JRC Events Presents

The Waiting - Tom Petty Tribute

Friday, August 25 2023
8:00 PM MDT
241 South 500 East
Salt Lake City UT, 84102
Promo Code
JRC Events Presents:
The Waiting - Tom Petty Tribute
Doors 7:00
Show 8:00
21+ event
Tickets now on sale!
www.jrcslc.com
Urban Lounge
241 South 500 East
Salt Lake City, UT

The Waiting brings the Petty to the Pacific Northwest and beyond
By Skip Anderson

The Waiting is one of America’s most electrifying roadhouse rock-and-
roll bands. And, as the name might suggest, their specialty is celebrating the music of Tom Petty, including songs from the Heartbreakers repertoire, Petty’s solo work, and songs from the supergroup The Traveling Wilburys. Since 2013, the band has thrilled diehard Petty fans and new converts alike throughout the American West. Whether they’re playing one of Tom Petty’s 38 songs to hit Billboard’s Rock Chart, a treasured deep cut, or a song from his work under the moniker, “Charlie T. Wilbury, Jr.” As one reviewer put it, “The Waiting plays the music that everybody knows and everybody loves with a fiery energy that electrifies crowds with their outstanding musicianship and a single-minded devotion to showing every person in the crowd a damn good time.” “For example, if we’re performing, ‘Breakdown,’ we might enter into a session where we create space to pass solos around to different performers in the band,” says bassist Doc Wiley. “But after the solos that always seem to get the audience into high-energy dancing, we go back into the chorus; we’ll bring you back to the material.” Wiley traces the origins of The Waiting to a Manhattan apartment across the street from famed punk/new wave club CBGB. “I got an opportunity to hang out with Will Lee (bassist for the band on
the Late Show with David Letterman) in late ’90s. Will had recently started to assemble some of New York’s top studio musicians to form a Beatles cover band,” Wiley says. “His concept was not to create a tribute band. Rather, he wanted world-class musicians to approach music they love in a unique way.” Talking with Lee that day, led Wiley to epiphany: He knew that someday he would take the same approach to form a Tom Petty cover band that eventually would bear the name of Petty’s first song to reach No. 1 on Billboard’s Rock Chart: The Waiting. Wiley moved to Bozeman, Montana, in 2009. He had been working most recently with David Lee Roth for several years in Miami, Florida. “David is one of the best rock showmen of all time,” Wiley says. “His philosophy was to create a cool sandbox and invite people into it. I lifted that from him when forming The Waiting. We create moments from the stage and our audience gravitates into it. We have a great energy, and that’s contagious.” But Wiley can’t take sole credit for that energy. He and his bandmates are partners in The Waiting’s sandbox. The band on the whole is the sizzling hot secret sauce that reliably sells out shows wherever they appear.

Kyle Brenner, Rhythm Guitarist: Brenner’s musical roots run deep not only throughout Montana, but the American West on the whole. While still in high school in Missoula, he co-wrote a song called “Break Another Heart,” which garnered spins on the radio as well as landing him a people’s choice songwriting award. “Break Another Heart” is a fitting title for a musician who eventually would become an integral part of a band created to honor the music of Tom Petty, including his epic repertoire with the Heartbreakers. But decades prior, Brenner founded the wildly popular Missoula-based band, the Max. After touring for 7 years with the Max, Brenner moved to Bozeman to earn a BA in English Literature. Even still, he continued to make music, playing with the Max some 40 years later when he’s not performing with the Waiting or teaching cello and guitar. To date, he has trained nearly 1,000 musicians and counting.