Sunday, February 7, 2010

My evening with a Monkee and a Partridge

Thanks to Nick at Nite, during the 80s and early 90s my generation was introduced to great classic shows from the 50s, 60s, and 70s. Even though some people might argue that The Monkees (or The Partridge Family for that matter) were hardly "great classic shows", it's because of Nick at Nite I had exposure to both of them.

Now, my favorite of the two was The Monkees and I have loved their music ever since I was little. In college I found out that my roommate Mel also loved The Monkees (it was the start of a beautiful friendship). My favorite of the group was Michael Nesmith (yes, I know, I like goofy looking guys- let's move on), and hers was Davy Jones (who didn't love Davy?) I don't know for how many years now I've been telling her, if Davy Jones ever comes in concert, I'll go with you. Over the years we have missed an opportunity to see him live, until last night.


    

Michael Nesmith and Davy Jones (circa 1966ish)

Davy Jones is currently touring with David Cassidy (this is where The Partridge Family comes in to the story). Mel and I got our tickets a few weeks ago. Originally we had planned to just get "nose bleed" tickets, but at the last minute we were able to get "floor" seats for the same price as nose bleed tickets. And I'm so glad we did!

A view from our seats, section 202, front row.

No disrepect to Mr. Cassidy, but Mel and I were mainly there for Davy Jones (although I remember watching The Partridge Family and did enjoy his performance). We sat next to a nice lady named Tammy who was VERY excited about seeing both of them (if you know me, think about how I would be if I was about to see Dick Van Dyke- yes she was that excited). It was amusing to see alot of women in the 40s and 50s down right giddy about being there, acting like love-struck teenagers again. We saw some interesting outfits too. Sadly I didn't get pictures, but there were "skinny jeans" and fringe jackets and vests. We saw one group where everyone had some form of leopard print on their outfit. Interesting. We got to our seats about 30 minutes before the show started. A nice usher named Roger took our picture for us.

Me and Mel waiting on Davy Jones!


I honestly didn't know what to expect (it has been a while since I've been to a concert that wasn't country or a Christian artist). Davy Jones did not disappoint. Between songs he told jokes and stories. He's actually very funny! He sang all the songs we love from The Monkees! He also sang "Girl" which you might remember from the episode of The Brady Bunch that he was in.


 
 Davy Jones on stage


I noticed towards the end of the show, people from the rows behind us were going down front to take pictures. Since no one stopped them, I followed (easier to ask for forgiveness than permission!) I was right by the stage and at one point and Davy leaned over and shook my hand. Somewhere in section 202 Mel screamed!  :)



Pictures taken when I was able to be right by the stage


David Cassidy came out on stage to sing Davy's last song with him. I was being pushed by a mob of screaming middle aged women, or this might have been clearer.

Like I said before, David Cassidy had a good performance as well, despite technical difficulties. At one point, his electric guitar wasn't working. He did some great improv while they tried to get it fixed. He even joked about it. That is the only thing you can do when that happens. But overall, it was a great night and we had a lot of fun!! And per the comments we were getting on our Facebook statuses, it seems I have a lot of other friends who are Davy Jones fans too! Who knew??

David Cassidy on stage. At one point he even stopped his show to sign an autograph (after the crowd cheered him to do so). They added more security down front after that happened.

This is the look he had after someone yelled for him to take off his shirt. Thankfully he refrained!

At the end of the concert, David told security to let them [the screaming women trying to get to the stage] have fun and they were allowed to come up and shake his hand. I refrained, I just took pictures from my seat. This is where he was telling the women not to pull him off the stage.

I leave you with clips from The Monkees and The Partridge Family!



1 comment:

  1. Great fun and greater memories. You see, I watched every show when the Monkees were on TV. Yes! The first time around. I was a newly wed, more or less, and we both watched and laughed and sang along. The whole show was fun from the beginning, just fun. It is a very good memory

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