Though heavy rain demolished chances of the Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers concert at First Niagara Pavilion being a comfortable experience, fans wouldn't back down.

Aside from a small run of new songs, Mr. Petty's Saturday night set was a hits-only affair, and the audience ate up every familiar guitar riff, every radio chorus.

The Heartbreakers quietly took the stage after a raging set of driving country-rock from the Drive-By Truckers -- worthy heirs to Mr. Petty's straightforward rock approach -- and dove into "Listen to Her Heart," followed by "You Don't Know How It Feels."

But we did know how it felt -- damp. Not a problem, though.

"We got a hot, sticky night for some rock 'n' roll," said Mr. Petty to the crowd's approval before launching a string of his most classic sing-alongs: "Won't Back Down," then "Free Fallin'" and "Mary Jane's Last Dance."

The appeal of Mr. Petty and the Heartbreakers (and it is huge: the woman next to me drove down from Toronto) has forever been their normalcy. These guys look like your uncle, and they play without the pretension of many bands just as legendary. So the fact that Mr. Petty's showmanship was limited to minor wiggling, winks and smiles at the crowd and a few "Thank you so much!" comments never detracted from the show -- we believe every word, so those minor flourishes meant a lot.

Plus, the band knows how to rock. And they showed off most during a five-song "little mini-set of mojo," said Mr. Petty of his newest album, which has garnered widespread acclaim for its swampy blues style.

Instead of spreading new jams throughout the set, thereby forcing people to listen, Mr. Petty all but gave uninterested fans a long bathroom break. Their loss. "Good Enough," a slow-burning rocker, featured guitarist Mike Campbell's most blazing guitar work of the night; Mr. Campbell's riff on "I Should Have Known It" was Led Zeppelin-heavy. Mojo may not include a future rock radio classic, but these songs twisted and grooved with the best of them -- ticket holders were even given text-message access to a free download. Hopefully they were paying attention.

An acoustic rendition of "Learning to Fly" evoked the night's biggest crowd chorus, even if everyone's wings were soaked, and a final string of hits -- "Don't Come Around Here No More," "Refugee" -- led to the encore most folks were waiting for: "American Girl."

It may be subdued, even subtle, but Petty's mojo was in full throttle Saturday night.

-- Justin Jacobs

A sharp, windy rainstorm kept Eric Burdon and his latest Animals from covering much of their songbook as the Saturday night headliners at the Pittsburgh Blues Festival at Hartwood Acres.

However, for about 35 minutes Mr. Burdon still managed to work his way through a handful of greatest hits, kicking off with a sturdy version of "When I Was Young." At 68, Burdon is not quite as young as he used to be, but his gruff and gritty vocals still sound strong. He has a strong stage presence -- a shock of white hair atop his stocky frame -- eventually deserting the microphone stand to prowl the stage for a large and happy crowd.

He followed that up quickly with "Don't Bring Me Down," the group's last mid-'60s hit as the original Animals, and with a minimum of chatter between songs, launched into another classic, "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood." All that was missing were bell-bottoms and tie-dyed T-shirts.

And then, if I have it right, came "No Sugar in My Coffee," followed by John Lennon's anti-war, anti-everything tune, "I Don't Want To Be a Soldier."

Next came his wonderfully guttural cover of Ray Charles "I Believe to My Soul," with the band tearing up great chunks of R&B behind him.

At just about the same time he hit the ominous opening bars of John Lee Hooker's great blues, "Boom, Boom," the sky turned even blacker than it had been, and the wind kicked up, and by the time he had segued into Chuck Berry's classic "Around and Around," the rain was blowing straight into the stage. When the rain eased about a half-hour later, the stage crews returned to pack it up for the night and most of the crowd had dissolved into the rainy night.

It was an enjoyable but incomplete taste of one of the still most potent voices in rock history. Mr. Burdon's band was also sharp -- Billy Watts on guitar, Brannen Temple on drums, Red Young on keyboards and Terry Wilson on bass.

Maybe he was saving it for his closer, but Mr. Burdon never got a chance to sing the greatest Animals hit of all, "House of the Rising Sun."

-- Jim White

Like the Smashing Pumpkins, there are two sides to the band's frontman Billy Corgan.

In the same way the Chicago-based alt-rockers mixed self-loathing grunge with arena-ready guitar solos and pop hooks during their rise to stardom in the 1990s, there is blase side of Mr. Corgan to counteract the iconic figure's love of the spotlight.

Both sides were on display Saturday night during a sold-out show at Mr. Small's Theatre in Millvale featuring the newest incarnation of a band whose only remaining original member is Mr. Corgan. The frontman was both the embodiment of a guitar hero -- spreading his arms and pushing out his chest like a holy man reveling in the adoration of his followers before ripping ear-splitting solos with his signature guitar tone -- and a musician resigned to the fact that his fans wish he would avoid new material in favor of songs he wrote 15 years ago.

Mr. Corgan complained to Rolling Stone magazine earlier this month about "jerkos" who wished the band would play all of the band's 1993 hit "Siamese Dream" on the band's current tour, but the Pumpkins chose songs from all across their lengthy discography -- from classics such as "Today" and "Cherub Rock" to recent free online downloads -- during their two-hour set Saturday.

If Mr. Corgan chose to reward his fans by playing the band's hits, he did so reluctantly. Most of these songs were note-for-note recreations of the studio versions -- the extended guitar solo on "Ava Adore" and the dark mood of "Eye" were exceptions, and two of the night's highlights -- and one could not help but sense an air of indifference from Mr. Corgan on such radio-friendly songs.

Yet Mr. Corgan also indulged at times in lengthy guitar monologues, filling the stone church at Mr. Small's with more noise than its cozy setting could handle. The band seemed to find a middle ground with its newest batch of songs, which although not as memorable as the hits, rocked hard without overwhelming the audience.

Much like the band's original lineup, Corgan was the dominant figure, with newly added 20-year-old drummer Mike Byrne a distant second. Wearing a white headband that made look like an extra from the movie "The Karate Kid," the baby-faced Mr. Byrne drove the music with powerful fills reminiscent of longtime Pumpkin Jimmy Chamberlain. Jeff Schroeder and new member Nicole Fiorentino were non-factors on rhythm guitar and bass, respectively, and seemed content to play their parts while showing no energy of any kind on stage.

-- Christopher Merriman

Critics Andrew Druckenbrod and Scott Mervis talk about music on "The Beat," available exclusively at PG+, a members-only web site of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Our introduction to PG+ gives you all the details.