John Mellencamp Community

John Mellencamp leaves memorable impression on Peoria
It may have taken 16 years, but it was a concert that local John Mellencamp fans won’t soon forget.

Mellencamp’s stop at the Peoria Civic Center June 3 featured plenty of hits, new tracks from his “Plain Spoken” album and some personal looks at his life.

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It may have taken 16 years, but it was a concern that local John Mellencamp fans won’t soon forget.

Mellencamp’s stop at the Peoria Civic Center June 3 featured plenty of hits, new tracks from his “Plain Spoken” album and some personal looks at his life.

Before taking the stage for almost two hours, Carlene Carter, daughter of June Carter, warmed up the crowd with some of the Carter family hits and stories. Between songs such as “I Fell in Love” and “Stronger,” Carter told various stories from her life growing up and of touring around the states.

Whether it was playing the guitar or piano, the crowd got into both her songs and stories, but really exploded when Mellencamp took the stage.

Mellencamp started off hot and went up from there. He kicked the show off with two new songs, “Lawless Times” and “Troubled Man” before going into “Minutes to Memories.”

Once he and his seven-piece band got going, though, the hits started rolling out. From “Pink Houses” to “Check It Out” and “Jack and Diane,” audience members sang and yelled along with Mellencamp through the night.  “Jack and Diane” was especially memorable, both for being an acoustic solo and for joking with the crowd when they came in early with the refrain.

Personally, I loved the haunting melody and his voice on “The Full Catastrophe,” which featured just him and John Cascella on keyboard. It’s vastly different from his normal songs, but that stark difference shows the versatility of his voice.

For as great as Mellencamp’s voice was, though, his band was just as strong. Miriam Sturm showed just how hot of a violin she could play throughout the night, with various solos on songs sounding perfect. Andy York also did a great job on guitar as well, playing strong but never overpowering.

When Mellencamp mentioned his work with Stephen King on the musical “Ghost Brothers of Darkland County,” he brought out Carter to help sing a few of the songs from the musical. The duet was perfect, between Mellencamp’s roaring voice and Carter’s country twang.

After a few more tunes, Mellencamp wrapped up the night with “Cherry Bomb.” This led to probably the only complaint of the night from the crowd: no encore. However, if the only complaint the crowd has is they wanted to keep the night going, then he’s doing everything right.

http://www.washingtontimesreporter.com/article/20150609/ENTERTAINMENT/150609166