Rant #1,686: That Was Then, This Is Now

Better late than never.

Sorry for the delay in this Rant.

I know you drink your morning coffee while reading the Rants I put up, but today, I slept in.

I didn't get home until about 12:30 a.m. last night, and I didn't go to sleep until a about a half hour later.

But it was well worth it.

Yes, "Monkees Week" has reared its head again, and yes, last night, my family and I took in their only New York appearance at the city's venerable Town Hall, a place I had not been at for probably nearly two decades, since seeing Liza Minnelli there with my wife years and years ago.

Anyway, the place is small and cozy, the acoustics aren't great but they are adequate, and is my custom (sorry, my pocketbook's custom), we sat in virtually the last seat in the last row.

So we got a bird's eye view of the proceedings, from all the way up.

The place was air conditioned, but it was warm up there. If my wife says she is warm, it is warm. She is always cold, but has a warm heart. If she is warm, yes, it is warm.

Anyway, the concert went on as scheduled at a little after 8 p.m., and while it was not a sell out, I would say that probably more than 90 percent of the seats were filled, mainly filled with people in my age bracket, but also lots of kids, too.

The Monkees--Peter Tork and Micky Dolenz--did all the hits, and some new songs too.

We have seen them many, many times over the years, and they do put on a good show.

There was one surprise, one that I knew from social media, that was going to happen there, and although a lot of people were surprised, I knew about it, so I wasn't.

Mike Nesmith, the venerable missing Monkee, made an appearance at the concert, but did it via Skype.

He was on the big screen, a computer image projected to us all, and he played "Papa Gene's Blues," sort of with the band that was there, sort of not.

The experiment was an interesting one, but playing music on Skype still leaves a "tinny" type of sound, so while the idea and execution was high tech, the result was sort of what you used to get when you snuck in a mini tape recorder into a concert, and recorded the sound.

The idea got an A+, the result got maybe a C+.

Technology is not yet there to make this a viable option, but it was nice to see him, and he got some of the show's biggest cheers ...

Along with Davy Jones, of course.

You cannot see the Monkees live, listen to their records, or even think about them in the proper context without thinking of Jones.

I mean, he really WAS the Monkees.

So whenever his image was cast on the screen, or his name was brought up, the crowd cheered.

You almost couldn't help yourself.

Having seen so many Monkees shows for the past 30-plus years, the shows kind of run into each other for me.

They are enjoyable, fun, and a great two hour step back into the past.

But at least this time around, the Monkees are in the present tense, with their new album doing really well saleswise, getting incredibly positive reviews, and making them current again.

They played the new and the old, and those songs are simply exquisite two and three minute masterpieces of pop music. They really are, and they are carried off with a lot of aplomb by Micky and Peter and a stellar backing band.

And the two principles are in their 70s, which just goes to show you that the music only stops if you want it to stop.

And that is probably the best compliment I can give the Monkees right now.

As for me, I have to go for some medical tests tomorrow, so this is my last post for the week.

I will speak to you again on Monday, no Monkeeing around, promise.