John Mellencamp @ Ovens Auditorium

I think this was A & I's first night out alone since before Christmas.  And what a good one it turned out to be.

The night started with an early dinner at Aix-en-Provence.  We'd eaten there once before and it was as great as I remembered.  You can't eat there and not get the mussels.

We walked into Ovens while a short film about Mellencamp was being played.  This did a great job of hyping up the crowd for what was to come.  After about 15 minutes, Mellencamp and his band arrived to thunderous applause.

The show was an up and down night to start.  Some songs you knew, Minutes to Memories & Small Town, and you were out of your seat and ready to dance.  But they were interspersed with unfamiliar or slower songs that let you sit down.  After a version of Robert Johnsons' Stones In My Passway, Mellencamp told a story and broke into We Are The People, and crowd was on its feet for the rest of the night.  I was having some trouble recognizing the opening of some songs, but once you got it, you knew every word to the song.  Lonely Ol' Night & Check It Out were great, but Jack & Diane gave me me a spine tingling moment.  Rain On The Scarecrow & Paper In Fire were played consecutively and were incredible - the audience reacting accordingly.  A got to here her favorite Authority Song before Pink Houses finished the set (technically).  Instead of leaving and coming back for an encore, Mellencamp introduced his band, told a great story about his long time guitarist, Mike Wanchic, before raising the roof with Cherry Bomb.  It was hard to hear him with the singing from the crowd.  Humbly he reprised Louis Armstrong's Long Gone, acapella, and left the stage.

You'd never believe Mellencamp was 67 years old and been doing this for over 40 years.  He has energy to burn and a voice that hasn't faded over time.  This was our second concert of his - the first when he put Bob Dylan to shame in Vegas in 2010.  Hard to believe that his show could be better - but it certainly was.  I'd go again any time.

The Crap Facts:
This is my 447th concert.
This is my 3rd concert at the Ovens Auditorium.

This is my 77th concert in Charlotte.

This is my 87th concert in North Carolina.

This is my 250th concert in the USA.
This is my 2nd John Mellencamp concert.