These may be Lawless Times, as John Mellencamp鈥檚 first song said at his concert Friday night at Affinity Place, but that doesn鈥檛 mean people can鈥檛 have fun at a concert.
Few seats were empty when the show began as Mellencamp went through new and old songs for over an hour and a half. Mellencamp and his seven-piece band worked through old and new songs from his over 40-year recording career.
Before the show, the concert backdrop showed a brief history of Mellencamp鈥檚 career, including him walking off the set of a television interview in 1982. As that faded out, the crowd on the floor jumped to their feet as members of the band came to the stage until Mellencamp showed up, predominantly dressed in black, to the crowd鈥檚 adulation.
His new songs helped open the set, including Lawless Times (from 2014鈥檚 Plain Spoken), John Cockers (from 2008鈥檚 Life, Death, Love and Freedom) before 1985鈥檚 Minutes to Memories, a hidden gem on Scarecrow, and then he and the band then ripped into the classic Mellencamp song like Small Town.
He and the band performed in a cover of Robert Johnson鈥檚 Stones in My Passway, recorded for Mellencamp鈥檚 2003 album Trouble No More, he dug into a bluesy rendition of The Full Catastrophe (Ain鈥檛 looking for a fight/but you know I won鈥檛 run away) from 1996鈥檚 Mr. Happy Go Lucky.
His newer songs, like Easy Target from 2017鈥檚 Sad Clowns & Hillbillies, included some of the bite Mellencamp still has for the time he lives in (鈥淲ell let the poor be damned/ and the easy targets too/ All are created equal/ Equally beneath me and you鈥�). While the front rows of the show seemed into the show, you wonder how many were waiting for the next radio hit.
It wouldn鈥檛 have been a Mellencamp show without some of the classic rock radio staples like and Paper in Fire, Rain on the Scarecrow, Crumblin鈥� Down, Lonely Ol鈥� Night and Mellencamp a solo acoustic version of Jack And Diane.
During that song, he chided the audience, who was singing along, for getting to the chorus early. 鈥淚t鈥檚 two verses and then the chorus, guys,鈥� he said.听
A lot of Mellencamp鈥檚 most popular material looks at the human side of growing up and growing older, and the effect that the advance of time has on people individually and collectively.
For the longest time, Mellencamp has been able to do both poignant and radio-friendly.
Check It Out from 1987鈥檚 Lonesome Jubilee is possibly the best example of this, with lyrics such as: 鈥淎 million young poets/ screaming out their words/ maybe someday those words will be heard/ by future generations/ ridin鈥� on the highways that we built/ maybe they鈥檒l have a better understanding.鈥�
His hair and beard may be more gray than he was when he wrote this over 30 years ago, but you could still hear the protest singer performing the pop song that he鈥檚 always been to many people.听听
The concert concluded with Cherry Bomb at about 10 p.m. before people went home, happy with what they heard and maybe with a new lyric or two to think about.
听
