Just want to add my two cents to ths discussion: I am a long time italian fan and I was at the concert in Rome, my 7th Mellencamp gig in my music listener career. I've seen him playing in Bloomington, in Cleveland, at the Farm Aid so I think I have a "benchmark" to compare last night experience at the Auditorium.
First of all who says that maybe there was a "curfew" problem is absolutely right but the curfew time is set at midnight and he finished well before that time.
The venue: the Auditorium's Cavea is a wonderful space right under the Auditorium's domes built by Renzo Piano. It's an excellent, albeit not huge, place to play and listen music. Several international artists play there every summer without complaining. So venue was not a factor.
The audience: I guess not everybody was aware of the way this tour was conceived. Some people tought they were going to listen to the 80's Mellencamp 30 years after. Shame on them but also shame to the organization who is responsible for the less than impressive number of people that gathered for the show. I've seen no billboards in the city, heard no radio advertising, the press simply ignored the concert. In fact the weekly local guide to the events taking place in Rome, published by the most important italian newspaper "La Repubblica", at the day Sunday July 10th they basically ignored the event and suggested the Cindy Lauper concert that took place on the same venue the day after!
The movie: while I've found the movie very interesting I'm also puzzled by the choice. First because you can't show a documentary without subtitles in a latin country. That's what fuelled the booing from some of the people. A behaviour unexcusable and unpolite but not totally unpredictable.
But the real drag of the movie is that it basically played to the audience the same songs they were going to listen live! I can't believe nobody in the management noticed this...
The concert: I was totally satisfied by the show, the new versions of many songs we were used to listen in another "dress" but yes, the setlist felt short and not because JM is not entitled to cut his performance shorter but because the concert ended when the audience was starting to have fun.
The attitude: Mellencamp is not a "crowd pleaser", this is widely know. Even in different situations I've never heard him say to the public more than a few "thank you". But Sunday night he was clearly pissed off. Something must have happened otherwise I couldn't imagine him not addressing the crowd of a city where he never played.
To sum up I think of this as a wasted opportunity. JM had the chance to make himself know in a country where he never played, to start a link or quoting his own words: "to have fun and maybe have something that somebody might discover".
In the end HE was not discovered by the italian audience, and this for me, an italian that discovered him long time ago and who knows his talent is a deep sorrow.
Edoardo
PS my review of the concert, in italian, is in my blog : Cronosisma
http://wp.me/pPm70-gh
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