John "Cougar" Mellencamp

We saw him in concert Wednesday night! Awesome dude. 56 years old and he still rocks. I'll get to the music eventually. Regular readers may know that my concert reviews are usually a commentary on my whole experience.

We went out to dinner beforehand. I've been feeling empty-nestish, but as I people-watched I realized the emptier-nest has its benefits. Across from me was a couple with a toddler boy (about 1 1/2) and the mom was pregnant again. The dad was kept busy the whole time chasing the boy and hardly got to sit down and eat. Next to them was a table with a 3 to 4 year old girl, who was just the wrong size for every seating device they had: High chair, booster, regular chair. Nothing fit. Or maybe she was just squirmy. So that made me appreciate the benefits having older children -- you can go out to a lovely dinner ALONE with your handy husband. Steamed mussels, a nice filet, and a good local Syrah. Mmmmmm!

We borrowed Frank's car because it is easy to park! (Yet another perk of having an older child. Of course it's still legally OUR car so I think we're within our rights to ask to borrow it. Plus we filled the tank afterwards.) Six blocks to the venue, a hike up a hill, and then the stairs in the ampitheater. Why were so many women wearing high heels? They were tottering and wobbling all the way up.

Between the two acts, Lucinda Williams and Johnny boy, the woman next to me got up. "I have to go potty," she announced. "You should go too!" Warning: rant ahead! I don't like strange women telling me to go potty. I have issues with the word "potty" when said by anyone over the age of 3. I worked all school year to get kinders and 1st graders to say "bathroom" or "restroom" instead of the P-word. But I'm polite in public, so instead of ranting like I did just now, I said,"Thank you, but I already went."

This woman caused me issues all night long. Because she was a jiggler, a bouncer, a dancer. Hips, thighs, elbows. She bumped me with all of them. And that was while we were still sitting down. Not to mention she was apparently his biggest fan, because she was singing along to everything. I like to have a good time at a concert, but I don't like someone else's good time to be so distracting!

The man in front of Jeff spent most of the show playing with his new Blackberry. Two rows ahead of us was Frank's friend Boomer (real nickname) and his dad. Boomer looked a little like Frank does when we drag him along to concerts. Bored? I also saw one of my Rose Sisters!!!! (That's a blog post on its own: one of the great group of women I used to work with...and we lunch at Rose Cafe, hence the name.)

Oh, did you want to know about the music? He opened with "Pink Houses." [Can't embed the official video.] That brought back memories. The HH and I had just moved into our first house. His stereo with the giant 7.5' foot speakers went into the teeny tiny spare bedroom. (The master bedroom was the same size.) "Pink Houses" is one of the first songs I remember blasting out of that system. I worried it would bother the neighbors...we soon got over that after we heard how much noise THEY made. One night while the parents were out, one of the 3 older brothers broke the little brother's nose. Nice neighborhood. We weren't there too long.

Next was "Paper in Fire." And his PA went out! Here's this, from another show:





Please, CHECK OUT THE VIOLINIST! My new best friend, bumping around next to me, was totally hot for her. And told her husband that, many times.

By the third song, the PA was intermittent so I went to the bathroom. Privately. Because at that point the restroom was relatively empty, and my seat neighbor wasn't in the bathroom at the same time! After that there was more and more great music.

I can't embed anything "official" from YouTube so here is an a capella group doing an old favorite:





And here's a home video by some nice person,






More and more great songs.

I think he ended, appropriately, with this:





Goodnight, all!