THE MONKEES at THE CHICAGO THEATRE

 They were Amazing at THE CHICAGO THEATER last night!  I have seen them many times over the years...together and solo, and this was by far their BEST LIVE performance!   Musicianship was A+ and every time Peter played the Banjo, they took it to the next level :)  So many GREAT performances to speak of including all of my favorite Michael Nesmith tunes!  "Tapioca Tundra,"  "Papa Gene's Blues" and "You Told Me" sounded so full!  Mike found his GRETSCH "Blond Beauty" to be out of tune after "Sunny Girlfriend" and wanted to make up for it by playing it again BUT after some more technical issues, they launched into a great version of "You Just May Be The One."    

I got my "SAVE THE TEXAS PRAIRIE CHICKEN" button!

Micky gave some vocal performances that I was in disbelief and could still do the dance to "Goin' Down."  He was full of energy and solid on the drums!  Peter played all of his favorites and even played bass on some of the HEADQUARTERS numbers BUT his banjo playing really made the MONKEES sound :)  The back up band was PRIMO including Christian Nesmith and Coco Dolenz! (I didn't like the back up band from their 1986 reunion and some of the other reunion shows)

Davy was not forgotten and was featured in a few video montages and songs.  I video taped Davy singing "Daydream Believer" at the last Chicago area performance he made and will post it soon on YOU TUBE.

If you are a MONKEES fan, you will not want to miss this!  I hope they film one of the shows and make it available via BLU RAY/DVD.  One interesting note, the line for the merchandise was over 30 minutes long!  They had SOLD OUT of tour programs and most of the T-Shirts!

Bob Newhart is in Chicago!

Rich Koz just posted this pic! Bob appears at THE CHICAGO THEATER (I believe tonight) and ME TV had a promotion....

KEANE: BAD DREAM

We saw KEANE last night at the CHICAGO THEATRE and like their song "Bad Dream," it was. I have always been a big fan of the band and their music BUT I think they "Jumped the shark" and have certainly lost their "Cool." The feeling was unanimous with the group I went with. Their latest CD NIGHT TRAIN and even the one before PERFECT SYMMETRY, were starting to show signs, but this concert confirmed it for me. I have seen them live three times before and they were all great shows (also, their live DVD from the UNDER THE IRON SEA tour is great too).

We missed the first opening band but unfortunately caught the 2nd. The girl in the 2nd act sang about being a goof and closed with a Brittney Spears song and dance? The girls in the audience thought she was funny and applauded her music. Our group stared at each other in disbelief. Most of the audience in the Chicago Theatre were young girls holding one or two drinks in their hands. I don't have anything against girls with drinks in their hand, but this will give you an idea of the new audience for KEANE.

KEANE suffered from bad sound (Way too bassy and couldn't even make out what Tom was saying between songs), a horrible light show with blinding flashing lights about every 2 minutes, regardless of if it fit the song and an addition of a non-member bass player that was dancing around like his pants were on fire. The band's stage presence was all but gone. I saw the band at their first show on the HOPES AND FEARS tour at the RIVIERA and they had cool bands like THE REDWALLS open. What happened since then?

KEANE in Chicago tonight!

KEANE was on the JIMMY KIMMELL show last night and will be at the CHICAGO THEATRE next wednesday night! Their LIVE show is always amazing!