The Monkees At The NJ PAC

The Monkees At The NJ PAC May 24 2014

by Fred Velez

The Monkees performed at the NJ PAC on May 24th, 2014 to a very enthusiastic crowd of Monkees fans. Fans knew they were in for a special night when they saw the Monkee Mobile parked in front of the venue. The NJ PAC wasn’t sold out so the venue allowed fans from the 4th Tier to be seated in the 3rd Tier. With the absence of Andrew Sandoval on this tour, Jonathan Nesmith put together the videos that appeared on the screen behind the band.

At the first chords of ‘Last Train To Clarksville’ the audience were on their feet as Micky Dolenz, Peter Tork and Michael Nesmith took the stage. The Monkees and their band were very tight and folks commented that the video presentation was a little bit edgier than on previous tours. For the ‘Headquarters’ segment of the show ‘Shades Of Gray’ returned to the set list and fans were delighted by the inclusion of ‘Door Into Summer’ from the ‘Pisces’ album with Michael Nesmith in great voice.

Circle Sky

The concert featured many highlights such as the reinvented version of the ‘Sweet Young Thing’ and Micky letting a fan in the front row have a go at a verse in ‘Goin’ Down’, and the segments spotlighting the ‘Headquarters’ album and the movie ‘Head’, with the ‘Daddy’s Song’ sequence from the film featuring Davy Jones on film doing his star turn which was a wonderful tribute to Davy who is still so greatly missed. Video clips and poignant photos of Davy were sprinkled throughout the evening on the screen. Tears came to the eyes of many fans when Davy’s image appeared on the video screen during ‘Shades Of Gray’, it was very moving.

Shades Of Gray

For ‘Daydream Believer’ the Monkees reclaimed the song and sang it, Michael Nesmith surprising everyone by singing a verse of the song. Though the Monkees didn’t pull a fan from the audience to sing the song as in the past two tours, the entire audience joined in to sing along to Davy’s signature song. The show ended with a blistering version of ‘Pleasant Valley Sundy’, the audience on their feet as the Monkees and their band took their final bows.

Daydream Believer

The show was more of a family affair with the inclusion of Circe Link joining Coco Dolenz on background vocals, Jonathan Nesmith creating the video images and Jessica Nesmith handling the effects. Sadly, Aviva Maloney was not part of the band which included Wayne Avers and Dave Alexander, but she’ll be joining Micky Dolenz during his solo tour.

Fred Velez with Circe Link

This years’ Monkees tour is a shorter tour and fans should definitely catch them when they come to your town.

Back cover of 2014 Monkees Concert Program

Fred Velez, 2014