Joni Mitchell   

Despite inconveniences, Joni Mitchell delighted her fans Sunday night at Jacksonville Coliseum. Photo by Karen DeYoung

JACKSONVILLE — Rock concerts are a very peculiar breed of live entertainment. Where most performers are sweating to sell an attractive, professionally packaged commodity — themselves — to the public, the rock star has managed to pull a psychological twist. So great is the fame of the big rock names, so huge the demand for their products and presence, it frequently becomes the audience who must perform for the star by proving how patiently it can put up with ineptitude, expense and discomfort.

If you haven't been to a big league rock happening lately, you probably don't know the performances almost always start at least an hour later, the tickts at outrageous prices are usually oversold, the sound systems are frequently out of kilter, and the performers, when they show up, are often surly, condescending or just plain rude.

THE JONI MITCHELL concert in Jacksonville Sunday is a case in point. Scheduled for 7:30 p.m. at the city Exhibition Hall, it finally got under way at 10:15, some three miles away at the Jacksonville Coliseum. The audience, under extremely trying circumstances, performed admirably. Nobody Molotov cocktaild the building, even tho some had bought their tickets months ago, traveled hundreds of miles to see the show and were willing to wait hours in line for a good seat.

Nobody broke a window, smashed a door or even pushed in line, even though they were herded like cattle into the Coliseum turnstiles and asked to sit on a cold, concrete floor for their $6.