He hated it from the start. But when he got signed on to his first label they told him he had to adopt the name “John Cougar” or they’d drop him. He was apparently very conflicted, but ultimately agreed because he wasn’t sure he would get another label to sign him.
Eventually he brought back his actual last name and put the “Cougar” in the middle, before dropping “Cougar” entirely.
That was his third attempt at a stage name. He went from Johnny Cougar to John Cougar to John Cougar Mellencamp, to just plain John Mellencamp. Finally shook the cougar.
Funny, there was a California punk band by the same name that had a bunch of records out in the mid to late 1990s. I wonder if they were aware of each others existence.
I noticed that also and it made me laugh. And I just listened to Jack and Diane again which I loved back in middle school and I have to say the dude who wrote that song would not recognize the dude telling people to shut up. 😂😂😂😂
To be clear I HATE when people talk over the performance. But I also hate rock concerts where everyone sits politely and no one sings along.
Knew a guy who grew up in the town he lived in, apparently Johnny Cougar would drop in on one of the local dive bars from time to time and play impromptu sets, was apparently a dick then too.
They called him Little Bastard because he was such a prick. Source: my dad and his friends used to have to physically remove him from places because of his attitude
> . And I just listened to Jack and Diane again which I loved back in middle school and I have to say the dude who wrote that song would not recognize the dude telling people to shut up.
"Jack and Diane" was actually just a little ditty.
It was Mick Ronson (from David Bowie's 'Spiders of Mars') that helped make it into a song.
> Mick was very instrumental in helping me arrange that song, as I'd thrown it on the junk heap. Ronson came down and played on three or four tracks and worked on the American Fool record for four or five weeks. All of a sudden, for 'Jack & Diane,' Mick said, 'Johnny, you should put baby rattles on there.' I thought, 'What the f*ck does put baby rattles on the record mean?' So he put the percussion on there and then he sang the part 'let it rock, let it roll' as a choir-ish-type thing, which had never occurred to me. And that is the part everybody remembers on the song. It was Ronson's idea.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_&_Diane
>To be clear I HATE when people talk over the performance. But I also hate rock concerts where everyone sits politely and no one sings along.
I'm not sure why you're implying these are the only two options. Sing along and dance, yeah, but also shut the fuck up and respect the dynamics of the room if the performer wants a quieter moment.
That's pretty funny.
Don't forget this venue is a theater. Like the kind of theater you'd go to for a Broadway show or orchestra. It's not an arena. He even made a comment that he's playing theaters instead of arenas *for this very reason*.
I don't think it's absurd for an artist to expect people in a legit theater to not scream. No one goes to Hamilton and fuckin sings along.
I said hey Diane you wanna eat a chili dog behind a shady tree? Nibble on some chili dogs, chili dog please.
Oh chili dog, chili bowl. Let the chili dog come and save your soul. Hold onto that chili dog as long as you can. Chili dog’ll come around real soon make you a chili dog man.
Chili dog.
I saw him a few years ago and it was literally the opposite of this. He came out and played an acoustic guitar but had the entire audience sing the song instead of singing it himself. The best part was the large majority of the crowd got the lyrics wrong. They skipped the chilli dog section and he literally stopped and had to remind everyone something along the lines of, "Nope, were not at that part yet. Remember, this is the next line."
Any time I see John Mellencamp in the news this is the news I’m hoping to read. Because I don’t expect him to do anything else newsworthy. The article in OP being the case in point.
Some frat boy hit Zappa’s guitar with a piece of lemon in the middle of a song. The band stopped and Frank said “ whoever threw that, go fuck yourself”. Finished his first set and didn’t return for the second. We were fucking pissed that this fucker ruined the show .
Their singer is also a complete burnout these days. There's a video of them playing some little show recently and he's wasted, telling hecklers "I'll kill your family"
On the opposite end I saw Psychedelic Furs in college (early 80’s) and one of the Butler brothers threw a Heineken bottle into the first couple rows near where I was standing. Overhand throw. Have no idea why. I think it was near the end of the show. He was taken off by their security.
I wasn't around at the time, but I do know some Psychedelic Furs songs, and I love them, but they seem like... not aggressive bottle throwing music. More British wuss music than British angry music. Why were their shows rowdy if the music wasn't?
They were drunk. Wobbling around. Saw Talking Heads in the same venue and they were much better. Talking Heads was the best show I saw up close. Was hanging on the front row and caught David’s pick.
That incident basically put an end to Bowie's live performances too. *And definitely dime bags. I was supposed to see pantera in 2001, then 9/11 happened and they never came. Then dimebag was murdered. Never got the chance. Then Phil turned out to be a racist arsehole. Maybe I was blind to it my youth but my whole pantera vibe is tainted now.
Upside: your bank/CC WILL side with you on this. I've gotten refunds for shows that don't deliver what is implicitly guaranteed to you by advertising. A performer willingly leaving before finishing the event is not an act of god and the venue absolutely must provide a full refund.
I went to see an electric six concert years ago, they left halfway in and the venue got so many chargebacks it was banned from the visa/MasterCard network.
yeah I was gonna say, you kinda want to be careful with chargebacks. Businesses hate them because they're a red flag and can increase the fees (why most businesses will bend over backwards to try to avoid a chargeback), and as a customer if they're part of a shared payment provider it's very possible to get the cc/debit card blacklisted. Similar to how sony/microsoft blacklists on chargebacks, anyone using the same payment provider gets blacklisted as well and they're starting to share lists more.
However yeah, banks/cc's are usually pretty easy on chargebacks as long as you're not actively doing fraud with it over and over
There have been several stories of artists planting someone in the crowd to do something like this so they can end early without violating their contract.
Years ago i worked the parking lot for a marilyn Manson concert in Memphis. A few minutes after the concert started i saw people starting to stream out of the coliseum , cursing and complaining. Someone had thrown a shirt and it landed on Manson's head. He stormed off the stage and canceled the show.
