Brian Stark, Sean P Jones and I went to see Steely Dan at the Nokia Theater last night. The experience was excellent. There was an opening set of jazz tunes by some of Steely Dan sidemen, with the addition of (as Philly pointed out) organist Sam Yahel, who didn’t play with Steely Dan. I’m just assuming that he’s along for the tour as the opening act in most cities.
Steely Dan played for about two hours. A lot of the songs were noticably slower than their originally recorded tempos. On some tunes, like “Pretzel Logic,” the effect was awesome, just increasing the greasy goodness of the minor bluesy feel. On other tunes, such as “Aja,” the reduced tempo seemed to make the song a bit sluggish. A few of the tunes were played in lower-than-original keys, but with aging rock stars, this is pretty commonplace.
Musical standouts were trombonist Jim Pugh, saxophonist Walt Weiskopf, drummer Keith Carlock and especially guitarist Jon Herington, who managed to be elegant and precise without losing energy or my interest. I recall Jim Pugh, who visited UNT last fall for the inaugural performance of the UNT U-Tubes Jazz Trombone Ensemble. Their first publicly played piece was my original composition, “Blue Lobster.”
Donald Fagen was sort of a white Ray Charles type character and was very lively throughout the performance. Walter Becker sang on “Gaucho,” and also had a humorous monoglogue during the breakdown section of “Hey Nineteen.”
The tickets cost $55 each, but including driving, parking, and semi-ridiculous Ticketmaster fees, the real cost of the concert was about $80. I still think it was worth it, and may even consider paying as much to see them again, should the opportunity arise.
Blue Lobster rocks! As does the whole U-tubes concept. Heck, I brought a friggin’ trombone all the way to the Philippines so I could learn to make some noise and indulge in the juicy sounds a trombone produces. So far, sooo good.