Two major hills

Bike 2: 94.6; 23.3

Steely Dan was really cool. I could think of all kinds of reasons to be disappointed or annoyed, but the fact is, they put on a great show, with a good number of songs I (mostly) know, presented in just-new-enough ways.

It’s been a while since I’ve had a Steely Dan song stuck in my head, and (yesterday AND) this morning I had the odd sensation of having two at once: Gaucho and Aja, endless loop between the chorus of Gaucho and that little Chinese-sounding instrumental part of Aja…

Absolutely terrible opening group—(what I would call) freeform jazz by a quartet of electronic keyboard, drums, trumpet and sax. No vocals; keyboardists sets a tone, each player emotes heavily, lather rinse repeat. Everyone politely claps, not only at the end of the song, but after each *&*%#% solo—of which every song consists of exactly four, of course: noodle noodle noodle noodle, big ending. No Theme! Thankfully, they only did three or four songs. I hesitate to mention the name, but you already know if you like or hate this kind of jazz, so in case you want to avoid them, it was these wallies: http://www.samyahel.com/home.html.

The band came on and did a funked-up instrumental of “Everyone’s Gone to the Movies,” segued into “The Fez,” and in the middle of this, Becker and Fagen entered.

So the group included Becker and Fagen, lead guitarist, bass, backing keyboard, bass and tenor saxes, trumpet, trombone, drums, and three lovely afro’d backup singers. They have a Web page with everyone listed http://www.steelydan.com/2kband.html.

Guitarist, drummer, singers, and horns had occasional standout moments. I got to thinking, no single guitarist is ever gonna fill the chair, no? Because even on individual albums, they’d have at least 10 guitar credits, and that was really a big part of the freshness of their sound, the various different soloists—especially on guitar. So to have one guy sit through 15 songs is more than any one guitarist probably ever did with them. But “Show Biz Kids” didn’t sound right to me without that slide… who was that on the original, Jeff “Skunk” Baxter? The backup singers really added a lot to the quality of performances and the visual aspect of the show--and reminded me how many songs featured a trio like this, including ah Clydie King (I remembered THAT name; the others were Venetta Fields and Sherlie Matthews)...

The set had an odd boxy geometric design as a backdrop (I think it was some portion of the Citizen box set logo), across which various motifs were projected. Common colored spots shone down on group and individuals, with occasional rotating-pattern spots (like on the “Show Biz Kids” punchline). One really cool, lovely dark purple song ending.

Did anyone note the irony of Steely Dan T-Shirts (cf "Show Biz Kids") for sale ($30+) in the lobby? There was a nice Aja one, but I don’t wear black much. All the others looked rather phoned-in, pieced together out of old fonts and clip art, with no intimate knowledge of the group? I really treasure my “Morse Science High School” T-shirt from the Firesign show…They also had CDs, a $65 sweatshirt (?!), hats with “SD” on the front, key chains ($15), and coffee cups. You wouldn’t even GET a reference to a “Steely Dan Coffee Cup,” back in the day!

I doubt there was a person under 40 in the audience—none, at least, who came willingly.

I think Donald was trying to channel Ray Charles, with the sunglasses and odd posture at the keyboard. Or has he always done that?

Becker only spoke up once, during “Hey 19,” with a funny bit about how all the cells in your body are replaced every seven years, and the cell that remembered that amber-colored beverage must’ve been replaced, but the backup singers would remember it—oh yeah, “Cuervo Gold”! And he sang “Gaucho” in kind of a low register with little or no backup.

Interesting that they didn’t do the earlier hits like “Do It Again,” “Reeling in the Years,” "Rikki Don't Lose That Number," but I was pretty happy with the song selection, with relatively obscure stuff like “Fez,” Parker’s Band,” but still would’ve liked one or two from the first album and maybe “My Old School,” “King of the World,” stuff like that. Only one encore did seem a little chintzy, but it was a good 90 minutes plus overall. Of course, I’d’ve happily sat through the entire catalog, and for $100 a ticket, I feel they shoulda played requests at my house, but I guess that’s what tickets cost for an elusive top-name act like the Dan of Steel now…

The vocals were really hard to decipher--whether from the sound system or Fagen’s delivery, I can’t say--but I kinda felt bad for T, who hadn’t lived and breathed these songs, to get no idea of what was being said in e.g., “Show Biz Kids,” which was clear as a bell and bristling with angry wit on the album of course.

It was fun to recognize (most of the) songs in the first few notes and sing along, and somewhat surprising that much of the audience was singing along too. I always felt the Dan were kinda “ours” prior to Aja… but then again, a lot more were singing to “Peg” than to “Parker’s Band”… (But everyone seemed to know “Kid Charlemagne,” which I thought was not that well known, so what do *I* know…)

Anyway, a great, fun, entertaining show. I was very glad I went.

OK!

Today's bike ride again made the big loop completed by Guerneville Rd., 116, and Green Valley, and I think the maximum speed on my odometer (35.4) probably IS accurate, and I got to at least 32 today on that Green Valley hill. Too bad about that stop sign right at the bottom of the hill. Think I'll do this loop backwards sometime just to get the long downhill without a stop on Guerneville Rd.

I did the Barlow Lane hill as a little add-on. I don't think it adds much if any to the mileage, but it does include a little extra sleigh ride on Mill Station Rd.

90 miles on the week now. