Review: The Monkees Live! Summer Tour Reissue

On August 31st, 2001 The Monkees through King Biscuit recorded and filmed their concert at the Sun Theatre in Anaheim, California. Unbeknownst to the fans then, it was the last concert to feature Micky Dolenz, Davy Jones and Peter Tork who quit due to internal frictions within the group. They would not perform as a trio again until ten years later in 2011. King Biscuit issued edited versions of the concert in 2003 as ‘The Monkees Live Summer Tour on CD and DVD with additional bonus interviews on the DVD. Due to fan requests, the entire concert was issued as a pricey special limited edition DVD, minus the bonus interviews. This is the only professionally filmed Monkees concert officially released.

A reissue of the DVD and CD has recently been released in England by the company Grey Scale as a three disc set titled ‘The Monkees Live! Summer Tour’ (an exclamation point added to the title). The DVD of the entire concert is All Regions, so it will play on DVD/Blu-Ray players in the USA. The DVD also includes the bonus interviews with The Monkees that were included on the edited general release of the DVD.

For the first time the entire 29 song concert set is available spread out over two CD’s where the original 2003 King Biscuit CD had only 15 songs. An additional CD ‘Extended Versions:The Encore Collection’ was also issued in 2003 with seven repeat songs (‘Clarksville’, ‘Daydream Believer’, ‘I’m A Believer’, ‘Steppin’ Stone’, ‘Mary, Mary’, ‘Goin’ Down’, ‘It’s Nice To Be With You’) and three additional songs not on the original first CD (‘Look Out (Here Comes Tomorrow)’, ‘Can You Dig It?’, ‘No Time’).

While it’s nice to have the entire concert set on the CDs and DVD, there is a printing/tracking error that was repeated from the original limited edition DVD where not all the songs are listed or are on separate tracks. ‘I’ll Love You Forever’ comes between ‘I Wanna Be Free’ and ‘Goin’ Down’ and shares the same space as the latter song. The same error occurs with ‘Listen To The Band’ following ‘Porpoise Song’. This mistake doesn’t take away from enjoying the concert whether you’re listening or watching it straight through, but it might cause some minor confusion if you’re trying to look up those tracks on their own.

For fans who attended The Monkees shows from the mid-90’s to 2001, an extra little treat on the DVD is the ‘Archie & Edith/All In The Family’ routine performed by drummer Sandy Gennaro and the late Dave Alexander who played keyboards on the tour. The 2001 Monkees band also included Wayne Avers on guitar, Aviva Maloney on saxophone and keyboards, the late Jerry Renino on bass and was also the music director, and the horn section; Eric Biondo (trumpet) Greg Briggler (trombone) and Sam Albright (tenor saxophone). The Band introductions come in at the 1 hour, 20 minute point after Peter Tork’s performance of ‘Lucille’ on the DVD and on CD 2.

The DVD video quality is good and comparable with the original 2003 DVD. The sound quality of the CD’s are also excellent.

The set is currently available on the Amazon UK site at a pretty reasonable price after dollars to pounds conversion. If you missed out on getting the uncut ‘The Monkees Live! Summer Tour’ back in 2003, then this reissue is definitely worth checking out.

Amazon UK Link: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Live-Summer-Tour-Two-DVD/dp/B09S66MZ8Z/ref=sr_1_1?crid=32A9BYDFCYVNU&keywords=monkees+live+summer+tour&qid=1663623802&sprefix=monkees+live+%2Caps%2C382&sr=8-1

DVD/Double CD Set List:

Disc One:

1. Intro/Last Train To Clarksville
2. Look Out (Here Comes Tomorrow)
3. For Pete’s Sake
4. The Girl I Knew Somewhere
5. Valleri
6. Randy Scouse Git
7. Mary, Mary
8. Your Auntie Grizelda
9. I Wanna Be Free
10. I’ll Love You Forever/Goin’ Down
11. Can You Dig It?
12. Girl
13. Higher And Higher

Disc Two:

1. No Time
2. Bach: Two Part Invention in F
3. A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You
4. Long Title: Do I Have To Do This All Over Again?
5. She Hangs Out
6. Since I Fell For You
7. Lucille/Band Intros/Archie & Edith
8. It’s Nice To Be With You
9. That Was Then, This Is Now
10. Porpoise Song/Listen To The Band
11. Daydream Believer
12. I’m A Believer
13. (I’m Not Your) Steppin’ Stone
14. Pleasant Valley Sunday

Fred Velez, 2022.