Red, sweaty babies cried. Students passed out. Body heat bounced around, hitting every member of the crowd, who were packed like sardines. The midday sun was relentless, but then again, so were the fans of John Mellencamp.
At 1:25 p.m. Thursday, when a blue Chevy Suburban delivered Mellencamp to Woodlawn field, thousands of ecstatic fans focused on the heat coming from the hometown rock star and forgot about the heat of the afternoon.
The singer opened the free concert, part of his Goodwill tour, with what has become the Bloomington-pride anthem, "Small Town." Directly after that, he sang "Where I Come From." If he was trying to get on the crowd's good side straight away, it worked. He kept it rocking to a fairly mellow beat for the rest of the 11-song set.