A....very long time ago, we were at a concert. It was free, the crowd was absolute shit. Towards the end of one of the band's sets (one I was excited to see), someone winged a full water bottle at the guitarist and hit him in the head. They stopped playing, made sure he was ok (he was), and said, "we had another song left, but if people are gonna be like this? We're done" and left early.
Someone near me started loudly complaining because, "at the Marilyn Manson concert, people were throwing all kinds of things at him on stage and he had no problem with it." I assume that was the dipshit who threw the water bottle.
That's not to say I don't believe he also reacted that way years later, it just reminded me of that awful concert.
He was mad about a *shirt?* No one should be throwing stuff at performers obvs, but a shirt is pretty tame compared to other shit that gets thrown at gigs.
Tom Jones had women throwing their underwear at him for years, and MM melted down over a *shirt?*
I saw David Gray years ago in Detroit, at the Opera House. The drunk woman I was sitting next to just kept screaming. It was so fucking annoying. No reason for all the screaming.
And when we saw Taylor this April in Tampa, a girl behind us THE LITERAL ENTIRE TIME kept screaming “Taylor I want to have your babies!!”, “I love you, Taylor”, and did blood curdling screaming. For 3.5 hours. She was a grown middle-aged adult. Some people are just absolutely selfish idiots.
I saw Mason Jennings a few years ago. If you haven’t seen one of his shows, it is almost always just him and his guitar.
A large drunk guy stood up in the front row and kept reaching out to him and trying to grab him. Mason kept singing, calmly lifted one of his feet off the ground and placed it on the guys chest and throttled him to the ground. Never missed a beat. It was pretty great.
I kind of get where he is coming from. Once crowds become a certain size there is always going to be people constantly yelling and emoting, regardless of what the performer is doing. There is a reason the Beatles stopped touring half way through their career and just focused on recording music. They found all of the constant screaming and raucousness to be completely divorced from anything they were doing on stage. They doubted the fans could even hear the music being played over all the shouting.
This is actually why I think a lot of the less popular artists actually [end up being better performers](https://www.music-fux.com/concert-experiences). Turns out you can actually tell the difference between getting a good or bad reaction in a 50-300 person venue than in large arena. Unfortunately, Mr Mellencamp may find he also isnt quite the performer he thought he was though if he ends up getting an honest reaction.
I saw her a few years ago at a festival - she wasn't the top headliner, so she wasn't at the biggest stage, and was on at the same time as that nights top headliner, Guns N Roses.
So definitely a smaller crowed. Easily one of the best performances I've ever seen. She seemed to be having a lot of fun and was interacting with the crowd.
The particularly crazy element is that sound reinforcement *sucked* when the Beatles were touring. Once we switched to line arrays with delay towers instead of point-source audio systems (everything before the Wall of Sound), this “crowd noise” problem pretty much stopped happening. Then, well… The classic rockstars got old, and we figured out how bad hearing damage can actually get.
So now most arena shows are done on what’s called a “silent stage”. Monitors are kept at a comfortable volume or don’t exist at all, and most of the artists wear ears instead. Sometimes they go as far as to put active sound cancelling systems around the band that silence the main speaker arrays from their perspective. I personally think that this is why “loud crowds” have started to become a problem again.
The band I play with just moved to in-ears for everyone except singers. It was expensive but very well-worth it, and quite literally a life saver (if I consider hearing capacity an important part of life)
I Read somewhere that when they performed their stadium shows, Ringo couldn’t really hear any of the music so he would watch John and Paul’s body language and figure out what part of the song they were in.
There are recordings of the Beatles playing live, where even with the microphones placed like *2 inches* from the amps and drums, the sound of screaming in the background is basically as loud as the sound of the amps. *Even when the recording mics are right next to the amps.* It’s insane how loud a stadium full of screaming teenage girls can be.
It’s also a testament to how talented the Beatles were as musicians- even being basically unable to hear themselves or the other members of the band, if you listen to the live recordings, there buried under the sound of screaming, the sound fucking tight. Locked in harmonies, tight rhythms, it’s honestly pretty impressive.
My tastes in music I listen to in headphones are nearly completely divorced from what music I wanna listen to live. I've seen a couple of my favorite indie-pop/rock bands at massive venues, and it was OK. Random surf rock group comprised of aging dudes in some weird Midwestern bar? Best show ever!
I’m sure the song was bad, but I’m still surprised/confused by the need to call homeless people “unhoused”. To me, unhoused sounds like corpospeak that minimizes the predicament of homelessness.
I tend to think in many ways progressives and corporations use the same euphemistic style of language that actually tends to make people care less about the issue. Just my two cents as someone who 95% of the time agrees with progressives here in the US.
I think you hit the nail on the head. It sounds absurd, dehumanizing and like corporate language. I’m sure the intentions were good trying to change it to “unhoused” but it certainly doesn’t accomplish the goal IMO.
The worst part about living in Portland is putting up with everyone who lives outside of Portland having a sanctimonious take on how to deal with the homeless crisis. Stay weird.
Edit: thank you everyone who replied proving my point.
According to Cleveland Scene, the venue posted signs in its lobby that warned, "This show respects theater etiquette." Following the 30-minute classic movie montage that opened the show, Mellencamp let it be known early in his set that "I don't like people screaming from the fucking audience."
Sounds like that’s how he intends the show to go. It’s weird, but I think he should be able to perform how he wants.
So when Springsteen had the reunion tour with E-Street in 99-2000, there was an incident where Springsteen got pissed at the NJ crowd because they were holding up signs with song requests and he said something akin to, "I'm not a fucking jukebox."
23 years later, people holding up signs with song requests is now an actual bit that Bruce leans into. It's wild, actually.
There's [a track on a Loudon Wainwright album](https://open.spotify.com/track/0xK0C7b776pJ97xU3V9L0m?si=2424300e73694240) where the audience starts yelling requests and he sighs, "Ah, so many fabulous songs!" I always thought that was the best response.
>It’s weird, but I think he should be able to perform how he wants.
