Tom Petty wows fans at packed Wachovia Center

With more than 30 years of experience and a long string of smash hits, Tom Petty and his veteran Heartbreakers nailed every nuance as they charged through nearly 20 songs for a packed Wachovia Center on Thursday night.

Bearded and wearing a velvet blazer, Petty displayed his usual easygoing attitude, belying the bracing megawatt anthems at his fingertips. A line from "Mary Jane's Last Dance" came to mind as the Heartbreakers, defined by lead guitarist Mike Campbell's tight work, tore into material from the past few decades: "You never slow down / You never grow old."

That sleepy tune came early in the set, just after the punchy opener "You Wreck Me." Following "I Won't Back Down" and the Damn The Torpedoes gem "Even The Losers," Petty wryly told the audience, "We've got a lot of singers out there. I can hear you." He then launched into "Free Fallin," with most in the audience joining in.

Part of Petty's enduring appeal is those everyman lyrics about big spaces and breaking free, making his songs relatable to a mass audience. Another is his seamless assimilation of folk, rock, country, and blues into an easily recognizable whole. Petty once assembled the dream super-group the Traveling Wilburys - featuring Bob Dylan, George Harrison, Roy Orbison, and Jeff Lynne - and he included the Wilburys' pitch-perfect "End of the Line" in this set.

Prior to the Heartbreakers, Petty played with Campbell and Heartbreakers keyboardist Benmont Tench in Mudcrutch, which reunited this year and released a self-titled album. But this tour, teased with a half-time set at this year's Super Bowl, was clearly all about the Heartbreakers.

Every cylinder fired perfectly as the men set to work on such well-worn chestnuts as "Waiting," "Learning to Fly," "Don't Come Around Here No More," "Refugee," and the encore-capping "American Girl." Petty even made room for a heartfelt medley in honor of the recently departed Bo Diddley, whom he called "a great man."

Opening for Petty and company on Thursday was a star of comparable stature: Steve Winwood. The British alumnus of Traffic and the Spencer Davis Group dipped into the latest of his many successful solo albums, Nine Lives. His familiar and still airy voice led the way through a light, loose set of jammy adult-contemporary rock. Every song felt like a sprawling epic, in stark contrast to the Heartbreakers' compact bursts of energy.