My wife and I made the trek to see John a couple of days ago. I have not seen him perform in about 23 yrs. He put on a real good show, very entertaining. Band was very tight and John commandeered the stage with a little swagger/attitude and voice still sounded great. Played al ot of the hits, as you would expect, with some variations to them. He has a lot of strong material , deep stuff I would love to hear, but you got serve the masses I guess! 😉
setlist
https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/john-mellencamp/2017/illinois-state-fairgrounds-grandstand-springfield-il-13e5453d.html

Carlene Carter opened up. Just her playing an acoustic guitar and some piano mixed in .No backing band. I am not familiar with her material , but enjoyed what she brought to the stage.

To be honest I was really never a fan of him when he rose to fame in the 80's . Just was not my cup of tea, and plus living here in Indiana, we got overdoses of him on the radio.

He started to win me over with "Whenever We Wanted" which is a great release.
I think "No Better Than This" is his best one over the last 20yrs easily with Life, Death, Love and Freedom a close 2nd. His latest is good also.

[Edited on 8/22/2017 by jszfunk]