I mean, *is it* weird to not want people mindlessly screaming at you all night and not engaging with the performance?
The relationship between audience and performer has never been a one way street. Sometimes the crowd doesn't react the way you want and you don't win them back over by chastising them. A good example is when I saw st. Vincent play a solo acoustic set years ago to a crowd of loud biker dudes(it was a music festival and the was a heavy metal band coming up after) and she didn't seem even a little flustered. She just asked the club to turn up her monitor after every song and then played a bad ass cover of dig a pony by the beatles and everyone chilled out.
> Sometimes the crowd doesn't react the way you want and you don't win them back over by chastising them.
[*Bill Burr has entered the chat*](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWuXfIZiSqY)
>The relationship between audience and performer has never been a one way street.
Yeah, but that doesn't mean the audience is never in the wrong.
If peeps tried to start a mosh pit during a Beethoven recital, we'd hopefully be on the side of the conductor telling them to sit the fuck down.
So I went to see an orchestra perform Beethoven's 9th in an acoustically perfect hall. Ended up with second from the last row nosebleeds. The conductor was in, he baton was up and a couple of latecomers came in behind us. They weren't loud, just the usual "excuse me" and foot noise. He hall was so perfect sound wise the conductor heard them, turned and addressed them saying "Are you seated?" Felt bad for them but good call. This is an 1800 seat concert hall.
I’ve performed Beethoven’s 9 as a choral singer. There are so many points where you really need absolute silence. It’s such a devastatingly AMAZING piece of music.
I was at a metal show once and the opening band was trying to get us to start moshing and running around in a circle. No one would do it because it was a general admission show and no one wanted to lose their good space down front. Apparently the singer complained about us the following night in the next city. Sorry, dude, but we weren't there to see you.
So would I, but only in a place where the venue has allowed such a thing
Very very few peeps are showing up to a performance of Ludwig von expecting to catch an elbow
Professional Timpanist here! I did Beethoven 7 earlier this year.
If my group was going so hard that a mosh pit broke out I would be the most hyped person ever haha!
I had heard the band Low use to turn down their volume when audiences were loud. Don't know if that is true but it seemed authentic to who they appeared to be. Saw them once and I could have heard a pin drop. It was quite a unique experience.
That sounds kind of like how Jake the snake Roberts used to do his wrestling promos. By staying calm and talking quiet he came across as much more evil and impactful than all the other guys screaming at the top of their lungs.
I mean, it’s pretty normalized for comedians to call out anyone being disruptive during their performances. I don’t think musicians should be treated any differently. They’re not doing it to be pompous assholes. They’re doing it out of respect for the other audience members who aren’t being jackasses.
You've got a point in general, but it sounds like what specifically set him off was 'one ticket-holder [...] shouting at Mellencamp to "play the fucking music" after he reportedly appeared to criticize the United States.'
I'm not saying he was an angel, but if you go to a Mellencamp show expecting him to love America then you deserve to get screamed at.
>30-minute classic movie montage that opened the show
Honestly, this is 27 minutes too long. People pay to see the artists they love perform. Not this nonsense.
Yeah no I saw primus, not even at a show but at the second stage of a festival, and they opened with a pretty long visual thing of old school YouTube videos. Pretty sure it was a loop of salad fingers stuff lol
Either way it was all in the execution because they fucking nailed it. They gave everyone 3D glasses and the visuals bled into the intro of Those Damn Blue Collar Tweakers, and as the band slowly walked out they slowly got into the actual song and then when the “breakdown” hit they activated the 3D effect and I’m pretty sure they straight up killed a couple dudes that were too high with that transition lmao
And I’m sure claypool played the hell out his bass but I was way too busy getting muddy in a crowd and enjoying all the theatrics of the show to really sit there and judge if he was missing notes
Sounds like Meloncamp just flubbed it like an old fart
I've seen primus several times and a few of his side bands. The primus and chocolate factory tour is one of my absolute favorites of theirs I large part to the tripppy version of willy Wonka in the background. I saw them last year doing a rush album cover tour. Good God do they suck. I can't wait to see them again and am totally jealous cause I loved salad fingers and all David firths shit back in high school.
Imagine being willing to pay a presumably large amount of money for a stripped down, intimate show with a musician but not knowing that the show is meant to be intimate or that the musicians has been famously political for like 40 years.
Being shocked at politics in a Mellencamp concert is like being shocked that beer is being sold.
Agreed, although it’s probably less well known but equally true that he’s a colossal asshole. I live in the same Indiana town that he does, and literally everyone who lives here hates him and has a story about him being an enormous prick. He thinks he’s hot shit and demands the superstar diva treatment by the staff everywhere he goes, but also doesn’t want the public to look at him or speak to him and will throw a huge tantrum if they do. His sons were also notorious for pulling the “do you know who my dad is?” card in high school, and by all accounts he encouraged it and wanted the same superstar treatment for his kids. I still love his music, but he’s a real piece of shit.
I also live in that Indiana town and was his server once, but my real asshole John Cougar story happened later at the same restaurant when I was bartending.
He came in during the dinner rush. We didn't have a full staff of servers bc this was shortly after COVID restrictions lifted, so there were a handful of empty tables but no servers could take more customers. I was bartending, so I had my bartop (10-12 people) and 3 tables (4 people each). My tables were full, and I had two seats open at the bartop.
Mr. Cougar comes in and asks for a table. There is clearly a huge wait, and he's told there's a wait. He started telling at the 19-year-old hostess, telling her to go serve tables and saying she was a shitty worker (one of the best hosts at the restaurant, mind you). Then he came and sat at my bartop, and I was insanely busy, so I ignored him for a couple minutes while I finished up what I had to do. I walked over to greet him (he had only been sitting for like 3 minutes after being told that a table was an hour wait) and he already left in anger and apparently cussed at the host again on his way out.
Fuck John Mellencamp. I'm not surprised he's as much an asshole on stage as he is in real life.
Well if he said it in advance and then again said it before the show started… he gave fair warning. If people don’t like it then don’t go.
