Of course the Monkees missed Davy Jones. Mike Nesmith himself called them Davy and three sidemen and there is a gaping hole if only because the Monkees, through necessity if nothing else, left out so many of the songs Davy sang lead on.
But what was easy to miss is that the Monkees were never quite the Monkees without Mike Nesmith any way and with him they become a better, fuller band and the set did nothing if not return Nesmith to the Monkee folklore. Always a Texan tall glass of water with a wry personality and a taste for country that changed to an ear for psychedelia, Nesmith emerged Sunday night at the Beacon Theater with many great songs, his droll drawl in tact, and at 69 years old, a late period Jimmy Stewart persona.
Whether imitating a moog synthesizer on "Daily Nightly" or causing the audience to stand as one for the opening strains of "You Just May Be The One", the man was a revelation. Why did Mike have to wait till Jones died to return to to the fold? What a lost opportunity, a Monkees with both Davy and Nesmith would have been the missing link and the tour of a lifetime. Nesmith had played with the rest of the boys at the Greek Theatre on September 7, 1986 and also in November 1997 (thanks for the correction Bill Holdship!) but this twelve date tour is really the first extended opportunity to see the primary pop band with the wonderful songwriter along for the first time since the 1970s Nesmith said ""I never really left. It is a part of my youth that is always active in my thought and part of my overall work as an artist. It stays in a special place." Perhaps, but he didn't show it before.
Sunday nights concert was almost as good as the Monkees 45th reunion concert at the same venue in June 2011 but for different reasons. The 45th Reunion show belonged to Davy Jones and Jones loomed so large that the band decided to segment the set by artist and the parts were a little disjointed, a little less than the sum of their parts. In 2011, the Monkees were retelling their story, not a Mausoleum but certainly a bit in the greatest story ever told mode. On Sunday, the band highlighted two albums, Headquarters, an underrated masterpiece, and the Head soundtrack which essentially imploded them. In 2011 we were watching a celebration and in 2012 we were watching a statement. Let me try that again: if 2011 was anthropology, 2012 was sociology.
Most importantly, Dolenz was simply a better performer and a better singer on Sunday night. I had seen Mickey at BB Kings in October and maybe half an hour thru the set his voice became louder and sweeter than it was in 2011. On Sunday, he was in tremendous form from first song "Last Train To Clarksville" and remained so, but especially on a surprising set highlight "Daily Nightly". This is the one where Mike, very successfully, replicates a Moog and the free association lyric baffled Dolenz so much he had to crib them off a notebook as though he had just wandered in from a City Center "Encore" series concert. And with couplets like "Startled eyes that sometimes see phantasmagoric splendor pirouette down palsied paths with pennies for the vendor" you can quite understand why Dolenz claimed he had no idea what it was about. Note to Mickey: it's about a bad trip.But definitely the vocal of the evening. I could have done without the "Randy Scouse Git" anecdote but Mickey kept his storytelling to a minimum and, on "Goin' Down" his singing at the very top of his game.
Peter Tork is the only member of the band to remain somewhat constant between the two years. A consummate musician, he played anything he could get his hands on including a banjo with which he played a terrific solo on "The Girl I Knew Somewhere" and both bass and piano on his keyboard for Tork's self-penned "For Pete's Sake". But there was no surprise here, we know what he is a capable of and he can still do it and we still appreciate the effort.
But if there was once a giant hole where the Monkees as pop songwriters existed due to the absence of Nesmith, there is a bigger hole where the Monkees as multi-faceted pop band once existed due to the absence of Davy Jones. The Monkees lose an entire dimension without Jones, without him they are a great band but with him they are the Generational harbinger and teen idol band without equal, ever. They make One Direction look like amateurs. The man is missed but what can you do?
As Nesmith sang, "All men must have someone…" and the Monkees remain our that someone.
Grade: A-