Singer-songwriter John Mellencamp brought his “Live and in Person” tour to San Francisco’s Golden Gate Theater on the 17th-18th. March. (Rich Fury/Associated Press archives)
John Mellencamp wanted to make one thing abundantly clear to the crowd at the Golden Gate Theater in San Francisco:
“The older I get, the less I give a (expletive),” proclaimed the 71-year-old Hoosier. “I don’t give a (expletive)”
Still, Mellencamp protests too much, he believes.
You don’t put on a fiery show like he did on Friday and not give a (statement). Indeed, his passion was red-hot throughout the roughly two-hour concert, as he ran through his songbook as convincingly as he has at any point in a recording career dating back to his 1976 “Johnny Cougar” debut , “Chestnut Street Incident.”
He still champions social issues through song, both in the older numbers and in the new ones he has written. His comments to the crowd on Friday – which was the first half of a two-night stand at the venue – make it clear how much the art of songwriting still means something to him. And he works hard to put on a show that means something to both the audience and the musicians on stage.
So yes, Mellencamp still cares. He cares a lot.
And he certainly cares about old movies, which was underscored during a 30-minute opening segment in which excerpts from some of Mellencamp’s favorite classic films — including 1954’s “On the Waterfront” and 1960’s “The Fugitive Kind,” both starring Marlon Brando the main role – there shown on the big screen in the middle of the stage. However, this association with tour sponsor Turner Classic Movies worked only moderately well, as the noise from the crowd made it very difficult to hear the dialogue.
Right around 8:30 p.m., the screen lifted to allow the audience to watch Mellencamp and his superb six-piece band launch into the deep cut “John Cocker” from 2008’s “Life, Death, Love and Freedom.” The star was also accompanied onstage by some creepy movie star dummies, including one that was supposed to be Brando and another that might have been Paul Newman — though, frankly, it looked at least as much like Pee Wee Herman from my vantage point.
From that soft-sell opener, Mellencamp quickly shifted into high gear for a great three-song run through ‘Paper in Fire’, ‘Minutes to Memories’ and ‘Small Town’, the latter of which really got the crowd into party mode. All of those tracks came from Mellencamp’s two ’80s albums — “Scarecrow” and “The Lonesome Jubilee” — which rank as the best outings in his entire catalog. In total, eight of the 21 songs performed were from these two records.
Mellencamp then gave fans time to catch their breath as he transitioned from longtime fan favorites to some lesser-known cuts including “Dear God,” “Jackie Brown” and “Don’t Need This Body.”
“I can tell by looking out at the audience that some of you can relate to this,” Mellencamp said in the introduction to the coming-of-age ode “Don’t Need This Body.”
The highlight of this middle part of the show came when he played “The Eyes of Portland,” a poignant new song addressing the plight of the homeless that Mellencamp wrote after visiting the Oregon city a few years back.
“I just played Portland a couple of nights ago,” he said. – And it doesn’t get any better.
Mellencamp’s vocals were more gravelly than in his commercial prime, but in a way that only seemed to add to the authority and maturity of the lyrics. You believed every word he sang, which is a rare treat in 2023.
He also told many exciting stories, which usually came as an introduction to the song he was about to perform. He talked about his family and said how his grandmother lived to be 100 and his father is 93.
“I’m not going to make it (that long) because I’ve been smoking since I was 10,” he said.
It eventually led into a beautiful story about a prayer time with his grandmother that inspired “Longest Days,” a standout track from “Life, Death, Love and Freedom” that finds Mellencamp at his most John Prine-esque.
“Deep down in your soul, you know you, you got no flame,” he sang. “And then who knows which way I will go. Life is short, even in the longest days.”
The most humorous part of the night was when Mellencamp launched into an acoustic version of “Jack & Diane,” which of course had a large crowd singing along — just not a very accurate one.
The crowd ended up getting the lyrics wrong — apparently not a rarity at a Mellencamp show — so the song’s writer stopped to chastise the chorus of hundreds.
“You guys must have been absent the day they taught Songwriting 101,” he said.
He ended up giving fans a second chance, which they would nail, carrying the chorus of “Jack & Diane” with such gusto it might have been heard far away in the Sunset District.
Mellencamp then made another film connection—which ultimately ended up working—when he played an audio recording of Joann Woodward dramatically reading the lyrics to his song “The Real Life” with live accordion and violin accompaniment.
From that point on, it was (almost) all hits as Mellencamp tore through such gems as “Rain on the Scarecrow” (which is the most powerful number in his entire catalog), “Lonely Ol’ Night,” “Crumblin’ Down” (combined with some of Them’s “Gloria”) and “Pink Houses”.
He closed the show with a big version of “Hurt So Good” — from 1982’s five-times platinum-selling “American Fool” — leaving the audience feeling so good as they left the beautiful theater and headed out onto Market Street.
Mellencamp will also perform on March 18 at the Golden Gate Theatre. Visit broadwaysf.com for tickets and information.
John Mellencamp setlist:
1, “John Cocker”
2, “Paper on Fire”
3, “Minutes to Memories”
4, “Small Town”
5, “Hello God”
6, “human wheels”
7, “Don’t Need This Body”
8, “Jackie Brown”
9, “Check It Out”
10, “The Eyes of Portland”
11, “Longest Days”
12, “Jack & Diane”
13, “I always lie to strangers”
14, “Real Life”
15, “Rain on the Scarecrow”
16, “Lonely Ol’ Night”
17, “Crumblin’ Down”/”Gloria”
18, “Pink House”
19, “Chasing Rainbows”
20, “Cherry Bomb”
21, “It Hurts So Good”
