I always liked the title of this album (even though I don't usually believe it to be true). Last night the lovely lady and I took in a John Mellencamp concert. It was awright. I usually don't think of John as a great musician/songwriter, but I had kinda forgotten just how much a part of my life he had been in my post-high-school years. I fight authority; wearing white t-shirts; the hair.... and even the number of songs I knew almost all the words too. Hmm. It was almost like we were brothers (at least that's probably what HE thinks!). :)Anyway, it was a *fun* show. And he does a good concert. He came out unannounced and plowed through four songs non-stop (that's how shows should start - you can talk later). He didn't get too political, which was good, because that's where the two of us might have the most disagreement. He encouraged people to do good, to look out for others, and hoped the next generation would finally be able to legalize marijuana because, as he said, that was our generations biggest failure. Ha. He also refers to Jesus a lot in his music. I'd like to talk to him about that sometime. One of his new songs was perhaps one of my favorites, but I can't remember it right now -- something about asking Jesus to help him make it home. Anyway, it was also neat seeing his front guitarist, Andy York, who is a former guitarist in my friend Jason Ringenberg's band Jason & the Scorchers, and who we sat near the last time we were in Nashvegas.
Los Lobos did great opening up too. A big little band from East LA. And if I didn't know better I could have swore Tim Atkins was playing bass for them. :) I liked how they just came out and rocked. They didn't appear to be trying to impress anyone, but were just having a good time and seemed to want everyone else to have a good time too. What more could you ask for in a band? And I'm a sucker for that heavy guitar sound. I love that when they're right at the limit where if you let go for just a second you're spewing feedback all over everyone. I always thought son Isaac had a great way of playing in that dimension. Perhaps one of my favorite of his shows was his last day of high school in the courtyard - the sustain on his old red tradition was always teetering on the obscene. Fond memories.
Anway.... we had a brief moment of freakout. When they scanned our ticket it beeped funny and the guy told us we would have to go over to this other table. They changed our seat. Instead of being in the way top, we were in the middle. So that was cool. Glad I bought the cheap seats! The only problem was we did have aisle seats, and now we didn't. I almost always will choose aisle seats at places like this - I don't even care how high I have to go. I just don't like being stuck in the middle. And sure enough, we sit down, and this guy sits next to me and immediately starts talking to me like I'm his best friend. Then he puts his arm on the back of MY seat and says, "Feel free to stretch out, I don't mind." Eeek! After a few minutes we got up to use the restroom and kind of just floated around, sitting in aisle seats until someone showed up. We finally settled just a few rows up from where we were. Some people from our church actually ended up across the aisle.
All in all, it was a pretty good night. But I'm not too hard to please when it comes to concerts. Just don't be an ass and I'm happy. I love live music. I would go see John again too. And I bet Los Lobos would be an awesome band outdoors. They should consider them for the Three Rivers Festival in Fort Wayne. Or maybe someone would foot the bill to bring them to the Fair View Pavilion!? :)
Keep on rockin'.
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