Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers play with purpose during 40th anniversary tour stop at FedExForum

In May 1977, Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers were a hungry bunch, ready to take on the world. Touring in England, they made breakout appearances on the BBC music shows “Top of the Pops” and “The Old Grey Whistle Test.” They would help launch the Heartbreakers and their debut album into the U.K. charts and send them back to America triumphant, and determined to break in their home country as well.

On Monday night, the group came to Memphis’ FedExForum as part of a 40th anniversary tour. Though the stakes are clearly lower now – in the ensuing years and decades the band would go on to sell some 80 million albums and earn their place in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame – the Heartbreakers played as if they still had something to prove.

The evening’s opening set came from veteran rocker Joe Walsh. Backed by a nine-piece band, he played muscular versions of his myriad hits with the James Gang (“Funk #49"), the Eagles (“In the City”), and as a solo artist (“Life’s Been Good”; “Rocky Mountain Way”). Walsh was his usual animated self, filling in the gaps of a 50-minute set with jokes and malapropisms (he’s sort of become the Yogi Berra of classic rock).

When it came time for Petty and the Heartbreakers, they didn’t storm the stage but rather paused to soak in the affection of an appreciative and nearly sold-out Forum crowd. “You’re gonna get 100 percent real rock 'n' roll tonight,” promised Petty by way of introduction.

Though still in the early stages of their tour – which kicked off late last month – Petty and the band seemed locked in from the start. Flipping through their back pages, they opened with the first song off their self-titled debut, “Rockin Around (With You”), before getting into the chunked groove of early-'90s favorite “Mary Jane’s Last Dance.”

The core Heartbreakers lineup – guitarist Mike Campbell, keyboardist Benmont Tench, bassist Ron Blair and drummer Steve Ferrone – were abetted by longtime utilityman Scott Thurston, and backing vocalists the Webb Sisters. Despite moving a bit gingerly, the 66-year-old Petty was in fine voice, and seemed to grow more energized as the show went on.

The early part of the concert saw the band making stops at various points in their bountiful '80s catalog: Tench’s insistent keyboard riff colored the doleful “You Got Lucky”; Campbell and Ferrone powered an epic version of “Don’t Come Around Here No More”; while more recent cuts, like the politically charged “Forgotten Man,” off 2014’s “Hypnotic Eye,” slotted nicely in between.

In a show filled with singalong hit after hit, it would be churlish to complain. Still, one could quibble with the overall song selection. For a concert billed as a Heartbreakers anniversary tour, there was relatively little from the band’s first four albums. In fact, the set put much of the focus on material from Petty solo records “Full Moon Fever” and “Wildflowers” (though the lines blur on the latter, as it featured Tench, Campbell and Ferrone heavily). Set perennials like “The Waiting” and “Breakdown” were missing – and there was hardly any of the band’s beloved Byrdsian jangle to be found among the songs played.

However, the less predictable list also left room for some unexpected but very welcome tunes, highlighted by 1996’s “Walls,” which Petty introduced as his personal choice for the set. “And I usually get what I want,” he cracked, before delivering a sprite arrangement of the song that left its pop beauty intact.

“We’re gonna turn the amplifiers up,” announced Petty after a mostly acoustic interlude, leading to the Led Zeppelin homage “I Should Have Known It” and a coruscating rendition of “Refugee” – both providing Campbell room to showcase his remarkable playing. Though a hero to musos and guitar geeks, among the general public Campbell somehow remains criminally overlooked. “When I heard him play 'Johnny B. Goode,' ” recalled Petty of his first meeting with Campbell some 47 years ago, “I said you’re in my band … forever.”

A headlong charge through “Running Down a Dream” followed, along with an encore that included “American Girl” – which served as a full circle finale, taking the band back to its beginnings, with the last song off its debut LP.

Though Petty hinted in a Rolling Stone interview late last year that the current trek may be the band’s “last big one,” if the FedEx concert is any indication the Heartbreakers still have plenty of music and shows left in them.