Last Train is the Best Train

I have attended NINE concerts with either the full Monkees playing or solo concerts from the likes of Davy Jones and Micky Dolenz.  

None of them (I repeat, none of them) packed the emotional whallop on display from Michael Nesmith during The Monkees’ Farewell Tour stop in Detroit this past week.

It is unfortunate that there has been so much online chatter and rumors regarding Nesmith’s recent health scares.  Yes, it is true that Nez was sans guitar on this tour stop.  Yet what he lacked in guitar strumming he more than made up for with his quirky impersonations, slap-stick comments, and authentic displays of heartfelt gratitude toward fans during this farewell to fans of the Pre-Fab Four.

Full Confession: I’ve always been a fan of Micky Dolenz.  His hijincks on reruns of the 1960’s hit tv show enthralled my imagination as a child of the 80’s.  

From the moment I first saw Micky singing I’m A Believer during Walt Disney World’s 15th Anniversary Special, I was hooked on the comedy genius as well as the hit songs.

What struck me during this final appearance of The Mike & Micky Show was how Micky and Mike traded roles within the band.  

Whereas Mike was the straight man for so many years to Micky’s wild and crazy antics, the proverbial tables were turned in this final outing: it was Nesmith who kept the audience in stitches with energy and delight (as you can see in the above and below bootleg videos I filmed during the concert!).  

Fedora-clad showman Micky instead was the defacto maestro who kept every song on pitch and moving along deftly.

The song selections were rich and deep with a fine back-up band keeping the beat.  My only regret in this final outing was the lack of any stage design.  I would have loved to have seen the giant video-screen from the 2012 tour days or even the giant neon Monkees guitar from 1996 (pictured below).  I’m sure the choice for stage simplicity was a function of cutting costs during touring.

Will we see any future incarnation of The Monkees? Only time will tell.  

As Dolenz has often shared in interviews, “We’ve always joked that we would sing Hey, Hey We’re The Monkees until there was only one of us left.  In that case, they would sing, Hey, Hey It’s A Monkee!”