Damn The Torpedoes bring the Heartbreakers songbook to Glens Falls’ Park Theater on Nov 13

The Tom Petty tribute plays Friday, Nov 13, in a downtown room that opened as a picture house in 1911.

Some Friday nights call for “American Girl” at full volume. On Friday, Nov 13, Glens Falls gets that night when Damn The Torpedoes – A Tribute To Tom Petty plays The Park Theater downtown, with the show starting at 8 p.m. Tickets are through OpenDate.

It’s a first, as far as our records go: we have no earlier Adirondacks and Lake George show on file for the band. So for a lot of people here, this will be the first look at a group that has spent years on the Northeast circuit building a reputation as one of the more faithful Petty tributes around.

The band takes its name from Petty and the Heartbreakers’ 1979 album, and its frontman, Rich Kubicz, started it after enough people told him he looked and sounded like Petty, according to a Lehigh Valley News profile. The idea is not a loose set of covers. The group aims to recreate a Petty concert, mixing the studio hits with live versions and some deeper cuts, and each player is expected to match the parts on the records note for note. In a preview interview ahead of a SteelStacks show, Kubicz talked through how the band approaches that material. They play upwards of 50 shows a year, which is how a tribute band gets that tight.

The idea is not a loose set of covers. It’s a Petty concert, with the parts played note for note.

The room is half the reason to go. The Park Theater opened in December 1911 as Glens Falls’ first movie theater, showing silent films and vaudeville, according to GlensFalls.com. It spent decades doing other things, and then sat dormant, before a restoration brought it back. New York’s Empire State Development marked the grand opening of the renovated theater in 2018, and today it runs concerts, theater, films and community events with help from the nonprofit Park Theater Foundation. A 1911 picture house is a good fit for a band that is all about recreating something classic, and the room is small enough that the guitars will hit you in the chest.

This is also part of a busy winter for the band in the region. After Glens Falls, the band has three nights in the Hudson Valley in early January, Jan 7, 8 and 9, followed by a Jersey Shore date on Jan 23. For anyone who misses Friday, those are the next closest chances, but they are a long drive from Warren County.

What to know before you go: it’s an 8 p.m. Friday start in the middle of downtown Glens Falls, so there is time to grab dinner nearby beforehand. The Park Theater is an intimate room, so Friday night shows here can feel more like a party than a concert. Expect a crowd that knows every word to “Refugee” and “Free Fallin’” and isn’t shy about singing along.

Tom Petty’s songs were built for Friday nights, and for rooms where everyone can hear the Rickenbacker ring. A 115-year-old theater in downtown Glens Falls will do nicely.

Sources: Tom Petty tribute band Damn the Torpedoes coming to Musikfest Cafe (Lehigh Valley News) (lehighvalleynews.com); Damn The Torpedoes: Rich Kubicz previews Tom Petty tribute at SteelStacks (Go Jimmy Go) (gojimmygo.net); Damn The Torpedoes — A Live Tom Petty Concert Experience (Palace Theatre) (palacetheatre.org); Park Theater (GlensFalls.com) (glensfalls.com); ESD Announces Grand Opening of Newly Renovated Park Theater in Downtown Glens Falls (esd.ny.gov); The Park Theater in Glens Falls NY (Silent Film Music) (silentfilmmusic.com)