Willie Nelson (pictured performing at the Palomino Festival in Pasadena in 2022) performed at Shoreline Amphitheatre at Mountain View on Aug. 3. (Photo by Keith Birmingham, Pasadena Star-News/SCNG)
Talk about a legendary bill.
Fans got to witness performances by three Rock and Roll Hall of Fame acts — Willie Nelson (class of 2023), Bob Dylan (1988) and John Mellencamp (2008) — on Saturday at Shoreline Amphitheatre in Mountain View.
Each of those highly decorated artists delivered on the promise in different ways, with Mellencamp taking the stage first for a greatest hits-style set, Dylan following with the exact opposite and Nelson closing up shop with a laidback performance that felt like it could have been delivered to a group of friends around a campfire — as opposed to a packed house of thousands at a massive concert venue.
Who was the best? Well, that depended on what you were looking for. But the bottom line is that the three legends combined forces — balancing their weaknesses and strengths — to put on what was a truly memorable day of music during Nelson’s annual Outlaw Music Festival Tour.
The trio was also scheduled to perform on Sunday at Toyota Amphitheatre in the Sacramento area.
Although this lineup had all the makings of a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see all three of these acts on the same stage, it’s actually not the first time these performers have toured together. In 2009, Nelson, Dylan and Mellencamp did a minor league ballpark trek, which made one Northern California stop — at the Banner Island Ballpark, the home of the single-A Stockton Ports. (Read our review of that show here.)
Mellencamp took the Shoreline stage in a pair of dark Dickies-style coveralls, looking like he’d just dusted himself off from fixing the tour bus. And — who knows? — maybe he had. After all, the 72-year-old Hoosier is quite the Renaissance man, dabbling in film, musical theater, painting and more between album releases.
Yet, he was all business as he opened with “John Cockers,” from 2008’s “Life, Death, Love and Freedom,” and then proceeded to run through another hour-plus of mostly up-tempo material. He stuck mainly to the Heartland-rock hits, grinding out winning versions of “Paper in Fire,” “Small Town” and “Check It Out” early in the set.
He worked alongside a solid six-piece band as well as a pair of creepy-looking mannequins that were apparently supposed to be Marlon Brando and Humphrey Bogart — but could have also been “Halloween” slasher Michael Myers and Pee-wee Herman, respectively.
“Rain on the Scarecrow” — which address the plight of the American farmer and is arguably Mellencamp’s most moving song — was a definite highlight, as was the powerful run through the “Uh-Huh” favorite “Crumblin’ Down.”
Mellencamp closed his set in rip-roaring fashion, turning Shoreline into one big singalong party as he plowed through three straight smashes — “Pink Houses,” “Cherry Bomb” and “Hurts So Good.”
Of course, many fans would then go from feverishly singing along to “Come on baby, make it hurt so good” to wondering something like “What is this guy singing? Is he singing?” as Dylan took the stage to perform his regular polarizing set, which some find perplexing — and even infuriating — and an equal number find enthralling and refreshing.
Count this critic in the latter camp, which embraces the 83-year-old Nobel Prize winner for his unflinching commitment to following his own artistic muse. Sure, as we saw at Shoreline, that often translates to him not playing his best-known songs — and surely not playing them in fashions that resemble what you hear on the records. Instead, you get to see a master deep in the creative — and reinterpretative — process, trying out new arrangements, reimagining songs and awakening long-slumbering compositions. It’s like jazz, only with a “Simple Twist of Fate” on its side.
His Shoreline set was all over the place, staring into the darkness of his own 1997 number “Love Sick”; rollicking through the Chuck Berry oldies-rock favorite “Little Queenie”; calling upon the Grateful Dead in the band’s old homecourt of Shoreline for “Stella Blue”; welcoming NorCal guitarist Elvin Bishop onstage for “Early Roman Kings” and “Can’t Wait”; embracing the role of the crooner with the Fleetwoods’ 1959 chart-topper “Mr. Blue”; before closing his set with a wholly satisfying (well, at least, for some fans) version of his own 1967 treasure “I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight.”
In start contrast to Dylan, there didn’t seem to be any mixed opinions on Nelson’s set, which simply centered on “Willie being Willie” as he charmed the crowd with a mix of fan favorites and other material. Come to think of it, however, there isn’t actually much of a difference between those two types of material. Because if Nelson is singing it — whatever it may be — then it pretty much ranks as a fan favorite.
The 91-year-old Texan’s vocal work was on point throughout the night, and his guitar playing was even better, as he kicked off the set with — what else? — “Whiskey River” and then worked with his four-piece band to conjure up such memories as “Mamas Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys,” “Angel Flying Too Close to the Ground” and “On the Road Again.”
He’d close his show with a sweet medley of the Christian hymns “Will the Circle Be Unbroken?” and “I’ll Fly Away,” which then led into a fun rendition of — of all things — Mac Davis’ “It’s Hard to Be Humble.”
Which was the best set of the day? That’s hard to say. But I can tell you who delivered the best vocal work at the show. Without a doubt, that would be Brittney Spencer, the amazingly talented singer-songwriter who opened the concert. Spencer, who is known with her work in the country music supergroup The Highwomen as well on Beyonce’s “Cowboy Carter” album, used the setting to nicely showcase her 2024 debut, “My Stupid Life.”
Willie Nelson setlist:
1. “Whiskey River”
2. “Stay All Night, Stay a Little Longer”
3. “Still Is Still Moving to Me”
4. “Bloody Mary Morning”
5. “I Never Cared for You”
6. “(If I Die When I’m High) Halfway to Heaven”
7. “Mamas Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys”
8. “Angel Flying Too Close to the Ground”
9. “On the Road Again”
10. “You Were Always on My Mind”
11. “Good Hearted Woman”
12. “Help Me Make It Through the Night”
13. “Roll Me Up and Smoke Me When I Die”
14. “Workin’ Man Blues”
15. “I Been to Georgia on a Fast Train”
16. “The Eyes of Me, The Eyes of You”
17. “Everything Is (expletive)”
18. “Write Your Own Songs”
19. “Will the Circle Be Unbroken?”/”I’ll Fly Away”
20. “It’s Hard to Be Humble”
Bob Dylan setlist:
1. “Highway 61 Revisited”
2. “Shooting Star”
3. “Love Sick”
4. “Little Queenie”
5. “Mr. Blue”
6. “Early Roman Kings”
7. “Can’t Wait”
8. “Under the Red Sky”
9. “Things Have Changed”
10. “Stella Blue”
11. “Six Days on the Road”
12. “Soon After Midnight”
13. “Ballad of a Thin Man”
14. “Simple Twist of Fate”
15. “I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight”
John Mellencamp setlist:
1. “John Cockers”
2. “Paper in Fire”
3. “Ghost Towns Along the Highway”
4. “Small Town”
5. “Check It Out”
6. “Longest Days”
7. “Jack and Diane”
8. “Rain on the Scarecrow”
9. “Lonely Ol’ Night”
10. “Crumblin’ Down”
11. “Pink Houses”
12. “Cherry Bomb”
13. “Hurts So Good”