Steely Dan 2014 Tour

Portland (last night) was the first stop on the tour. The spousal unit and I were fortunate to have great seats (4th row balcony dead center) and a fantastic venue (The Schnitz). I'm blown away. One of the best concerts I've seen in quite a while.

The live sound was especially excellent. It might be the best live sound I've experienced since Dire Straits' Brothers In Arms tour back in 1984. Every single instrument sounded completely natural and occupied its own space. And it was loud enough to be moving. I find quite a lot of national/international touring bands don't play quite loud enough for my tastes. SD was perfect.

The lighting really enhanced the experience. Basically, any time a musician came to the forefront musically (even momentarily), they were spotlit. It sounds easy but try getting that exactly right every minute of a 2 hour and 15 minute performance. Most impressive.

The 13-pc band was exceptional top to bottom. So many instrumental highlights that I couldn't possibly list them.

There were only two small niggles, but both of them more or less come with the territory.

Walter Becker is a total space cadet. I knew his role was more or less to noodle on incessantly in the SD sonic stew. As a guitarist, he doesn't really do much for me. I doubt that he could pass an audition doing that schtick if he weren't one of the founding members. They did a good job of punching him up slightly in the mix when he was doing something interesting (about half the time) and bury him when he was just treading water. Boddhisatva was particularly telling. John Herrington played all the guitar you could hear in the mix (and brilliantly I might add), watching WB play that song, I could see that his chord shifts weren't even in rhythm. Oh well, you gotta let one of the founding members do something. I would have been just as happy if he had sat on a stool all night and let JH play all the guitar. JH was brilliant.

Donald Fagen has clearly lost a step or two vocally. Whatcha gonna do? But the way the backup singers covered the phrases he couldn't sing was done as artfully as I've ever seen. And really, DF made no attempt to disguise the fact that was happening. He really earned my admiration for that. It felt very honest. For the most part though, his playing and singing was passionate and engaged (something friends who have seen SD lately have told me can be hit or miss on any given night).

If the vocals had been a bit more intelligible, this concert would have been a top 10 experience. As it was, it was excellent. Top notch, especially the live sound. Whoever is behind the mixing board is a bonified genius.

 

You can't go wrong with Harrington, he's great.

 

Freebies would have been great. It was a spendy ticket for us (~$120 each). But I had never seen SD live, so it was as much about crossing them off the bucket list as anything else. They vastly exceeded my modest expectations.

 

What was the setlist like? Any surprises?

 

I have great seats for a stop in Albuquerque at the end of the month. Indoor venue, one of the Indian Casinos. Nice room. I also saw them here at an outdoor venue 5 or 6 years ago maybe. Shockingly bas sound. I went into the show thinking that being Steely Dan, it would be the best live sound I had ever heard, and was stunned at how poorly it sounded. I am happy to here initial reports that the sound is good on the tour.

 

Having seen them about 9 times since 2000 I can chime in

Walt was okay until two years ago
His health seems to have really deteriorated and his playing those predictable blues licks
although he owns Bad Sneakers

Fagan's voice started going about 2 years ago on a night to night basis
He has always used the blending with the backup singers to perfect

wonder if they played the same old warhorses or vary it up with some rare or diverse numbers

Caves of Altimira please - the horn section demands it

They are finally playing New Orleans in 3 weeks, which they have never done outside of the 2008 Jazzfest where the fest ruined their usually stellar sounde

 

Mostly Aja (Black Cow, Peg, et al), Katy Lied (Everyone's Gone To The Movies, Black Friday, et al), which are two of my three fave records (Royal Scam is third. Kid Charlemagne was the encore).

I kind of jump off the bus at Gaucho, but they played my favorites off that record (Babylon Sisters, Time Out Of Mind, Hey Nineteen).

There was one song I didn't recognize. It was almost certainly a latter song. It was fine.

 

Thanks for the review. It's a shame what you observed with Fagen and Becker. I did not experience these issues on past tours, but the last show I attended was several years ago. It appears that age is catching up with them. Sad.

 

I have a friend who refuses to dine al fresco because he says his food gets cold too fast. I feel the same way about outdoor concert venues. The experience is almost always second rate if you happen to be interested in actually hearing the music. And this is from someone who heard the Grateful Dead's Wall Of Sound outdoors twice. Most of the time these days, outdoor venues are simply under-powered due to neighborhood noise abatement. Then you have the whole issue of folks feeling that if a concert happens outdoors, that it's OK to talk through the whole concert, because after all it's a picnic, or party, or whatever.

