Two words: JOHN MELLENCAMP

Joe IM's me yeseterday "my company is giving out Mellencamp tickets for the concert tonight.  Do you want them?  Should I put my name in?"  I say "YES!".  About 10 min later he IM's me back "I got the tickets".  OMG, I was so excited.  I put my name in for tickets all the time at my work and I never win.  Turns out NO ONE else at his company even put their names in.  This is just crazy to me.  It's John Mellencamp people!!  Now I've seen him in concert before but, no, this was quite possibly one of the best concerts I have EVER seen.

So the venue was gorgeous.  Broward Center for the Performing Arts.  I had never been there before.  It's an opera house.  With the balconies going up along the wall, just like you see on TV.  He he.  Big hanging glass chandeliers in the lobby.  Wood walls and plush seats.  Lots of big giant windows overlooking Fort Lauderdale.  Gorgeous.  Small venue, probably around 3,000.  Really, I don't think there was a bad seat in the house.

The opening act was a documentary movie made about John and the making of his latest album, No Better Than This.  It was very interesting.  Not sure who the filmmaker was.  One of his long time friends.  A lot of touring footage, studio footage and a lot of the new songs which I was unfamiliar with.  And by "studio" footage I mean, this teeny tiny room that looked like an apartment where Johnny Cash and Elvis had recorded!  John was pretty impressed to be standing in the same room making music where some of his musical idols had stood and recorded.

So finally, John takes the stage.  Opens with The Authority Song.  Not one of my faves but I remember it from being a kid.  At any given time, there is up to 7 musicians on the stage.  There were guitars, bass, drums, violin, accordion, keyboards.  The next 3 to 4 songs were new songs so I didn't recognize them.  They were very "country" but I didn't mind, I actually liked it.  Like Johnny Cash country, not Tim McGraw country.  Then he went into an a capella version of Cherry Bomb.  Which I love.  Awesome.  A country version of Jack and Diane which was aaawwweeesssooommmeeee (imagine me singing that with a high pitched voice).  If it came out on the radio today I would listen to it.  I guess when you perform that song for close to 30 years you have to change it up a little to keep it fresh.  But one of my faves.  An acoustic version of Small Town.  Beautiful.  An instrumental (violin and accordion) of a song that sort of sounded familiar but I couldn't quite place it.  In between all the stuff I knew there was a lot of stuff I didn't know.  I wasn't sure if they were new or just stuff I've never heard before.  But I really liked a lot of it.  A lot of storytelling in between songs.  Stories about his grandma and family.  A story about a guy he met walking around the streets of Ft. Lauderdale that day.  A story-turned-song about how he met the Devil when he was 15.  Who knows how much of it was true but it was amazing listening to it all.  I noticed that the violin and accordion were incorporated into A LOT of the songs.  Just beautiful.  It really brought a whole new element to the songs.  Who knew the accordion could be so rockin'??  But the whole time I'm thinking how if he doesn't play Pink Houses, I'm gonna be bummed.  Of course he did, backed up by the full band, second to last song.

One funny thing happened.  This song started that I thought sounded familiar but I couldn't quite place it.  Then he sang the first line "What if I came knockin'" and all of a sudden all the words started coming to me.  Like every one.  I was thinking to myself, OMG I used to love this song yet I had totally forgotten about it.  I couldn't for the life of me even remember how I knew this song.  Was it a radio song?  Or a song from one his albums that was never a radio song?  I really don't remember.  But it was awesome.

His storytelling/songwriting is just so amazing.  His songs tell stories that touch your soul.  I mean, there's plenty of room for the Britney Spears and Linkin Parks of the world but absolutely nothing compares to a guy and a guitar telling stories that make you feel.  Make you cry.  Just amazing.  I am so glad I did not miss this concert.

Johns vocals were absolutely amazing the entire show.  No getting drowned out by the overly loud instruments or backup singers.  He sang every song.  No letting the crowd do half his singing for him.  Trust me, I've seen plenty of artists, even artists that I love, rely a lot on letting the instruments, backup singers and crowd do most of their singing for them because their vocals are not so good outside of the studio.

Little Pink Houses for you and me y'all!