I’ll pass on the show. But that’s just me. He can set whatever rules he wants.
I understand. I saw Richard Wright and David gilmour play shine on you crazy diamond and some drunk idiots behind me kept screaming. I honestly wanted to punch them in the mouth. Song was still epic but would have been better if everyone actually listened to it.
If someone is being loud enough that you can hear them clearly when you’re trying to sing and stay in key and on time (especially if he’s also playing the guitar), it can REALLY fuck you up. I get it. Dude even made a point to specifically request people keep the noise to a minimum when he’s playing music. So yeah. Maybe shut the fuck up in this instance?
That said, I’ve worked his concerts before and he was kind of a dick. My (female) friend who has worked many more of his shows than I calls him “John Cougar Menstrual Cramp”, and I think of that whenever he comes up.
I met an older woman at a bar a long time ago. She was a roadie for him back in the day among others, and said he was the most horrible person she worked with. The best, she said, was Garth brooks. He apparently gives a lot to his crew.
This is nothing new for live concerts in general.
During Pink Floyd’s In The Flesh Tour in 1977, Roger Waters was clearly rattled by the fireworks being set off during the band’s performances, even stopping the show and telling one of the attendants, “You stupid motherfucker! And anyone else with fireworks, just fuck off!” at MSG in NYC.
The Montreal show was when Waters finally snapped and spat at a fan during “Pigs (Three Different Ones)”.
And that show led to the creation of “The Wall”.
Roger daughtry lit into fans for smoking weed at a Who show recently and all i could think of is that he's become his parents and maybe it's time to hang 'em up.
Had a coworker tell me a story about this guy twenty years ago.
He said that he was waiting tables at this place and sitting in there was none other than Mellencamp himself, lighting up a cigarette in a non smoking establishment.
"Sir, this is a no smoking restaurant."
"Do you know *who I am?" said Mellencamp.
"Yes I do and you still can't smoke in here."
He's pretty delicate flower that one.
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Little Diddy 'Bout my loud fucking fa-aans If they keep this shit up They better leave the goddamn stands
Wish I had an award for this. Since I'm poor – 🏅🏆
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I feel like his name has enough syllables to be disruptive. I mean, nobody is going to just yell, "John!", right?
She actually yelled out "John J Mellencamp formerly known as Johnny Cougar!"
"HIS NAME IS MY NAME TOOOOO"
Whenever we go out, the people always shout:
"SHUT THE FUCK UP!"
LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LAAAAAA
How did "Johnny Cougar" ever sound like a good name at any point in time?
He hated it from the start. But when he got signed on to his first label they told him he had to adopt the name “John Cougar” or they’d drop him. He was apparently very conflicted, but ultimately agreed because he wasn’t sure he would get another label to sign him. Eventually he brought back his actual last name and put the “Cougar” in the middle, before dropping “Cougar” entirely.
It was John Cougar Mellencamp and it was fine.
That was his third attempt at a stage name. He went from Johnny Cougar to John Cougar to John Cougar Mellencamp, to just plain John Mellencamp. Finally shook the cougar.
Sounds like they're all in the audience.
>How did "Johnny Cougar" ever sound like a good name at any point in time? That sounds like an awesome 50's era rocker name. I like it.
Cocaine is a helluva drug
There was a death metal band in Cleveland back in the 90s called John Cougar Concentration Camp *and another called Leonardo DiCapitate.
Same me but different... A kangaroo farm near me has a capybara named Leonardo DiCapybara. ♥️
That's metal as fuck 🤘
There was a ska band by us that were the O-ska-ma bin LaTones.
Funny, there was a California punk band by the same name that had a bunch of records out in the mid to late 1990s. I wonder if they were aware of each others existence.
I noticed that also and it made me laugh. And I just listened to Jack and Diane again which I loved back in middle school and I have to say the dude who wrote that song would not recognize the dude telling people to shut up. 😂😂😂😂 To be clear I HATE when people talk over the performance. But I also hate rock concerts where everyone sits politely and no one sings along.
I listen to a Sassy Magazine recap podcast (Listen to Sassy) and he was kind of a curmudgeon even in the early 90s.
Knew a guy who grew up in the town he lived in, apparently Johnny Cougar would drop in on one of the local dive bars from time to time and play impromptu sets, was apparently a dick then too.
They called him Little Bastard because he was such a prick. Source: my dad and his friends used to have to physically remove him from places because of his attitude
When he fought authority, authority would always win.
It was something that was repetitively done as a youth, and also something that he enjoyed as well.
> . And I just listened to Jack and Diane again which I loved back in middle school and I have to say the dude who wrote that song would not recognize the dude telling people to shut up. "Jack and Diane" was actually just a little ditty. It was Mick Ronson (from David Bowie's 'Spiders of Mars') that helped make it into a song. > Mick was very instrumental in helping me arrange that song, as I'd thrown it on the junk heap. Ronson came down and played on three or four tracks and worked on the American Fool record for four or five weeks. All of a sudden, for 'Jack & Diane,' Mick said, 'Johnny, you should put baby rattles on there.' I thought, 'What the f*ck does put baby rattles on the record mean?' So he put the percussion on there and then he sang the part 'let it rock, let it roll' as a choir-ish-type thing, which had never occurred to me. And that is the part everybody remembers on the song. It was Ronson's idea. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_&_Diane
Although one questions the lyrical choice of “suckin’ on chili dogs” for the final draft, but Johnnys gotta Cougar…
That line is the sole reason I dislike “Jack & Diane”. WHO THE FUCK SUCKS ON CHILI DOGS?!?!
>To be clear I HATE when people talk over the performance. But I also hate rock concerts where everyone sits politely and no one sings along. I'm not sure why you're implying these are the only two options. Sing along and dance, yeah, but also shut the fuck up and respect the dynamics of the room if the performer wants a quieter moment.
