Kevin Bronson on June 6th, 2013

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It wasn’t that Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers were so astonishingly proficient on Monday at the Fonda Theatre (they were), or that they had the moxie to do what few other artists who date back to the Carter Administration try – do a concert that doesn’t pander to fans who want nothing but the hits. It’s that they made it look so easy.

Kicking off a six-night stand in Hollywood, Petty and his merry band of craftsmen played two hours of mostly “deep stuff,” as the 62-year-old frontman called it. That Petty didn’t break a sweat had a lot to do with the specially installed air conditioning unit in the pit that bathed him in cool breezes all evening; it belied the intensity and virtuosity of a performance that nodded to not only the Heartbreakers’ history but the legacy that shaped them.

• ||| Photos by Laurie Scavo

The sellout crowd at the Fonda was a cross-generational mix of parents and their kids, teens and twentysomethings already at work on their bucket list, couples who don’t get out much, lone fans in Mudcrutch T-shirts and the assorted glitterati, like Kirsten Dunst and her posse. A gray-haired railbird who fired up a spliff during the opener acted incredulous when security descended on him, so it wasn’t all old home week. But there was deep love for Petty’s “deep stuff” from the beginning.

The set was bookended by the familiar – the Byrds’ So You Want to Be a Rock ’n’ Roll Star to start, then “Love is a Long Road” and, after Petty explained the night’s “album tracks” agenda, he introduced “one everybody can sing along with”: appropriately, “I Won’t Back Down.” At the end, there would be “Refugee” and “Runnin’ Down a Dream,” and for the encore “You Wreck Me” and “American Girl.”

Abetted by guitarist Mike Campbell, keyboardist Benmont Tench, bassist Ron Blair, drummer Steve Ferrone and multi-instrumentalist Scott Thurston, Petty guided the sextet through Heartbreakers history, but not without hitting certain other mileposts.

“All my life I wanted to go to Hollywood – I grew up in north Florida and moved out here when I was 23,” Petty said. “We were in the alley behind the venue before the show and I was looking for the ghosts of all the great songwriters who’ve been in and out of those doors. I used to do the same thing at the Whisky A Go Go.” And with that, the band launched into a properly reverent cover of Little Feat’s “Willin’,” the 42-year-old nugget penned by the late Lowell George.

Petty and band also detoured into Traveling Wilburys territory for 1988’s “Tweeter and the Monkey Man,” which plodded a bit, and did a revved-up cover of the Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart classic “(I’m Not Your) Steppin’ Stone,” which was a ’60s hit for Paul Revere & the Raiders.

The rest of the show reminded fans of how deep Petty’s catalog goes and how well the Heartbreakers can play it. Campbell was typically electric on “Good Enough,” and Tench was magnificent carrying an extended “Melinda.” And after Petty jokingly acknowledged he’s gotten therapy for why the Heartbreakers never play anything from their 1999 album “Echo,” they did a gritty version of “Billy the Kid.”

Right down to the end, when the sextet took a good old-fashioned bow and posted for candids onstage, it felt like a night with lifelong friend who decided to tell stories he hardly ever shares – like that guy you once played ball with who, after a drink or two, gives you the inside-the-clubhouse stuff. In Tom Petty’s case, that guy still has his fastball.

||| Live: Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers continued their run at the Fonda tonight, Saturday, Sunday and Tuesday.