Micky Dolenz in Aurora, Illinois
At 4:00 or so, my family and arrived in Aurora, where Micky would be playing. We walked around for two hours and then we went to the concert area. The opening act was Empty Can Band, and they played until 8:00.
I met up with Cassidy from MonkeesUtopia who was with her friend Jules by the stage. I stayed up front with them for the concert, while my family was farther back in the seating area. As Wayne Campbell would say, "good call!".
There was about a half an hour sound check before Micky came on stage. It was like most concerts; he played the well-known Monkees songs and told jokes and stories in between.
The songs that I can remember being played, though not in the right order, are "(I'm Not Your) Steppin' Stone", "A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You", "Circle Sky", "Daydream Believer", "For Pete's Sake", "Goin' Down", "I'm A Believer", "Last Train To Clarksville", "Pleasant Valley Sunday", "Randy Scouse Git", "That Was Then, This Is Now", "The Girl I Knew Somewhere", and "Since I Fell For Yo"u. Coco Dolenz, his sister, was also with him, she sang "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy", "Different Drum", and "Route 66" (appropriately, since Route 66 is near Aurora).
Before "A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You", Micky made sure to adjust the microphone so that it was a few feet off the ground... "at Davy's level".
During the show, they brought a little kid on the stage who had been separated from his parents, and they were quickly found. "There's our good deed for today!" said Micky.
One of my favourite parts of the show was when someone in the audience yelled out "MONKEES RULE THE WORLD!" Micky laughed and said "No, that was 'Planet of the Apes'."
The concert ended with "I'm A Believer", of course, and we were informed they would be selling merchandise beside the stage. I bought Micky's CD, "Demoiselle". I had my "Then And Now... The Best Of The Monkees" record with me for Micky to sign, and someone beside us also had a record. They asked if Micky would be able to sign it, but the person at the table said he wasn't feeling well and probably wouldn't be coming out tonight. Earlier during the show, he had taken two breaks and didn't even come back for an encore, so I guess it was true.
Nevertheless, I stuck around for awhile, still with a bit of hope. After about ten minutes, Micky came out and everyone cheered. They said he had six minutes and then he would have to leave. There were still quite a few people there and no real line, so my dad took my record and gave it to Micky. Since the record is larger than most other things people had wanted to get signed, he saw it pretty quickly and signed it. I was disappointed that I wasn't able to get a picture with him, but all in all, it was really fun.