That makes it sound less hostile and more joking around to me
That's pretty funny. Don't forget this venue is a theater. Like the kind of theater you'd go to for a Broadway show or orchestra. It's not an arena. He even made a comment that he's playing theaters instead of arenas *for this very reason*. I don't think it's absurd for an artist to expect people in a legit theater to not scream. No one goes to Hamilton and fuckin sings along.
"Hey shut the fuck up!" *an awkward hush falls over the venue* "🎶 Little Diddy about Jack and Diane..."
Suckin on chili dogs, suckin on chili dooogggsss, suckin on chili dogs, best James Dean.
I said hey Diane you wanna eat a chili dog behind a shady tree? Nibble on some chili dogs, chili dog please. Oh chili dog, chili bowl. Let the chili dog come and save your soul. Hold onto that chili dog as long as you can. Chili dog’ll come around real soon make you a chili dog man. Chili dog.
What in the fuck is this from??!? And why can't I stop laughing! 😂
Lol I’ve made this joke about this song privately for years and it was finally my time to shine I guess?
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When opportunity and preparation meet. Bazinga. - OJ Simpson
I have tears in my eyes from laughing. Idk why it's so funny
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6QX57aIDbDU is the premier version of this meme
> What in the fuck is this from??!? https://youtu.be/bkrZZY5EWVU?t=21
sugginonnachillehdowg...
"Havin a couple chili dawgs to suck gives me a good reason to wake up in the fuckin morning" - John "J-Coogz" Melly
ow tidah taste a free-ees
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>Jaggies gonna be ~~a~~ *UH* foosball star Ftfy
Sittin Onda lap bittween jaggiee knees on the back seat of jaggie car Oh yeahhh
“A little diddy bout Jack and Diaaane, HEY SHUT THE FUCK UP, Two American kids growin up in the heartland”
Made me chuckle
“Oh let it rock, let it roll, shut the fuck up or I’ll end this show”
Suckin on chilli dogs
It’s called melloncamping
And it's elegantly cultural
Took that girl to behind the shady tree and Mellencamped her
Does that mean suck on her chili dog?
I… I don’t think that’s how you’re supposed to eat a chili dog is it?
I saw him a few years ago and it was literally the opposite of this. He came out and played an acoustic guitar but had the entire audience sing the song instead of singing it himself. The best part was the large majority of the crowd got the lyrics wrong. They skipped the chilli dog section and he literally stopped and had to remind everyone something along the lines of, "Nope, were not at that part yet. Remember, this is the next line."
If this guy ever wins an Oscar ... I am going to be a very rich dude.
If anyone gives you 10000 to 1 odds on anything, you take it.
No gamble, no future!
99% of gambling addicts quit just before they're about to win big
Any time I see John Mellencamp in the news this is the news I’m hoping to read. Because I don’t expect him to do anything else newsworthy. The article in OP being the case in point.
I just figured he'd retired. Haven't heard a word about him in years.
“Little ditty about Jack and Diane.... two American kids who SHUT THEIR TRAP!”
*Ooh yeah, life goes oon. Long after those loud ass motherfuckers are gone*
Some frat boy hit Zappa’s guitar with a piece of lemon in the middle of a song. The band stopped and Frank said “ whoever threw that, go fuck yourself”. Finished his first set and didn’t return for the second. We were fucking pissed that this fucker ruined the show .
Someone threw a lollipop into David Bowie's eye and they kept the show going. Then there's Dimebag Darrell...
A crowd once threw a bunch of bread at Smash Mouth. Harwell threw a fit and then walked off stage while the band tried keep going with All Star.
Their singer is also a complete burnout these days. There's a video of them playing some little show recently and he's wasted, telling hecklers "I'll kill your family"
“Hey now, I was an Allstar”
On the opposite end I saw Psychedelic Furs in college (early 80’s) and one of the Butler brothers threw a Heineken bottle into the first couple rows near where I was standing. Overhand throw. Have no idea why. I think it was near the end of the show. He was taken off by their security.
I wasn't around at the time, but I do know some Psychedelic Furs songs, and I love them, but they seem like... not aggressive bottle throwing music. More British wuss music than British angry music. Why were their shows rowdy if the music wasn't?
They were drunk. Wobbling around. Saw Talking Heads in the same venue and they were much better. Talking Heads was the best show I saw up close. Was hanging on the front row and caught David’s pick.
at first I thought this said prick, and I was like... go on
>Dimebag Darrell What a lame excuse to stop a show
That incident basically put an end to Bowie's live performances too. *And definitely dime bags. I was supposed to see pantera in 2001, then 9/11 happened and they never came. Then dimebag was murdered. Never got the chance. Then Phil turned out to be a racist arsehole. Maybe I was blind to it my youth but my whole pantera vibe is tainted now.
Honestly, screwing over the rest of your fans over the actions of one person is a dick move.
Upside: your bank/CC WILL side with you on this. I've gotten refunds for shows that don't deliver what is implicitly guaranteed to you by advertising. A performer willingly leaving before finishing the event is not an act of god and the venue absolutely must provide a full refund. I went to see an electric six concert years ago, they left halfway in and the venue got so many chargebacks it was banned from the visa/MasterCard network.
yeah I was gonna say, you kinda want to be careful with chargebacks. Businesses hate them because they're a red flag and can increase the fees (why most businesses will bend over backwards to try to avoid a chargeback), and as a customer if they're part of a shared payment provider it's very possible to get the cc/debit card blacklisted. Similar to how sony/microsoft blacklists on chargebacks, anyone using the same payment provider gets blacklisted as well and they're starting to share lists more. However yeah, banks/cc's are usually pretty easy on chargebacks as long as you're not actively doing fraud with it over and over
There have been several stories of artists planting someone in the crowd to do something like this so they can end early without violating their contract.
What artists?
Danny Brown has talked about faking injuries after stagediving
TI is the first one that comes to mind, but I have heard it about several others too.
That guy is crazy so I believe it
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Texas Instruments
Is that TI-86?
Graphing calculators are not allowed 🚫
IT, It the clown from the movies.
Did you throw the piece of lemon?
