Davy Jones/David Cassidy Concert
Nokia Theater, Grand Prairie, Texas
February 7, 2010
Do any of you folks watch CBS’s hit show, Cold Case? You know how they always do that thing where certain characters temporarily transition from how they look “today” compared to how they looked back when the crime was committed? Well, I just learned that those transitions are for real and made possible with some super-secret gizmo thingy.
How do I know this? I saw it happen, en masse, during the Davy Jones/David Cassidy concert last night at the Nokia Theater in Grand Prairie, Texas.
I know what you’re thinking. You thinking, “Surely you jest, Mr. Patterson!”
I kid you, not!
My lovely and graceful first (and only) wife and I are avid people watchers wherever we go. As the crowd filed into the wonderfully configured Nokia Theater, we watched the mostly female crowd excitedly make their way to their seats.
Most of the women were in the late forties or older. Some of the women were suffering from ailments that the passage of time bestows on many of us as we hit around the half century mark. Some came alone. Others came with their spouse/date/significant other and others came as a giggly group. Regardless of how we all got there, we were all definitely aged shadows of our former selves.
That is, until the lights went down, the band fired up and Davy Jones bounced onto the stage.
That’s when that Cold Case time-machine thingy zapped the building. For the next three hours, it seemed as though everyone metamorphosed back to the way we all were in the late sixties and early seventies. People who limped and hobbled in were suddenly able to jump to their feet, squealing and swaying to the sounds of yesteryear.
Davy Jones, fit and effervescent as ever, performed an hour-plus set that led the near capacity audience on a trip down memory lane, when times were simpler, innocent and carefree.
Knowing how to please his fans, the Monkee front man delivered all the hits. From the hit TV show and related albums to a tune or two from the Broadway Oliver, Jones danced and swayed to the squealing delight of the time-machine treated women in the audience.
As in my interview with Jones, he delivered an almost non-stop string of stories drenched in his humor. Delivered with his British accent, one couldn’t help but shake with laughter. He also introduced his lovely wife, Telemundo star, Jessica Pacheco, who performed a beautiful flamingo dance, ending it with some age related humorous banter with her iconic husband.
As Davy was ending his set, he introduced David Cassidy, providing quite a photo op for the crowd as well as yet an opportunity for the girls to exercise their vocal chords.
After the intermission, the Cassidy band paved the way for David’s warm welcome onto the stage. The girls went nuts, as was to be expected. Flashing the perfect smile that is a genetic legacy of his late father, Jack Cassidy, David wiggled, sang and pressed the flesh as the girls again stormed the stage.
As did Davy Jones, Cassidy delivered the expected hits, peppered with covers of such great rock classics as Cream’s Crossroads and Deep Purple’s Hush with the same punch and raw power as the original bands presented them. He also performed an impromptu, unrehearsed set of Beatles tunes as he reflected back on his time with John Lennon. I think David should record a project covering classic rock songs such as these. The sales would do well, as Rod Stewart has discovered.
Apparently wanting to freshen up some of the Partridge Family and solo hits a bit, David tweaked the arrangements of a couple of the songs to be more in line with blues or jazz. While some in the crowd might not have liked the changes, they never showed it, clapping and squealing once they recognized the tune.
As the show ended and the house lights came back on, the Cold Case/Time Machine thingy was turned off and everyone morphed back to how we were when we entered the venue three hours before.
While it sucks to have had to come back to reality, for brief moment in time we could forget our age and the aches and pains that have tacked on to our bodies over time and once again revisit the emotions and memories of our youth.
Do you think there’s a Cold Case/Time Machine thingy app for Blackberry’s and iPhones? I want one!