I did have to ask one couple during last night's show, "So are you going to talk through the entire concert?" Thankfully, that shut them up.

 

I'm generally pretty sensitive to that stuff. Huey Lewis in particular should not charge people to see him live. He's done. Voice is shot.

But I left last night's concert feeling that I had heard the songs well presented and everyone seemed engaged. It definitely wasn't the nostalgia act that so many boomer bands have digressed to (Moody Blues and The Zombie to name just two that I have seen this year). I can't turn the time machine back and hear SD in their prime, but workarounds were so artfully done, that I had to admire the stagecraft involved. And again, no attempt was made to present things as anything other than what they were. That takes huge brass balls IMO.

I saw Ray Charles late in his career. He played very well, but clearly wasn't the singer he used to be. I'm grateful that I got to see him at all. I feel the same way about last night's SD show. I feel that I more than got my money's worth.

 

I actually prefer an outdoor show as long as there isn't a roof over the audience. Clean acoustics, or lack of them.

 

Unless the wind is blowing the sound around, which I really find annoying. To each his own. Truly. My main issues with outdoor sound these days is that I don't get enough of the music (purely a volume thing) to get me to that place where I lose myself in the experience.

 

Wind can blow it around, for sure. Volume hasn't been an issue for me but I don't get to as many concerts as I used to and places without a roof are not that common.

 

I saw them last year in Kansas City at the Midland. Good show. Did Walter Becker do the really, really, really, really long (spoken) intro to "Hey Nineteen"? It was painful.

 

Sadly, yes. Definitely painful. He also sang Daddy Don't Live. Mediocre at best.

 

I saw them back in 93, great. I watched some clips on the internet for some recent shows, Fagen could barely sing. So I'll pass on any more SD shows because I love them and don't want to spoil my memories of them being brilliant.

 

Thank god they are not using backing tracks or lip synching.

 

I was at the Portland show last night. Row E (actual 7th row) center aisle Orchestra.

Fagen was in darn near perfect voice. Honestly, the only struggle or strain came at the first encore: "Reelin' In The Years."

The band was fantastic. Walter Becker was Walter Becker. Exactly the same as he's been, IMO. Aside from being quite a bit overweight....as he's been for years, his playing seems unchanged.

Setlist:

1. Black Cow
2. Aja
3. Hey Nineteen
4. Bad Sneakers
5. Black Friday
6. Everyone's Gone To The Movies (personally, can't remember last time I heard this)
7. Godwhacker
8. Show Biz Kids
9. Time Out Of Mind
10. Dirty Work (background singers)
11. Bodhisattva
12. Babylon Sisters
13. Daddy Don't Live NYC
14. I Want To
15. Josie
16. Peg
17. My Old School
18. Reelin
19. Kid Charlemagne

 

What's up with Walter's health?

 

I just bought lawn seats to see them at Pier 6 in Baltimore. No matter what it will be a nice evening, unless it rains. Set list above looks very nice. I was struck a little by the comment "not Steely Dan in their prime".

Just when was their prime? 1974? 1977? I suppose live maybe 1993 or so? I remember seeing them back then (I can't remember the exact year) at Nissan Pavillion and it was such a big place and the sound was not so great and I was sitting there thinking to myself where the F#$%CK is Larry Carlton and Michael McDonald?

 

For me, the absolute climax of the show was "My Old School." As good a performance of this that I've seen/heard. I had goosebumps. The electricity from the audience to the stage and back was incredible.

 

A good chunk of Don's recent memoir is a protracted advisory about the miseries of touring. Though life can't be so desperate for them that they compelled to tour. I'd guess most of us could live comfortably with just the annual airplay royalties of any of their hits.

One thing I never got about those guys is why they wouldn't let one of their bands (like the current one) just blow off some stream and actually improvise at length. Or just, you know, go ahead and make a jazz album.

 

They didn't play live very much at all during their prime ('70s). But friends I know who have seen them multiple times feel that the first few tours (with Bob Berg on sax) were awesome. I've heard some clips of those performances and they are indeed STELLAR. So I consider that to be their "prime" period for live shows. Those days ain't coming back. But it was refreshing to hear a great band play as well as they could, given the limitations of age, health, etc.