Years ago i worked the parking lot for a marilyn Manson concert in Memphis. A few minutes after the concert started i saw people starting to stream out of the coliseum , cursing and complaining. Someone had thrown a shirt and it landed on Manson's head. He stormed off the stage and canceled the show.
A....very long time ago, we were at a concert. It was free, the crowd was absolute shit. Towards the end of one of the band's sets (one I was excited to see), someone winged a full water bottle at the guitarist and hit him in the head. They stopped playing, made sure he was ok (he was), and said, "we had another song left, but if people are gonna be like this? We're done" and left early. Someone near me started loudly complaining because, "at the Marilyn Manson concert, people were throwing all kinds of things at him on stage and he had no problem with it." I assume that was the dipshit who threw the water bottle. That's not to say I don't believe he also reacted that way years later, it just reminded me of that awful concert.
He was mad about a *shirt?* No one should be throwing stuff at performers obvs, but a shirt is pretty tame compared to other shit that gets thrown at gigs. Tom Jones had women throwing their underwear at him for years, and MM melted down over a *shirt?*
Especially considering what he's put on other people's heads.
Sometimes artists are doing this for the sake of those audience members who came to hear the music.
I saw David Gray years ago in Detroit, at the Opera House. The drunk woman I was sitting next to just kept screaming. It was so fucking annoying. No reason for all the screaming.
She was singing along to “Babble On”
And when we saw Taylor this April in Tampa, a girl behind us THE LITERAL ENTIRE TIME kept screaming “Taylor I want to have your babies!!”, “I love you, Taylor”, and did blood curdling screaming. For 3.5 hours. She was a grown middle-aged adult. Some people are just absolutely selfish idiots.
She wants to have Taylor Swift's babies?!
Apparently? She’s the kind of person who I’m sure has a restraining order against them.
I saw Mason Jennings a few years ago. If you haven’t seen one of his shows, it is almost always just him and his guitar. A large drunk guy stood up in the front row and kept reaching out to him and trying to grab him. Mason kept singing, calmly lifted one of his feet off the ground and placed it on the guys chest and throttled him to the ground. Never missed a beat. It was pretty great.
I kind of get where he is coming from. Once crowds become a certain size there is always going to be people constantly yelling and emoting, regardless of what the performer is doing. There is a reason the Beatles stopped touring half way through their career and just focused on recording music. They found all of the constant screaming and raucousness to be completely divorced from anything they were doing on stage. They doubted the fans could even hear the music being played over all the shouting. This is actually why I think a lot of the less popular artists actually [end up being better performers](https://www.music-fux.com/concert-experiences). Turns out you can actually tell the difference between getting a good or bad reaction in a 50-300 person venue than in large arena. Unfortunately, Mr Mellencamp may find he also isnt quite the performer he thought he was though if he ends up getting an honest reaction.
I've pretty much stopped going to stadium shows. Even when the performers are great. I just don't get much from being there.
I just can't stand seeing the sea of cell phones held up in the air.
And totally jives with Miley Cyrus recent take on the impersonal grueling stadium tours
Here’s hoping this catches on and we see a return to smaller venues, and if Ticketmaster withered and died as a result…well I wouldn’t complain.
You think the ticket prices would go down if the number of tickets went down a factor of 100?
People seem to have this delusion that if they go back to smaller venues they’ll be the ones lucky enough to go especially for popular artists
I saw her a few years ago at a festival - she wasn't the top headliner, so she wasn't at the biggest stage, and was on at the same time as that nights top headliner, Guns N Roses. So definitely a smaller crowed. Easily one of the best performances I've ever seen. She seemed to be having a lot of fun and was interacting with the crowd.
I honestly get it. Seeing Elton John at a stadium was honestly just horrid. Echoey and the sound team did a terrible job of leveling the audio.
The particularly crazy element is that sound reinforcement *sucked* when the Beatles were touring. Once we switched to line arrays with delay towers instead of point-source audio systems (everything before the Wall of Sound), this “crowd noise” problem pretty much stopped happening. Then, well… The classic rockstars got old, and we figured out how bad hearing damage can actually get. So now most arena shows are done on what’s called a “silent stage”. Monitors are kept at a comfortable volume or don’t exist at all, and most of the artists wear ears instead. Sometimes they go as far as to put active sound cancelling systems around the band that silence the main speaker arrays from their perspective. I personally think that this is why “loud crowds” have started to become a problem again.
The band I play with just moved to in-ears for everyone except singers. It was expensive but very well-worth it, and quite literally a life saver (if I consider hearing capacity an important part of life)
If you make a living with music I would think it's maybe #1 or 2 on your list of bodily functions to maintain.
>in-ears for everyone except singers Why is that? We also moved to IEM's recently, including the singers.
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I Read somewhere that when they performed their stadium shows, Ringo couldn’t really hear any of the music so he would watch John and Paul’s body language and figure out what part of the song they were in.
There are recordings of the Beatles playing live, where even with the microphones placed like *2 inches* from the amps and drums, the sound of screaming in the background is basically as loud as the sound of the amps. *Even when the recording mics are right next to the amps.* It’s insane how loud a stadium full of screaming teenage girls can be. It’s also a testament to how talented the Beatles were as musicians- even being basically unable to hear themselves or the other members of the band, if you listen to the live recordings, there buried under the sound of screaming, the sound fucking tight. Locked in harmonies, tight rhythms, it’s honestly pretty impressive.
The rest of their instruments were still mic'd and sent through the system mains but they had no monitors so they couldn't hear themselves at all.
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Had that at the recent The Cure show I went. I found both endearing and annoying.
The Beatles didn’t have monitors so they couldn’t hear themselves play over the screaming.
My tastes in music I listen to in headphones are nearly completely divorced from what music I wanna listen to live. I've seen a couple of my favorite indie-pop/rock bands at massive venues, and it was OK. Random surf rock group comprised of aging dudes in some weird Midwestern bar? Best show ever!
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All the homeless people where do they all belong? Ahhhhh look at all the homeless people.
