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Sunday, June 14, 2009

Reviews / Photos / Concerts / News

Concert Review: Steely Dan at Ruth Eckerd Hall

Posted by Leilani Polk on Sun, Jun 14, 2009 at 9:58 PM

This weekend, I determined that the quality of your back-up singers determines the cheese factor of your show.

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hair and fashion, and badly choreographed dance hands. Yes, I said it -- dance hands, those theatric gestures all the drama club kids make when singing in musicals, the ones that don't really express anything but keep your arms from hanging down at your sides like wet noodles. So, yes, I was distracted by the trio, but I was also just not that into the music, either. (Photos by Phil Bardi taken from the soundboard.)

Full disclosure: I am not among the loyal legion of Dan fans. I can understand and appreciate the influence of the progressive jazz-rockers, and I like some songs from their catalog, although they are guilty of recording one of my least favorite songs, ever, "Rikki Don't Lose That Number." (I'm a hater on "Deacon Blues," too.) There's just something about the Steely Dan sound -- its slick production quality, Donald Fagen's vocal tone -- that rubs me wrong. But my mind has been changed by greater things and music is oftentimes different when consumed in a live setting, and since my husband is a devotee and has never seen them live, and since I've never seen them perform live, either, I took us both to the show at Ruth Eckerd Hall this past Friday, June 12. The Florida leg of the "Rent Party '09" tour was a sort of warm-up for the upcoming series of special bigger-city bills where the band will play one of each of their classic albums in its entirety at each show.

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The support band warmed up the crowd with lively jazz -- a fourtet of horns, drums, bass, keys, guitar. Then co-brains/core members, guitarist Walter Becker and vocalist/keyboardist/frontman Fagen, made their "entrance" with back-up singers in tow. Fagen, in sunglasses, a rumpled white sports coat, and dark pants and tee, sauntered onstage with his personality on high, melodica in hand, and when he wasn't singing, or singing and playing keys, he was blowing on that dinky piano horn thing like nobody's business. (No, I couldn't take the dude seriously, but then, I don't really think he took himself seriously, either.)

The band was tight, the horn players on cue, but the music still had that slick quality, the back-up singers were good enough but more a distraction than a worthy embellishment, and the audience of mostly older folks who seemed to be digging the show big time, enough to stand up and applaud at various key points, never went so far as to do any dancing, aside from a few people on the sidelines where the ushers were most lenient.

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This is not to say I didn't enjoy myself. The "Hey 19" break where Becker told a story about the good old days of Scientology -- when you could go to a Scientology dance and pick up a nice Scientologist girl and get invited in for a nightcap of "The Cuervo Gold, the fine Columbian ...," and the sing-along that followed -- was particularly amusing. Discovering and appreciating "Aja" (from the album of the same name) was a nice surprise, the song progressive, more instrumental and mostly free of the back-up singing that riddled the rest of the Dan fare that night. And the one moment where I thought the back-up singers actually fit, "Babylon Sisters" -- that was nice, too. But I started checking the time less than an hour into the show and I walked out generally feeling like I could probably not see Steely Dan ever again and be okay with it.

My husband had a good time, at least, though he had the same complaints as me about the crowd's lacklusterness.

(The setlist for those looking):

Time Out of Mind

Godwhacker

Reelin' In the Years

Bad Sneakers

Two Against Nature

Black Friday

Aja

Sign In Stranger

Hey Nineteen

Parker's Band

Babylon Sisters

Daddy Don't Live in That NYC No More (Becker vocal)

Here at the Western World

Band intros by Walter while the choir sings The Supremes' Love Is Like An Itching In My Heart

Black Cow

Peg

Kid Charlemagne

Encore:

Josie

My Old School

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Comments (48)

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Ms Polk: You're negative predisposition towards the band clouds your review. I believe Blink 182 is getting back together. They seem like more your speed.

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Posted by mark mckallagat on July 25, 2009 at 7:02 PM

If you are not a fan of a band, don't go and please don't waste the time of the true fans with such garbage. Stick with the music venue you like, which obviously is not this one.

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Posted by JOhn on August 10, 2009 at 10:27 AM

Too bad your not a Dan fan. Some music is just too good for the masses. Don't worry I'm sure Brooks and Dung will eventually reunite and you can then go to see your favorite band.

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