Friday, March 15, 2019

The Monkees Present: The Mike & Micky Show @ Mystic Lake Casino 3/14/19

RUSHED REVIEW (PER LACK OF TIME OF COURSE).

Great show, and very sad knowing it likely is the last time a Monkees show of some kind will happen here. Micky likely will be back, but Mike? kind of doubt it per his health/age. He may just go on and do occasional First National Band shows, and maybe only in CA or the West Coast.

The wife is coming to terms with it too. Some 31 years after being a fan, this might have been it.

The show itself was very good. Definitely better than the show last Summer in Chicago.

They had a guy (Probyn Gregory) playing multiple instruments including Trumpet which ADDED FRANKLY A LOT.

More details to add later perhaps (maybe how it reminded me of the final 2015 Rush show I saw, etc).

edit:

Image may contain: 2 people, people smiling, people playing musical instruments and people on stage
just add some more comments, it was an epic show, much like the show last Summer in Chicago. 2+ Hours. But it didn't seem so long

The Peter tribute was nice. They didn't play Can You Dig It? but while Micky sings lead on that one, it is so much Peter. At some point, it would be nice to have someone do a tribute/cover to Peter with it live.

Shades of Gray maybe as well.

The acoustic section was great. Nez and Christian both played 12-strings.

This was the 5th Monkees and 11th Monkees-related concert I've seen in a little less than 8 years for me (also I could include the 1 Davy Jones show at the Taste of Minnesota in 2006, which my wife was at as well, little did I know at the time, lol).

Which that is quite a lot, but it pales in comparison to my wife's Monkees concert attendance history. I would guess she's probably doubled that number or more, although at least the Nesmith shows, I saw all with her (and told her after she was convinced she'd never see him, that with that mentality, she probably won't, but if she just hoped for it to happen, it might. And it did. She and I saw him 8 times since that 1st time in November 2012.

But it is odd in that this show feels like the end of an era for her and myself by extension.

The Rush show I saw at XCel Energy Center in St.Paul in 2015 (the "R40 Tour") I kind of knew was the last time. I saw Rush 5 or 6 times previously, and was okay with it, per when I 1st became a fan in 1991/1992, I was kind of down about their age and time left, much like Led Zeppelin or even now Kevin Gilbert. Seeing them live may not last.

Image may contain: 2 people, people on stage, people playing musical instruments, guitar and concert

And my wife felt similarly, and sadly, never got to see all 4 together. The 1996 Justus tour was her best shot, but Mike didn't stick with them on the US leg.

And other than the Euro leg of that 1996 tour, along with a few reunion shows in the 80's only in LA, the 4 Monkees did not play together live other than the initial tours in the 60's.

It's too bad, but that is kind in the past and known, just like how Kevin Gilbert and Jeff Buckley both played in Minnesota among others, and I wasn't a fan at the time, etc.

Some other things to remember: I saw Christian and Circe both before the show walking out the Buffet we were entering for dinner. That made my night at least. I mentioned to Christian it must have been cool to meet MSNBC's Brian Williams recently, and also we found out Christian and Michael Sherwood are working on a follow-up to Groovy Lemon Pie which having recently discovered liking a lot of.

That and seeing some of the regular faces and meeting up with my wife's longtime Monkees-fan friend from Wisconsin, maybe for the final time at a Monkees show was both nice but felt quite sad and end-of-an-era as she felt.

We probably will see him again, whether he comes in, or we end up in Oshkosh, WI where he is from (or in Chicago like last Summer). He doesn't drive, so he has limits, but if the Monkees/Monkees related shows dry up after this tour, and then at some point Nez does a show at The Troubadour again, maybe that will motivate us and him to make the trek.

Image may contain: 2 people, people smiling, people on stage, people playing musical instruments and guitar

I mean for many of the casual fans there, this was kind of just another show, but for my wife and some her Monkees lifers, this will not be forgotten for a long time. And maybe the same will happen with some others for myself and her with artists retiring (or they sadly die). But for her, this is HER band, music and FAMILY in a way.

And like the Rush show in 2015, this show was quite good, and 1 to like how it ended.

It also is odd how a friend of hers who she worked with at Barnes and Noble many years back, passed away yesterday. Eerie with her friend/former co-worker from the 2000's dies and the last Monkees show happens on the same day. And it was Pie/Pye Day, lol.

I guess 3/14/2019 will be one of the memorable days to think back on about.





Also:

Chris Riemenschneider's review from the Strib

The 1st line of the review:
The last time the surviving Monkees came to Minnesota in 2012, they arrived just eight months past the death of one of their own, Davy Jones.


Yeah, I probably know more about the Monkees history than him, lol.

I mean just in the fact he claims the last time they came here was 2012, even though I'm pretty sure he or Bream reviewed the 2014 Minnesota Zoo show. Nice fucking research, lol.

So was he meaning the last time IMMEDIATELY AFTER a MEMBER OF THE MONKEES DIED, a Monkees concert was held? if so, he at least could have worded it better, lol.

And if he was trying to say the last time a Monkees concert happened in Minnesota (regardless of how long after a member died, and regardless of right-after/the 1st show following a Death), then he is SPOT ON WRONG and didn't do his research.

I mean look at this photo of me and The Wife at the Fucking Minnesota Zoo in 2014 (not 2012 or 2011), LOL

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Set 1
Good Clean Fun
Last Train to Clarksville
Sunny Girlfriend
Mary, Mary
You Told Me
For Pete's Sake
The Door Into Summer
You Just May Be the One
A Little Bit Me, a Little Bit You
The Girl I Knew Somewhere
Birth of an Accidental Hipster
St. Matthew
The Porpoise Song
Circle Sky
Pleasant Valley Sunday (Carole King cover)

Till Then
 (Peter Tork)

Set 2
  1. (acoustic)
  2. (acoustic)
  3. (John Stewart cover)
  4. Encore
  5. (Neil Diamond cover)