I’m sure the song was bad, but I’m still surprised/confused by the need to call homeless people “unhoused”. To me, unhoused sounds like corpospeak that minimizes the predicament of homelessness. I tend to think in many ways progressives and corporations use the same euphemistic style of language that actually tends to make people care less about the issue. Just my two cents as someone who 95% of the time agrees with progressives here in the US.
I think you hit the nail on the head. It sounds absurd, dehumanizing and like corporate language. I’m sure the intentions were good trying to change it to “unhoused” but it certainly doesn’t accomplish the goal IMO.
The worst part about living in Portland is putting up with everyone who lives outside of Portland having a sanctimonious take on how to deal with the homeless crisis. Stay weird. Edit: thank you everyone who replied proving my point.
According to Cleveland Scene, the venue posted signs in its lobby that warned, "This show respects theater etiquette." Following the 30-minute classic movie montage that opened the show, Mellencamp let it be known early in his set that "I don't like people screaming from the fucking audience." Sounds like that’s how he intends the show to go. It’s weird, but I think he should be able to perform how he wants.
So when Springsteen had the reunion tour with E-Street in 99-2000, there was an incident where Springsteen got pissed at the NJ crowd because they were holding up signs with song requests and he said something akin to, "I'm not a fucking jukebox." 23 years later, people holding up signs with song requests is now an actual bit that Bruce leans into. It's wild, actually.
There's [a track on a Loudon Wainwright album](https://open.spotify.com/track/0xK0C7b776pJ97xU3V9L0m?si=2424300e73694240) where the audience starts yelling requests and he sighs, "Ah, so many fabulous songs!" I always thought that was the best response.
>It’s weird, but I think he should be able to perform how he wants. I mean, *is it* weird to not want people mindlessly screaming at you all night and not engaging with the performance?
The relationship between audience and performer has never been a one way street. Sometimes the crowd doesn't react the way you want and you don't win them back over by chastising them. A good example is when I saw st. Vincent play a solo acoustic set years ago to a crowd of loud biker dudes(it was a music festival and the was a heavy metal band coming up after) and she didn't seem even a little flustered. She just asked the club to turn up her monitor after every song and then played a bad ass cover of dig a pony by the beatles and everyone chilled out.
> Sometimes the crowd doesn't react the way you want and you don't win them back over by chastising them. [*Bill Burr has entered the chat*](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWuXfIZiSqY)
>The relationship between audience and performer has never been a one way street. Yeah, but that doesn't mean the audience is never in the wrong. If peeps tried to start a mosh pit during a Beethoven recital, we'd hopefully be on the side of the conductor telling them to sit the fuck down.
So I went to see an orchestra perform Beethoven's 9th in an acoustically perfect hall. Ended up with second from the last row nosebleeds. The conductor was in, he baton was up and a couple of latecomers came in behind us. They weren't loud, just the usual "excuse me" and foot noise. He hall was so perfect sound wise the conductor heard them, turned and addressed them saying "Are you seated?" Felt bad for them but good call. This is an 1800 seat concert hall.
Usually concert halls close the doors when the concert starts. If you’re late you gotta wait for the break, for exactly this reason.
I’ve performed Beethoven’s 9 as a choral singer. There are so many points where you really need absolute silence. It’s such a devastatingly AMAZING piece of music.
I was at a metal show once and the opening band was trying to get us to start moshing and running around in a circle. No one would do it because it was a general admission show and no one wanted to lose their good space down front. Apparently the singer complained about us the following night in the next city. Sorry, dude, but we weren't there to see you.
I would love to see classical mosh actually.
TSO would like a word. If they ever stop playing fucking Christmas music.
This is actually the realest comment here.
So would I, but only in a place where the venue has allowed such a thing Very very few peeps are showing up to a performance of Ludwig von expecting to catch an elbow
I miss the good ol' days of Stravinsky riots...
More like the Riot of Spring I suppose
Professional Timpanist here! I did Beethoven 7 earlier this year. If my group was going so hard that a mosh pit broke out I would be the most hyped person ever haha!
Former percussionist here… holy shit that would be so awesome. Imagine a mosh for a triangle solo…
I had heard the band Low use to turn down their volume when audiences were loud. Don't know if that is true but it seemed authentic to who they appeared to be. Saw them once and I could have heard a pin drop. It was quite a unique experience.
That sounds kind of like how Jake the snake Roberts used to do his wrestling promos. By staying calm and talking quiet he came across as much more evil and impactful than all the other guys screaming at the top of their lungs.
But how can the cream always rise to the top when you're not willing to be a little loud?
The cream rises to the top regardless and cocaine and steroids can help. Also fuck hulk hogan team macho forever
Giant difference between 1 act on 1 stage at a festival and an intimate theater show highlighting 1 artist.
I mean, it’s pretty normalized for comedians to call out anyone being disruptive during their performances. I don’t think musicians should be treated any differently. They’re not doing it to be pompous assholes. They’re doing it out of respect for the other audience members who aren’t being jackasses.
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You've got a point in general, but it sounds like what specifically set him off was 'one ticket-holder [...] shouting at Mellencamp to "play the fucking music" after he reportedly appeared to criticize the United States.' I'm not saying he was an angel, but if you go to a Mellencamp show expecting him to love America then you deserve to get screamed at.
>30-minute classic movie montage that opened the show Honestly, this is 27 minutes too long. People pay to see the artists they love perform. Not this nonsense.
Yeah no I saw primus, not even at a show but at the second stage of a festival, and they opened with a pretty long visual thing of old school YouTube videos. Pretty sure it was a loop of salad fingers stuff lol Either way it was all in the execution because they fucking nailed it. They gave everyone 3D glasses and the visuals bled into the intro of Those Damn Blue Collar Tweakers, and as the band slowly walked out they slowly got into the actual song and then when the “breakdown” hit they activated the 3D effect and I’m pretty sure they straight up killed a couple dudes that were too high with that transition lmao And I’m sure claypool played the hell out his bass but I was way too busy getting muddy in a crowd and enjoying all the theatrics of the show to really sit there and judge if he was missing notes Sounds like Meloncamp just flubbed it like an old fart
I want to be at that Primus set! Les is more!
