Veteran roots rocker John Mellencamp will perform at the Riverside Theater, 116 E. Wisconsin Ave., on Friday, Feb. 8 as part of his "The John Mellencamp Show" tour, which mixes new songs with longstanding fan favorites.
Tickets for the show, which starts at 8 p.m., go on sale on Friday, Sept. 21, at 10 a.m. at The Pabst and Riverside box offices.
The tour, which will coincide with the release of Mellencamp’s latest disc, kicks off in his home state of Indiana on Feb. 7 and will run for two months.
Earlier this year, an 80-minute Mellencamp concert film – filmed at the Chicago Theatre in late 2016 – was added to Netflix. "Plain Spoken: From the Chicago Theatre," also available on CD and DVD will offer you a glimpse into the live Mellencamp experience while you wait for the Milwaukee gig.
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has be heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.
