01-12-03

Little 500 Concert :
    April 24,1999

Review By: Tony Buechler

Son Volt was musically great, a little dull to watch but several of JM's band were on the side watching, Andy was partiuarilly very happy to see them live and was looking forward to them on the tour

John went on at 925 and off around 11:05pm

John looked just like he did on letterman

while/grey stage, band mostly dressed in black

1.curtain dropped and the big percussion intro to Running comes on

2.Jack and Diane - no rap, more like the original version

3.Lonely, totally new intro and arraingement, didnt know what it was until the verse started
4.Crumblin Down just like at Storytellers

5.Fruit Trader - well done, pretty close to the CD longer ending

6.Rain on the Scrow - totallly different, really redone and wild sounding

7.Paper in Fire - new intro some different music but still mostly the same

8.Cherry Bomb - new intro and some new melodies behind the vocals,  a little different than other tours but still EXCELLENT crowed over head clapping, band trades vocalls on 2nd version, Pat, Mike, Miriam Moe and all

9.Key West - some more new playing behind John but the song was mostly
  the same

10.Wild Night - mostly like the 97 tour version w/dancing

11.Your Life is Now - acoustic just john and harmonica, very well recieved although John struggled a bit with playing guitar and harmonica at the same time, started repeating the 2nd verse when he was supposed to go into the chorus so he just changed midstream, most people wouldnt have through it was a mess up

12.Rock - like 97 version more or less

13.Hurts - Moe sings the first verse John pulls a listmember up on stage

14.Authority song - andy had the waterproof guitar but no water, did the whole na na na na thing with some moe illustrating dancing to the lines like can you do the fandango, can you do the shimmy etc

15.Pink House - like 97 tour w/Jimmy Ryser for last verse Band Intros, noted that John G. was new and that he replaced toby, got a good cheer, you didnt miss toby, the songs were well played by all

16. Small Town - like storytellers version, big reaction

17. Check It Out - like 97 tour with house lights on, huge cheering while John just stood onstage. band and john never left the stage until it was all over

Entertainment - Music - June 30, 1999

John Mellencamp electrifies sellout crowd at Star Lake
By David Conti
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
It would be really easy to write off John Mellencamp as another
middle-aged white rocker playing 15-year-old songs to 40-year-old fans.

That is, unless you happened to catch the Burgettstown stop of his
"Rural Electrification" tour Saturday night.

An hour-and-a-half of middle-America rock 'n' roll lived up to every
syllable of the tour's name, as the former American Fool turned Mr.
Happy Go Lucky threw thunderbolts into the sylvan landscape of Coca-Cola
Star Lake Amphitheatre.

Mellencamp worked the stage like a prize fighter in a boxing ring, from
the thunderous opening drum beats of "I'm Not Running Anymore" to the
ethereal violin chords of "Check It Out." Dressed in black and looking
fit and healthy, the "Small Town" boy threw fake punches and pumped his
fist in the air with the bravado that only a man who'd name an album
"Uh-Huh" can carry off.

A revamped version of "Jack and Diane," with full-electric sound from
the seven-piece band, sent a jolt through the sellout crowd of 21,590
fans. And the voltage never flickered through a dozen more classics from
two decades of albums, as the mostly adult audience helped Mellencamp
out with the choruses of "Crumblin' Down," "Paper in Fire" and "Wild
Nights."

Mellencamp probably could have stuck to singing heartland rock like
"Pink Houses" and "R.O.C.K. in the USA" all night, and fans would have
continued clapping their hands in the air to the beat. But he took a few
risks in playing lesser-known tracks from his latest self-titled album,
and the crowd still didn't let up. He could do no wrong on this night.

Mellencamp didn't directly address the crowd until the very end of the
show. Aside from pulling one fan into the spotlight to sing "Hurt So
Good" and getting jiggy with percussionist Pat Peterson during
"Authority Song" and "Wild Nights," he didn't do much to invite the
audience into the party he was conducting onstage.

Yet that didn't stop the celebration of his music that stretched from
the gold circle seats to the top of the lawn.

And any wall between him and his fans came crumblin' down at the end,
when he thanked the crowd and asked that the house lights be turned on
for the final two songs. It was a fitting,
everybody's-welcome-at-this-table ending for a night of songs that
personify slices of the American Pie.