I have not been to the Great New York State Fair since about 2006. I wouldn't have gone this year, except the Happy Together 2012 tour was playing for free in the Free Concert Court. After Davy Jones died earlier this year, I vowed to take advantage of seeing the musicians of my youth in person any time I could. So that meant attending this year's State Fair.
We arrived about 90 minutes before the show. Not a seat to be found in the court. We went off in search of dinner -- sausage sandwiches, of course. We wandered back to the court and found a grassy area to the right of the stage near a big screen and plopped ourselves down on the ground to wait. Eventually the concert was intro'd by local radio personality Gary Dunes, who, in turn intro'd Senator Chuck Schumer (who forgot to mention the Grass Roots in his version of the intro).
First up: The Buckinghams. I have never seen the Buckinghams in person. I love the Buckinghams. They were awesome.
During their set, security walked around our area and made people sit. They were applauded for their efforts. Some people just don't get it. Like the tripod guy. He thought he'd stand during the whole concert and record it and didn't understand why the people behind him kept yelling at him.
Next up: The Grass Roots. I've seen the Grass Roots in concert before, but not since Rob Grill died. The band was good, but the lead singer didn't have the same quality of sound as Rob Grill. They covered CSN&Y's "Cost of Freedom" before launching into "Live for Today" in honor of the vets in the audience.
Gary Puckett followed the Grass Roots. Gary Puckett's vibrato gets worse by the year. Weakest spot in the lineup. He, too, honored the vets.
Then came the performer I'd come to see: Mickey Dolenz of the Monkees.
Mickey honored Davy Jones by singing two of of Davy's songs ("Daydream Believer" and "Little Bit Me, Little Bit You"). A montage on the big video screen of magazine covers, photos from recording sessions, etc. brought tears to my eyes.
Mickey reminded the crowed that he sang "I'm A Believer" before Shrek did.
Mickey was always my favorite Monkee, so being able to scream his name at a live concert . . . well, scratch that off my bucket list.
Several people were escorted from the court by state troopers during Mickey's set.
The final act was The Turtles: Flow & Eddy. As usual, they were amazing. Their set started out with a Lady Gaga video, which they interrupted with the question: "What happened to our music? It's not supposed to sound like that! It's supposed to sound like this!" And they launched into "Only Wanna Be With You."
The Grand Finale turned out to be each of the acts coming out to perform a portion of one of their songs again. It was fabulous.
Stereo Steve Becker, along with his wife & son, sat near us during the concert. Stereo Steve would periodically come over to say something concert-related to TV Stevie. After the concert, we hung around talking for bit, then wandered to the area behind the stage. That's where Carl Giammarese and Nick Fortuna of The Buckinghams spent a very long time shaking hands and signing autographs.
I did catch a glimpse of Mickey Dolenz as he came out of his dressing room and got into a car to leave. "Mickey!" Wow. I got to scream it twice!
While there, we ran into the ubiquitous Bill DeLapp of the Syracuse New Times, who was busy snapping photos of the musicians.
All in all, it was a five star night in more ways than one.
1 comment:
Hey Molly. Just wanted to say that I saw your posts here about the Grass Roots and being in Rome, NY. When I was in the Air Force at Griffiss Air Force Base in Rome, I saw the Grass Roots at a place called JJ's in the late 70's or early 80's. It was torn down some years ago. Rob Grill was with them of course and they were great! I could kick myself for not taking any pictures, especially since I had a decent Canon 35mm camera. If you look on Facebook and search for JJ's in Rome, NY, you should see some references to the Grass Roots there and some pics inside JJ's.
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