The Fake Goodbye At the End of Concerts Needs to Stop

On grand scale of what matters in the world, this is near the bottom, but since I just witnessed the fake-goodbye and encore last night, I feel obliged to address it.

You know what I’m talking about, right? When the artist shouts, “Good bye!” and darts of off the stage, but the masses continue to scream and clap for more. Then back they come to play their biggest hit.

That’s what happened at the Mickey Dolenz concert last night. Mickey was great! The band was great! The Rialto was slammed and the crowd was excited! Mickey played all the big Monkees hits, showed videos honoring his lost friends and castmates. It was a fun and moving show.

But we all wanted to hear their one biggest song the most: I’m a Believer.

Fast forward two hours, and we didn’t hear it. We all knew it was coming! Then, Mikey finishes one last tune, yells a fake “Good night!” and scampers off stage.

But it was charade. Every soul in the place knew he wasn’t going anywhere.

The rock and roll encore used to be a spontaneous thing to reward a excited crowd. Now, it’s scheduled, carefully planned and expected. Kinda takes the fun out of it!

I’d rather see the band just play their guts out at the end, finish the show on an amazing note, and leave us with a great moment to talk about on the way out…without the charade.

I have to hand it to Dolenz though. The dude put on a great show that was both fun and emotional as he remembered his friends and cast-mates. I don’t know much about the band, but it was clear from last night they were legitimately a tight-knit group who enjoyed one another, and had a lot of really fun songs that will outlive all of us. It also seemd like out of the four, Dolenz is the most fun, carefree of the bunch. The one I’d most like to have a beer with.

Oh…and those Monkees fans! You all are a bit crazy!

Cheers to you, Mickey!