Last week Summerfest announced a Friday, June 25 date with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers and ZZ Top. Today they added another show the following night.
"Due to an amazing amount of emails, calls and excitement about the Tom Petty with ZZ Top show at Summerfest, we are adding a second date," said Summerfest's Clint Baer.
The second show is at 7:30 p.m., Saturday, June 26 in the Marcus Amphitheater.
Tickets go on sale Saturday, March 6 at 10 a.m. and are available for $112 (red), $92 (yellow), $72 (bench) and $42 (lawn). All prices include Summerfest admission.
The dates are smack dab in the middle of the tour for Petty's new disc, "Mojo," his first studio project in eight years, due for spring release on Reprise Records. The tour starts May 6 in Raleigh, N.C. and ends Aug. 27 in Saratoga Springs, N.Y.
ZZ Top opens the Milwaukee shows. Other openers on the tour include My Morning Jacket, Crosby, Stills and Nash, Joe Cocker and Drive-By Truckers.
Petty and the Heartbreakers, who were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2002, have played The Big Gig numerous times over the years. Petty reportedly loves the venue and has an affinity for Milwaukee, which was one of the band's stronger markets during the late 1970s and early 1980s and was the hometown of the late Howie Epstein, who played bass for the group for 20 years. Epstein died in 2003 due to complications from drug use.
Fans buying tickets online will get a code to download two tracks from "Mojo." When the record is officially released, those purchasers will get a download of the entire album sent to them. At the end of the tour, the online buyers will get a selection of live tracks recorded during the jaunt.
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has be heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.
