There's still a little bit of summer left, and if you can I encourage you to get out to a John Mellencamp concert, for at least three reasons.
First, you won't believe how many of his songs you'll know, and love, or both. Second, it's pure energy--we never sat down and he never said "Hello, Cincinnati!" He just goes and goes and you'll just dance and dance, until the encore is done and you'll wonder where the night went.
And, third, not since Bruce Springsteen has anyone figured out how to put on an inspirational high energy show amidst very dark and discouraged political rhetoric. I'm not an Obama guy like those who were all around me, but it didn't matter, as Mellencamp found that exact balance of conviction without preachiness, candor without dragging the show into the ground.
And this will be what his career is about in the near future. "I am trying to make the transition from rock star to songwriter in public," he said to the Associated Press this week. He went on to say how down he is about our American situation:
"I think we're too far past (the way things were). I think that (Barack) Obama is definitely a hopeful light on the horizon, but will we ever enjoy the place that we once enjoyed? I don't think it's going to happen, simply because everything is changing so rapidly: Technologically it's changing, the way that we do our stock market is crumbling, the two-party system doesn't really work anymore ... But you know what (chuckles)? I'm just a (expletive) guy in a rock band."
Hence the balance he's striking. He's using his platform to enlist converts, but with a humility that acknowledges he's basically just a rock singer. Or--as he prefers to say now--a songwriter. "When you write a song called 'R.O.C.K. in the U.S.A.,' that is for the general public to consume," he said. "When you write a song called 'Ain't Gonna Need This Body,' that is for people who are halfway through their lives."
And he lived it out in his concert, foregoing his fan club's namesake song "Cherry Bomb" in favor of fresher stuff that's more current, relevant, and, well, dark. But there were enough classics in there and a freshness in his new stuff (including a great prayer to Jesus) to make it more than worth it. And I think there's more to come.
Mellencamp's new album ("Life, Death, Love and Freedom") is a tad too L.E.F.T. and D.A.R.K. for me, but if I mix in some classics from the iPod, I'll be fine.
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The one thing you can say about John Mellencamp is that he's no camp mellow. Politically, he is left of center by a long shot, but he admitts that. What he sings is real, its what he believes and its cool, hot and rocks. God swings, John rocks, I believe in them both.
I purchased VIP packages (x2) for his Santa Barbara Concert and I have only received the CD's, but no T-shirts, no DVD's & no Walter Reed Books. So I paid $250 over the price of the ticket to get up close and get the goodies mentioned above...but I haven't gotten the goodies. What a con-job!!
The marketing machine he has hired promised all of the above PRIOR TO THE SHOW!
Well...no goodies, no explanation regarding VIP order shipping status AND TicketMaster has no info on one of the two packages....ON THE DAY OF THE SHOW. If he is so real, then why all the marketing hype?
I like his music and I definitely like his new album but John Mellencamp's marketing machine does him a great dis-service by dropping the ball by not delivering the goodies prior to the concert. You can only get your tickets at will-call 90 minutes prior to the show...and Ticketmaster has no order status information on my VIP tickets....ON THE DAY OF THE SHOW!! Not the warm fuzzy I expected for my $1000!
My advise to John is to dump Fanfire & Ticket Master and fire the Cherry Bomb staff.
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