The Singing Mailman Came to St. Louis; John Prine 12/3 Concert Review

Recently I've started listening to John Prine and his songs(mostly due to my dad playing one of his hilarious songs ad nausem, In Spite of Ourselves) and when I saw there was a date in St. Louis, I said, "Might as well check him out, I've got vacation days to use."
The concert was at the Touhill Performing Arts Center on the University of Missouri-St. Louis campus. Doors were supposed to be open at 7 PM for the 8:00 staring time, but they didn't open 'til 7:30 or a little later. Much to the chagrin of my dad, who used the time to splurge on the $5 sandwiches and soda. It was a pretty nice auditorium, mostly due to being pretty new.
When I ordered the tickets the only good seats together or showing up were 20 rows back, so I said heck with it and bought a couple with one seat a row in front of the other one.

Opening act Jason Isbell came on at 8 PM or pretty close. I was pretty sure he used to be in the Drive-By Truckers and was confirmed with the last song he sang, Outfit, which was the only one I was familiar with. Except for the last number, he was rather ho-hum for me. Not bad, but just seemed to run together a little too much. He joked around with the audience, especially about the sixth songs title, Goddamn Lonely Love, about how a producer or executive wanted him to change the title to 'gawl darn' or something similar. He played 8 songs for around 35 minutes.
His set list:

Daisy Mae
Alabama Pines
Tour of Duty
Streetlights
Dress Blues
Goddamn Lonely Love
Razor Town
Outfit

After around a 2o minute set change(more like dicking around there was nothing that should have needed to be changed, with a solo acoustic performer opening), the house lights dimmed and John Prine came onstage with his two backing musicians.
The opening two numbers were pretty rocking, and the second song Picture Show was an enjoyable song. His guitarist, Jason Wilber, is flat out talented. He played electric mandolin and harmonica, but when he was bending those Telecaster strings, he was on fire. There were multiple songs he was stand out on and got many applause's throughout the evening.

Set List

Spanish Pipedream
Picture Show
Humidity Built the Snowman
Your Flag Decal Won't Get You Into Heaven Anymore
Six O'clock News
Souvenirs
Grandpa Was a Carpenter
Storm Windows
Christmas in Prison
Fish and Whistle
Crazy as a Loon
Glory of True Love
Angel From Montgomery
Sabu Visits the Twin Cities Alone
Bruised Orange (Chain of Sorrow)
That's The Way That the World Goes 'Round
Dear Abby
Mexican Home
Sam Stone
Bear Creek Blues
Ain't Hurtin' Nobody
Hello in There
Lake Marie

---------------
I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus
Paradise

The earliest highlight was Your Flag Decal Won't Get You Into Heaven Anymore, which he prefaced with claiming, "I forgot which war I wrote it about." Then one of the funniest moments happened during the next song, Six O'clock News, " which had a line about "Come On Baby Spend the night with me," and a child cried out audible for the whole audience to hear and brought a smile to Prine's face.
Another was hearing Souvenirs, a song he mentioned he played with Steve Goodman, who "had a finger picking style that made it sound like Prine was playing good."
Starting about 2/3's through the main set, the two other musicians left and Prine played solo for a few numbers before, they returned halfway through Sam Stone, adding beautiful accompaniments.
Prine, dealt with the audience members shouting out requests all night. Illegal Smile was the most prominent request. At one point Prine replied, "No, we're gonna do the next song," and later before starting a song, "You requested this one about an hour ago. Sorry it took so long to get your order....Would you like fries with that?"
One of his lines that also gave me a chuckle was in Dear Abby, when he got to the verse, "Dear Abby, Dear Abby, well I never though that me and my girlfriend would ever get caught. We were sittin' in the back seat just shootin' the breeze, with her hair up in curlers and her pants to her knees Signed Just Re-Married."

He did a nice job of mixing it up with his songs running the whole gamut of emotions, but maybe it was I was getting hungry and the heat in the auditorium, but found it starting to lull somewhat, waiting on more familiar songs. The only songs I wouldn't have minded hearing was The Late John Garfield Blues and Speed the Sound of Loneliness, were two he didn't play. No biggie though he played the other major ones.
And while he was in good spirits and clearly enjoyed being there, he didn't tell many stories or give many introductions to songs, he let the songs speak for themselves.

He ended up playing 25 total songs, coming back for an encore with a surprising I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus and with Isbell joining the band for the close Paradise, another highlight for the evening.
Overall it was a pretty good performance. I wasn't super familiar with a lot of Prine's material, though I had been listening to several of his albums and recognized more songs that I thought I would. Though I wish he would have had a female opening act so he would have played, In Spite of Ourselves...

The Riverfront Times review