John Mellencamp- July 3, 2014

All right, so I lied about having to wait for the review.

First off, the concert hall is small. I couldn't possibly imagine seeing one of my favorite acts in rock and roll up that close.

And I was that close because Millie hit a HR with the ticket (it's hard for Mets fans to hit home runs).

But there were were. 17 rows back. Dead center.

And Mellencamp and the band were prompt and they started right in on Human Wheels. I believe that I've written here before, but Human Wheels is one of my all-time favorite Mellencamp tracks. The problem being that the words were a bit lost as the band seemed to be a lot louder than JCM. The 2nd song wasn't much clearer, and although they were right there I had a sinking feeling.

First off, Mellencamp wasn't moving much. He was all dressed up and he looked a bit like me at a wedding...trying to have a good time, but stiff in the freaking monkey suit!

Still...I thought there might be a chance that John would loosen up a bit and that it would all work out.

The concert actually did turn that quickly.

He ripped through the hits, starting with Check It Out, Jack & Diane on acoustic guitar with the audience singing the Life goes on, long after the thrill of living is gone part.

Perhaps it was during one of those two songs when it came to me that I'd been listening to his music for nearly 30 years. And he smiled along with the audience as they cheered him after one song ended and I looked at it from the perspective of a man who creates to elicit an audience reaction.

What a great feeling it must be to hear people singing out words long ago written down.

Once Mellencamp loosened up those stiff clothes he got moving around a bit. He's still the coolest guy in the room and I remembered once trying to steal his dance moves for frat parties.

(I've never moved well on a dance floor...contrary to what I might say).

Yet the one song that made me smile was Crumbling Down.

It's sort of my theme song.

I've often sung the line:

I'm the same old jerk you've been having for years

to Kathy.

The last song of the night - much to everyone's dismay - was Cherry Bomb.

It's actually a song about thinking back on all the fun that was had. I kept thinking of how many times I'd blared Mellencamp music as I went about my day.

I thought back to college with Fluff and Rosie and George.

On through the years...sharing the songs with my brothers and sisters and even my boys and Kathy.

Just cool.

That's the one word that comes to mind when I think of JCM.

He's older now...Life is Short, Even in it's Longest Days...and if the concert has to be short because he's getting up there a bit...that's fine.

He's still world's better than a whole lot of other artists and he can still write the hell out of a song.

Good show.