By Raeann Rasmussen
Anticipation was all my brother and I felt on the way Downtown Sunday, March 8th. We were off to the John Mellencamp concert at the Target Center.
Arriving in our seats about 7:30, we anxiously waited for 8:00 to roll around. We passed the time by trying to block the classical music in the background out of our heads and by gazing around at all the people. Although I wasn’t surprised that the majority of the crowd was adults, I expected there to be a few more kids than what I had observed.
Anyway, about 7:45 this dude came rolling out onto the stage on a unicycle and attempted to entertain us. After wheeling around on stage for what seemed like too long, he jumped off and juggled for us. He juggled knives, rings, flashlights, and these fluorescent handkerchiefs that looked really cool. This was the usual stuff everybody’s seen before, but it still amused me somewhat in a sad kind of way. The crowd was getting restless and was chanting “Cougar” and yelling at the guy to “get a job.” So with sarcastic, impatient claps the guy exited the stage.
Twenty minutes after the scheduled starting time the lights went down and the crowd went wild. Then without any kind of an announcement the band appeared on stage and started playing “Love and Happiness.” Then Mellencamp came out and started singing right away. We were up on our feet jammin’, it was great! To tell you the truth, I wasn’t so sure about going to this concert with my brother. Just because I thought that I would’ve felt uncomfortable jammin’ in front of him. I’ve never really done that before besides a few times when he’s walked in on me unexpectedly. It wasn’t bad at all, him and I were both groovin.’
So back to the review. It was such a sing-a-long when he sang “Jack and Diane.” It was really cool. He played about 8 more killer tunes and ended with a speech about all the homeless people. Wondering how they all ended up like that and why he didn’t. He then sang “Jackie Brown,” a song about the homeless. Then there was a 15 minute intermission.
The 2nd half of the show was lots of fun. When he sang “R.O.C.K. In the U.S.A.,” a fan from upfront got up on stage and sang with MELLENCAMP. It was hilarious, this boy who looked about 15 was up there on stage just groovin’ and singin’ the song. The band finished up, said “goodnight” and left. After about 5 minutes of constant clapping and screams they all appeared back on the stage. Johnny Cougar (as his manager calls him) introduced all the band members, then moved into “Cherry Bomb.” For this tune, the last of the night, all the lights were left on. This made it a lot easier to see all those that were having a great time, and those who needed to loosen up BIG time.