John Mellencamp
Riverside Theater
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
October 5, 2004
"Vote For Change" tour

Lineage: Sonic Studios DSM-6 Mikes => Sony M-1 DAT master
Transfer: Sony 60ES DAT => Stand-alone Pioneer CD burner => EAC => Magix Audio Cleaning Lab => WAV => FLAC Front-end (level 8)

Disc one (49:48):
(1) Seven Days (4:50)
(2) Human Wheels (5:27)
(3) Peaceful World (4:19)
(4) Minutes to Memories (4:39)
(5) We Are The People (7:52)
(6) In My Time Of Dying (3:49)
(7) Rain on the Scarecrow (4:50)
(8) Walk On (4:32)
(9) Paper in Fire (4:30)
(10) The Authority Song (4:54)

Disc two (64:47):
(1) Babyface intro (2:38)
(2) When Will I See You Again (6:42) *
(3) Change The World (12:43) *
(4) Imagine (7:06) *
(5) What If I Came Knockin' (5:33) =>
(6) When The Walls Come Crumblin' Down (4:38) =>
(7) Jack and Diane (5:02) =>
(8) R.O.C.K. In The U.S.A. (4:19) =>
(9) Pink Houses (8:25)
(10) Encore break (0:54)
(11) Band introductions (1:38)
(12) Small Town (5:03)

* Kenny "Babyface" Edmonds

Fingerprint file is included. Sorry, no artwork - perhaps someone can create some

Comments: Part of a week-long tour of "contested" states in the 2004 general election, Mellencamp played a small show at the Riverside Theater in Milwaukee with Babyface. The early part of the set had some setlist surprises; Babyface (and his band) came onstage for three songs in the middle of the show (including a cover of John Lennon's "Imagine"), and JCM closed with a medley of hits. A pretty solid two hours. I'm not a big Babyface fan, but he wasn't bad.

This was kind of a stressful taping experience. I was in the front row on the left side of the stage for this, so I had to start the deck in the bathroom and hope the levels were okay (turned out that they were). I actually began to get nervous that Mellencamp could see the microphones in my shirt -- he was so close that he nearly stepped on my hand at one point in the set.

The sound was great -- this recording comes almost entirely from the stage monitors with only a little from the side stack. The only (very minor) flaws are that the vocals are mixed a tad too low and the high end drops a little during some of Babyface's set -- the crowd sat down during most of the three songs he played, and a little of the treble coming from the monitors gets lost. Otherwise, this is a very good audience tape with minimal crowd interference (as one would expect, since the crowd was behind me).