Last night I Monkee'd around

Growing up my Dad's musical taste was the main influence to mine. I endlessly listened to his records and cassette tapes. This collection mostly included music he grew up with from the 60s and 70s (his teen and early adult years). I would say it wasn't really until high school when I ventured out to find newer music and develop and expand my library of music. (Don't worry, I didn't miss out on 80s music, but that's really not relevant to this post. Maybe one day I'll tell you about my endless Madonna dance parties with her records the neighbors across the street owned.)

In addition to scouring my Dad's music collection I was lucky enough to be born in the age of the "invention of cable". This is what fueled my love of tv. While I watched all of the current programming, I loved reruns of shows from the 60s and 70s. In my early teen years, tween as they are referred to now, Nick at Nite gave me access to such great shows like The Musters, The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis, The Donna Reed Show, Mary Tyler Moore, and so many other ones (raise your hand if you actually have heard of Dobie Gillis. Yeah, I didn't think so. sad for you). One show I remember watching over and over was The Monkees. This show combined my two passions, music and television.

In the 80s The Monkees toured and I wanted to go to the concert, but my Dad wouldn't take me (looking at the dates I see why, I was only 7 or 8). Since then it's always been a regret of his. Last night we made up for it and saw that same portion of the group perform at The Greek. As is widely known, Mike Nesmith doesn't perform with the band anymore. Now when the Monkees tour it's a variation of Davy Jones, Micky Dolenz, and Peter Tork. This tour it's all three. The show was so great and really held to the roots of the tv show. They had comedic bits they did between songs that held to the comedy of the show. They looked like they were having a blast up on the stage (based on all of the stories you heard about the band in the early days, and later days too, who really knows if they were enjoying their time together, but since I'd like to think they were let's just say they were).

There was a big screen behind them the band that showed a non-stop stream of old videos and pictures. It was really neat. I got this on picture of the guys "then and now" (a Monkees lyrical reference for you fans).

I got a chance to see Micky and Davy when they were part of a summer concert series at DCA (Disney California Adventure) like 10 years ago, but last night was even more awesome because Peter was there and I remember him being my favorite when I would watch the show.

Hearing all of their songs again reminded me of how much I love them. During the show they gave shout outs to all of the fantastic songwriters they worked with. Did you know Carole King wrote "Sometime in the Morning"? I had no idea, but once Davy said that I could completely hear it in the song while he sang it. Some other fun stories or bits from the evening:

• Micky talked about when they went to England and meet royalty, no not the crowned royalty, The Beatles. Apparently, after a crazy night of partying he couldn't recall anything from he wrote "Randy Scouse Git". Love that song!
• Davy said that over the years he's stayed current music by listening to it with his kids and grandkids. He came to the conclusion that "Justin Beiber stole my haircut and Axel Rose stole my dance moves".
• Peter talked about how they got so much flack for not being "real musicians" and "real band".  The band fought for the right to play at their own shows so ironically they were a cover band for their own albums.  It was pretty funny the way he explained it. He then brought up the irony how in conjunction with them fighting to be a real band when they recorded the song they were about to play he actually played the harpsichord part on a harpsichord, but tonight he was on an electric keyboard so it would be a synthesized version of a harpsichord.
• Davy "pulled an Elvis Costello" and stopped the show to pay a quick tribute to Sherwood Schwartz, the legendary tv producer who recently passed,  by singing "Girl".  He sang that on the episode of The Brady Bunch that he appeared on. (Oh the blog I could write on my love for The Brady Bunch! I guess last night I finally got my chance to be like Marsha Brady since he sang it live to me like he did at her prom.  Let's just keep those footballs away from my nose!) The tribute was very sweet.  He also dedicated the song to his granddaughter who was in the audience.
• Ending the show with The Monkees walk... you know the one I'm talking about.

I feel so fortunate that over the past couple of years I've gotten a chance to see so many performers I've loved for a long time (who are all a bit on the older side). I always say I was born a decade or two late. I love so much about the 60s and the 70s (heck, let's even throw in the late 50s). Seeing Peter, Micky, and Davy last night performing together was kind of making up for that. Their music will now be back in full rotation on my iPod and I'll be revisiting other old favorites.

Once I figure out how to post videos from my camera somewhere on the web I'll post some of those. I recorded A LOT so I could relive it over and over! Until then you can head over to the album to see some pictures. (I took over 158 photos/videos so I got some that came out pretty good!) Photos from An Evening with The Monkees