An Evening With The Monkees

On July 16th, my sister and I got the fortunate opportunity to attend The Monkees 45th Anniversary Concert at the Greek Theater in Los Angeles and it was a fantastic blast from the past! Three of the original four Monkees were there, and while we of course miss Mike Nesmith and his wool hat, Micky Dolenz, Davy Jones, and Peter Tork gave the performance of a lifetime! Although these guys may be old enough to be our grandparents, their energy was incredible and the music as fun and fresh as if it were 1966 all over again. The packed audience, full of several generations of Monkee fans, screamed, danced, and sang along to the classic tunes of one of the most popular groups from over four decades ago. This impressive 135 minute concert (with no intermission!) was truly for the fans with The Monkees performing nearly 40 songs, including their biggest hits as well as several never-performed-before favorites (voted for by the fans via Facebook). Those misinformed folks that still believe the stigma that The Monkees don't play their instruments surely have never seen them perform live before. Micky wailed on the drums and guitar while the usual tambourine-banging Davy even pulled out a guitar, but Peter was quite the star, rocking out on several instruments including guitar, keyboard, banjo, and French horn! Their voices may not have the full range as they once did, but I was still pleasantly surprised with how great they still sound (it should be noted that Peter battled and beat a rare form of head and neck cancer in 2009, definitely a celebratory event!). A favorite moment was when Micky wheeled out the kettle drum and everyone starting cheering in anticipation for his fun, psychedelic rant (and early punk-ish) "Randy Scouse Git." The backdrop onstage was a huge screen projecting fun images of the youthful boys back in the '60s, as well as well-edited footage from their TV show, their film Head, and TV commercials. Backed by a stellar seven-man band (an eighth musician was mysteriously missing), The Monkees were personable and entertaining from beginning to end, and the crowd clearly had a fantastic time.

I'm always looking for a good excuse to wear my white go-go boots, so we went all out with 1960s groovy-ness. Aren't we cute?

As my photos came out looking like this...

...here are some great, close-up shots from another concert during this tour (my apologizes to the photographer who is not cited, but I was unable to relocate the website where I initially retrieved these photos).


It's no wonder this tour has had so many sold-out concerts and continues to receive rave reviews across the country. Thank you, Micky, Davy, and Peter, for an evening to be remembered!

And because I cannot end a '60s Beat post without having some music clip from the 1960s , here's that blast from the past with The Monkees performing "Randy Scouse Git" from the second season of their TV show (the "Rainbow Room" and wilder wardrobe choices are always a dead giveaway for the season). Micky composed this tune after The Beatles ("the four kings of EMI") hosted a party in honor of The Monkees' visit to England. He had heard the term "randy scouse git" on a British TV show and thought it was hilarious, not knowing it was an inappropriate insult to a Liverpudlian. Released as a single in UK and renamed "Alternate Title," this hit #2 on the UK charts, however, it was never released as a single in the US. Fun stuff!