joined by another female of notable vocal talent, Leslie Mendelson.

Working their way through the Petty songbook—“Here Comes My Girl,” “Free Falling,” “Learning to Fly”, “You Wreck Me”, and, of course, “I Won’t Back Down”—it was a mashup of musicians trading places and instruments. Bass duties were shared by Karina Rykman and Scott Padden, and guitarist Eric Krasno joined Terrapin Family Band’s Ross James to add to the already considerable sonic depth. Multi-instrumentalist Jackie Greene maintained a fairly low profile on keyboards for most of the first set before moving to guitar and taking the mic on “Runnin’ Down a Dream”. Stepping out again in the second set for “Mary Jane’s Last Dance,” Greene’s vocals most nearly approximated Petty’s trademark Southern twang.

“You Wreck Me”

[Video: TheTuddd]

One of The Heartbreakers’ live standards was The Byrds’ “So You Wanna Be a Rock ‘n’ Roll Star”, and the evening’s most interesting cover was “I’ll Feel a Whole Letter”—another Byrds classic penned by the late and very much underappreciated Gene Clark. “American Girl” closed things out, with the full complement of musicians filling the stage. Tribute shows can be hit or miss, but with so much talent on hand and such great material to work with, it was a pretty good bet this one was going to be a hit.

Thank you, Tom Petty. We miss you.