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...and/or his music, but the man does put on a pretty good show. Mrs. G wanted to catch his act and we're just starting to get some half-decent names appearing locally since our town (35K pop.) built a new multiplex, so feel we should support as many acts as we can to keep them coming around (bought Alice Cooper tickets, passed on Honeymoon Suite). Cowboy Junkies opened, and was actually looking forward to checking them out since Margo Timmins was so smoldering hot back in the '80's. They have a series of 4 new albums they recorded in 3 months and are touring in support of their release. As such, they mostly covered their new material from those which sounds more like psychedic folk/acid roots than their older stripped-down blues/country ballad style. Cheap is How I Feel and Sweet Jane were the only songs I recognized from back in the day, but in all fairness, tough to cover much ground in a 40 min opening set. Unfortunately, Cowboy Junkies lacked a lot of stage presence and Margo came off seeming very shy and timid as a front-person. Her voice was solid throughout and has held up nicely over the years, however. Mellancamp came on with a flourish and kept the energy and pace on for his complete set, which lasted a good hour and three-quarters. While I never owned a Mellancamp album in my life (wife sure did - found plenty of his cassettes in her Camaro when we were dating in the '80's!), I gotta give it to him - he's a polished showman and has a great live presence that rare few acts have. His voice has held up well and his backup band was pretty tight (mostly Fender backline on guitars). The young female violinist and male on accordian/keys really added a lot to the performance. It goes without saying that the energy level's typically pretty high whenever you catch an act with so much popular/recognizable material, so that definitely helped his cause also. Have to admit, I had a pretty damn good time. Didn't expect a lot and was pleasantly surprised. Now, if only the Cowboy Junkies had played more of the Trinity Sessions material...hmm....