The Midland Theater is an interesting place to see a show.  We were in the very front rows for Paula Poundstone and Frank was in the second balcony for BB King.  The theater is ornate with baroque style decorations. (I’m totally making that up.  I don’t know anything about architecture but there is a lot of guilt and paint so it seems like it should be baroque to me.)  It was entertaining watching the crowd prior to the start of the show: the majority of the attendees were dressed like they were going to a rock concert – or Farm Aid – and a handful were obviously on a Valentine’s Night out.  There were leather jackets with chains and sequined dresses with 4 inch heels – sometimes they were together.

We had great seats about 24 rows back just off center.  Surrounded by other “see, we aren’t too old to go to a rock concert” aged people like us, we tried to enjoy the opening act.  It’s not the Carlene Carter isn’t talented, it just wasn’t the kind of music I was in the mood for.  I also realized that I really am not a fan of Tennessee accents.  Or at least hers.  There were far too many “y’alls” for my taste and the twangier country music was a harsh contrast to the bluesy music Mellencamp would play for just over 90 minutes.  But apparently they have some project together (a musical he wrote with Stephen King that’s about to open in London?) so she did join him for a couple of songs during his set.  I listened politely and watched the footwear of people walking by.  We had seats on the aisle and there was only floor lighting so as people passed, I could only see their shoes.  I estimate that about 90% of the women in attendance were wearing boots of some sort.  The men were split 50-50 between sneakers and some sort of casual desert boot style. There’s your useless data point for the day.

When the former John Cougar took the stage to great applause, it was to open with 3 songs that I (and apparently most of the crowd) didn’t know.  Very bluesy instead of the bluegrass style on the most recent album of his we bought – “No Better Than This” which came out in 2010.  This was the tour for his “Plain Spoken” CD so I may have to check that on out as it’s much more my style.  His voice wasn’t in top form and he admitted that they considered canceling the concert but the performance was enjoyable nonetheless.  Especially considering that for his biggest hits, he didn’t need to sing at all; the crowd did that for him.

His musicians were excellent.  The violinist (Miriam Sturm) was outstanding and the duet she did with one of the guitarists on the accordion (including strains of “I Need a Lover”) was a highlight of the show. As was the acoustic solo of “Jack and Diane”.  You could tell that the audience was full of fans of the older music:  as soon as familiar notes came from the stage, the entire crowd was on its feet.  If three bars went by with no recognition, everyone was back in their seats.

All in all, an enjoyable show.  Two regrets: that I didn’t listen to the new album first.  I think I’ll like it and I would have appreciated the live performance a bit more. And that he didn’t play “Lonely Ol’ Night” – everybody has that one song they want to see live and I didn’t get to see mine.  I don’t know if I’ll get a chance to see him in the future (he is 63 after all) but I’m glad I got to see him last night.

Set list (from an earlier show but pretty darn close to what he did in KC):

• Lawless Times
• Troubled Man
• Minutes to Memories
• Small Town
• Stones in My Passway (Robert Johnson cover)
• Human Wheels
• The Isolation of Mister
• Check It Out
• Longest Days
• Jack and Diane (solo acoustic)
• The Full Catastrophe
• Away From This World (with Carlene Carter)
• Tear This Cabin Down (with Carlene Carter)
• New Hymn (Miriam Sturm on violin)
• Rain on the Scarecrow
• Paper in Fire
• If I Die Sudden
• Crumblin’ Down
• Authority Song / Land of 1000 Dances
• Pink Houses
• Cherry Bomb