give her some funked up music / she treats you nice
enough about fagen's unfortunate jaw problem. now for the music. becker and fagen are known for their insane perfectionism in the studio, which some critics complain results in a certain musical coldness. i, however, am just a musical doofus and not a rock critic, so in my ignorance i can afford to be glad they're so exacting. their live show, featuring 13 musicians onstage, faithfully recreated many of my favorite moments in steely dan history.
some highlights:
- "aja" i was buying paul a beer as the song began, so i hustled in quickly, spilling sam adams all over the guy in the seat in front of me. ah, but he was so hopped up on goodwill and budweiser he practically thanked me for it. anyway, the song is so full of tricky twists and turns that i would never have expected them to play it live, but the band was more than equal to the task.
- "home at last" this is a song that takes full advantage of a robust horn section — luckily, becker and fagen happened to have two saxes, a trumpet, and a trombone on hand for just such emergencies.
- "josie" you know, come to think of it, this isn't one of my favorite songs as recorded; the live version was a great improvement. the drummer touring with them is, oh, about fifteen years old, but managed a really rousing three-minute solo at the end of the song.
- "my old school" this was the first song of their two-tune encore. worth the price of admission to hear the little flourish of glee from the horns after, "california...tumbles into the sea." we were all wishing california ill at that moment, i am sure.
- the goofballs in the audience let's get this out of the way right now: i mean no disrespect. but i have to point out that the crowd was almost homogeneously composed of 45-year-old white guys in golf shirts, whose idea of rocking out involved staying comfortably seated and genially nodding, in a very tight way, to the funky driving beat. at intermission the two guys in front of us engaged in a very amicable battle to the death to determine, once and for all, who was the bigger fan: "i saw them just last week!" "oh. yeah. well, i'm using my frequent flyer miles to go see them in hawaii!" ad infinitum.
- the goofballs in the audience. although they were cute individually, the crowd as a whole was a disappointment. there was no energy in the arena to speak of — polite applause followed every song, but the only time the crowd showed even a spark of life was at the beginning of the encore as "my old school" began.
- walt and don phone it in. maybe it's because the crowd's response to their music was so lackluster, but those two couldn't get off the stage fast enough at the end of the encore (slipping out before "fm" truly ended). paul saw the taillights of a car zooming into the darkness at the side stage exit long before the band wound it up.
- general-purpose melancholy. it was sorta sad to see steely dan, known as masters of wit and irony, playing at this godawful indian casino in the middle of nowhere, connecticut. ("a legendary gaming experience," indeed, boasting tasteful features like "the casino of the lost tribes" for example.) what was even sadder, though, was hearing walter becker vow that they'd be back. guys. guys! i trust you to be smarter than that.
So buy a program
And/or a hat
You don't pass up a deal like that
It's only promo stuff
But hey it's good enough
For THE STEELY DAN SHOW
And/or a hat
You don't pass up a deal like that
It's only promo stuff
But hey it's good enough
For THE STEELY DAN SHOW
yes, i bought a t-shirt. (no, it's not black.)
Comments
Curious - did they play any of either's solo stuff? I missed their DC area date 'cuz I'm stuck in CO.
Posted by: Ed | August 27, 2003 06:35 PM
nope, none at all. here's a more-or-less accurate set list, only our show was minus "blues beach" and (unless i'm hallucinating and remembering incorrectly) plus "black cow."
Posted by: julie | August 27, 2003 06:47 PM
We had a much more enthusiastic crowd here when I saw them in 2000 in the Ampitheatre in the Columbia Gorge, although it was the same demographic for the most part. And they were amazingly energetic and involved with the crowd, which I hadn't expected since I'd also heard the 'studio band' rap.
I didn't manage to see them this time around, but I do know that they downgraded their venue here to a much smaller location two weeks or so before the actual concert.
But at least they weren't stuck in the shoes of the Doobie Brothers and America, who both appeared at a local food festival held in a suburb of Portland (forcing the bands to probably utter 'we're so glad to be with you here in Beaverton'.) They couldn't even make Portland's own food festival, which is saying something...
Posted by: betsy | August 28, 2003 06:15 AM
now, you know, i saw some photos from a gorge concert or two when i was looking for examples of fagen's shocking mandible. amazing.
i would have liked a more enthusiastic crowd. they were all having a good time, but i think in general were just too uptight to show it much. it was like asses were velcroed to seats.
the casino's arena wasn't sold out, which i found sad. i wouldn't call steely dan an arena band to begin with, but i would have thought they'd fill this dinky place. i'm only glad i didn't hear becker bellow gamely, "good evening, uncasville! are you read to rawk?!"
Posted by: julie | August 28, 2003 09:00 AM