“You guys must have been absent the day they taught Songwriting 101,” he said. The crowd ended up getting the lyrics wrong - which apparently is not a rarity at a Mellencamp show - so the song’s author stopped to chastise the chorus of hundreds. The most humorous part of the evening was when Mellencamp launched into an acoustic version of “Jack & Diane,” which, of course, prompted a huge audience sing-along - just not a very accurate one. Life is short, even in its longest days.” “Deep down in your soul, you know you, you got no flame,” he sang. That eventually led into a beautiful story about a prayer session with his grandma that inspired “Longest Days,” a standout track from “Life, Death, Love and Freedom” that finds Mellencamp at his most John Prine-like. “I ain’t gonna make it (that long) because I have been smoking since I was 10,” he said. He spoke of his family, noting how his grandma lived to be 100 and that his dad is 93. He also told plenty of intriguing stories, usually at the introduction of the song he was about to perform. You believed every word he sang - a rare treat in 2023. Mellencamp’s vocals were more gravelly than in his commercial prime, but that only seemed to heighten the authority and maturity of the lyrics. “I just played Portland a couple of nights ago,” he said. The highlight of this middle section of the show came when he played “The Eyes of Portland,” a moving new song addressing the plight of the homeless that Mellencamp wrote after visiting the Oregon city a few years back. “I can tell by looking out at the audience that some of you people can relate to this,” Mellencamp said in the introduction of the old-age ode “Don’t Need This Body.” Mellencamp then gave fans time to catch their breath as he veered from the longtime fan favorites to some lesser-known cuts, including “Dear God,” “Jackie Brown” and “Don’t Need This Body.” In all, eight of the 21 songs performed were from those two records. All of those numbers hailed from Mellencamp’s two ’80s albums - “Scarecrow” and “The Lonesome Jubilee” - which rank as the finest outings in his entire catalog. Right around 8:30 p.m., the screen lifted so that the crowd could see Mellencamp and his superb six-piece band launch into the deep cut “John Cockers” from 2008’s “Life, Death, Love and Freedom.” The star was also accompanied onstage by some creepy looking movie-star mannequins, including one that was supposed to be Brando and another that may have been Paul Newman - although, honestly, it looked as least as much like Pee-wee Herman from my vantage point.įrom that soft-sell opener, Mellencamp quickly shifted into high gear for a great three-song run through “Paper in Fire,” “Minutes to Memories” and “Small Town,” the last of which truly got the crowd in party mode. This tie-in with tour sponsor Turner Classic Movies, however, only worked moderately well, as the noise from the crowd made it really hard to hear the dialogue. That was underscored during a 30-minute opening segment where snippets from some of Mellencamp’s favorite classic films - 1954’s “On the Waterfront” and 1960’s “The Fugitive Kind,” both starring Marlon Brando - flashed on a big screen at the center of the stage. He cares a lot.Īnd he certainly cares about old movies. And he works really hard to put on a show that matters both to the audience and to the musicians onstage. His comments to the crowd on Friday - the first half of a two-night stand at the venue - made it clear just how much the art of songcraft still matters to him. He’s still championing social issues through song, both in his older numbers and in the new ones he’s been writing.
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