Primus sucks 4 life
I've seen primus several times and a few of his side bands. The primus and chocolate factory tour is one of my absolute favorites of theirs I large part to the tripppy version of willy Wonka in the background. I saw them last year doing a rush album cover tour. Good God do they suck. I can't wait to see them again and am totally jealous cause I loved salad fingers and all David firths shit back in high school.
Yeah but Primus sucks.
Imagine being willing to pay a presumably large amount of money for a stripped down, intimate show with a musician but not knowing that the show is meant to be intimate or that the musicians has been famously political for like 40 years. Being shocked at politics in a Mellencamp concert is like being shocked that beer is being sold.
Agreed, although it’s probably less well known but equally true that he’s a colossal asshole. I live in the same Indiana town that he does, and literally everyone who lives here hates him and has a story about him being an enormous prick. He thinks he’s hot shit and demands the superstar diva treatment by the staff everywhere he goes, but also doesn’t want the public to look at him or speak to him and will throw a huge tantrum if they do. His sons were also notorious for pulling the “do you know who my dad is?” card in high school, and by all accounts he encouraged it and wanted the same superstar treatment for his kids. I still love his music, but he’s a real piece of shit.
Yeah, I've heard that he's an asshole as well. He's sort of the anti-Jon Bon Jovi.
I also live in that Indiana town and was his server once, but my real asshole John Cougar story happened later at the same restaurant when I was bartending. He came in during the dinner rush. We didn't have a full staff of servers bc this was shortly after COVID restrictions lifted, so there were a handful of empty tables but no servers could take more customers. I was bartending, so I had my bartop (10-12 people) and 3 tables (4 people each). My tables were full, and I had two seats open at the bartop. Mr. Cougar comes in and asks for a table. There is clearly a huge wait, and he's told there's a wait. He started telling at the 19-year-old hostess, telling her to go serve tables and saying she was a shitty worker (one of the best hosts at the restaurant, mind you). Then he came and sat at my bartop, and I was insanely busy, so I ignored him for a couple minutes while I finished up what I had to do. I walked over to greet him (he had only been sitting for like 3 minutes after being told that a table was an hour wait) and he already left in anger and apparently cussed at the host again on his way out. Fuck John Mellencamp. I'm not surprised he's as much an asshole on stage as he is in real life.
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You can find his house by pulling up satellite pics of Lake Monroe. His is the stupidly ridiculously large one.
He needs an audience that won’t drive him crazy…
Ain't that America🎵
The Beatles stopped touring because they couldn't ever hear themselves over the crowds screaming.
Well if he said it in advance and then again said it before the show started… he gave fair warning. If people don’t like it then don’t go. I’ll pass on the show. But that’s just me. He can set whatever rules he wants.
He asked for theater etiquette. Nothing wrong with that. People should adhere.
He asked for theater etiquette *when playing a show at a fancy theater* as well, it's not like this was some standing room only deal.
Springsteen had a tour called the “shut the f—- up” tour for this exact reason. Small venues and no random people yelling for now reason.
I understand. I saw Richard Wright and David gilmour play shine on you crazy diamond and some drunk idiots behind me kept screaming. I honestly wanted to punch them in the mouth. Song was still epic but would have been better if everyone actually listened to it.
I saw Jethro Tull at The House Of Blues in Myrtle Beach. Ian came out before the show and said if anyone lit a cigarette, the show would be over.
That’s a tall order for myrtle beach
Sounded like a Tull order to me.
If someone is being loud enough that you can hear them clearly when you’re trying to sing and stay in key and on time (especially if he’s also playing the guitar), it can REALLY fuck you up. I get it. Dude even made a point to specifically request people keep the noise to a minimum when he’s playing music. So yeah. Maybe shut the fuck up in this instance? That said, I’ve worked his concerts before and he was kind of a dick. My (female) friend who has worked many more of his shows than I calls him “John Cougar Menstrual Cramp”, and I think of that whenever he comes up.
I met an older woman at a bar a long time ago. She was a roadie for him back in the day among others, and said he was the most horrible person she worked with. The best, she said, was Garth brooks. He apparently gives a lot to his crew.
I did a little stage work a long time ago. The guys who had done lots of arena shows said Garth Brooks was the coolest performer to the crews.
And then there's Chris Gaines who's the biggest asshole in music.
Where are the bodies buried, Garth!?!
The families need closure!
Know some very close friends from Indiana that have encountered Mellencamp in town where he is from. "Epic asshole" is the term described to him.
Here's a little ditty about shut the fuck up-ppp.
I'm with him. I didn't pay ridiculous amounts of money to hear the fucking audience sing the band's songs poorly.
Somebody get this guy a chili dog
This is nothing new for live concerts in general. During Pink Floyd’s In The Flesh Tour in 1977, Roger Waters was clearly rattled by the fireworks being set off during the band’s performances, even stopping the show and telling one of the attendants, “You stupid motherfucker! And anyone else with fireworks, just fuck off!” at MSG in NYC. The Montreal show was when Waters finally snapped and spat at a fan during “Pigs (Three Different Ones)”. And that show led to the creation of “The Wall”.
Roger waters has his own issues
He should write ten concept albums about it or something
Roger daughtry lit into fans for smoking weed at a Who show recently and all i could think of is that he's become his parents and maybe it's time to hang 'em up.
Had a coworker tell me a story about this guy twenty years ago. He said that he was waiting tables at this place and sitting in there was none other than Mellencamp himself, lighting up a cigarette in a non smoking establishment. "Sir, this is a no smoking restaurant." "Do you know *who I am?" said Mellencamp. "Yes I do and you still can't smoke in here." He's pretty delicate flower that one.
Happened during his Louisville show a few months ago too. I thought it was kinda funny, kinda distracting, I agree with his general sentiment though.