Last Friday I headed down again to Riverbend, this time to catch John Fogerty and John Mellencamp. The concert opened with a brief set from a guy who’s name I never managed to catch. He played roots-rock type music accompanying himself on an acoustic guitar and harmonica. He was ok for what he was, but you could have heard similar performances at half a dozen bars around town.

John Fogerty hit the stage and opened with roaring rendition of “Travellin’ Band” which really set the tone for a blistering set comprised mostly of CCR numbers. In fact, out of the 15 or so songs he played, only 4 (”Rambunctious Boy,” “Centerfield,” “Deja Vu (All Over Again),” and “Old Man Down the Road”) were from his excellent solo catalog. But that seemed ok with the crowd who were happy to dance and sing along to all their old CCR favorites including “Proud Mary,” “Heard It Through The Grapevine,” “Fortunate Son,” and “Have You Ever Seen The Rain.” It’s easy while remembering all of those great songs authored by Fogerty to forget what a talented guitar player he is. During the intro to “Keep On Chooglin’,” John shredded through some riffs that would make Eddie VanHalen blush. Throughout the set, Fogerty maintained a high level of energy, running and jumping all over the stage like a man half his age.

With such a great opening, Mellencamp certainly had his work cut out for him to match the raucous energy put out by Fogerty. Unfortunately, he was largely unable to do so. In an effort to try and sound relevant, it seems that Mellencamp has added alot of horns, synth, “world beat” rhythms to his music. Which to my ears just sounded desperate and not in keeping with his “country boy from Indiana” persona. For a guy who “never wanted to be a pop singer” he sure sounded like one. Sorry, Coogs. Still, he covered all his hits, including the massive sing-along “Jack & Diane” which kept the crowd on their feet. A real high point in his set occurred when Mellencamp called Fogerty back to the stage and played the Creedence classic, “Green River” and perhaps Mellencamp’s best song, “Blood On The Scarecrow” together. Mellencamp commented after playing “Green River,” “I hope when I grow up I can write a song that good.” And on the follow-up song “Scarecrow” I couldn’t help but think he already has.

Walking into Riverbend last night I was probably more stoked to see the opening act Black Crowes than the headlining Tom Petty, who I’ve always considered to be something of a poor-man’s Bob Dylan. I’m not an over-the-top fan of the Crowes, but I own several of their albums and enjoy their take on 70’s style southern rock a la Molly Hatchet or the Allman Brothers. Unfortunately, the Black Crowes disappointed. They played a rather lackluster set comprised mostly of covers of obscure 70’s tunes with very little energy. Lead singer Chris Robinson spoke perhaps twice to the crowd. In both cases it was simply, “Thank you.” Most disappointing of all were the omissions from the set list. Several of their studio albums were not represented by a single song. Of their familiar hits, they played only “Jealous Again” and “She Talks To Angels,” leaving out such gems as “Twice As Hard” and perhaps their biggest song of all, “Hard To Handle.”

That set the stage for Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, who could have really laid an egg and still blown the Crowes off the stage. Thankfully, Petty put on a high-energy show that more than made up for the anemic opening act. Playing in front of a large video screen similar to what Aerosmith has been touring with the past few years, Petty ran off hit after hit spanning his entire 30 year career, including a Traveling Wilbury’s tune and covers of “Not Fade Away” and Dylan’s classic “Everybody Must Get Stoned.” His set did have a few low points. Two new songs fell somewhat flat, and an acoustic take on “Learning To Fly” didn’t seem to resonate with the fans. Petty also made a habit of leaving lengthy pauses between numbers which detracted from the overall cohesiveness of the set. Those minor nitpicks aside, Petty kept the Riverbend crowd on their feet and singing along throughout his entire 2 hour performance, managing to squeeze in performances of nearly every of his many hits with “You’re So Bad” being the only notable absence.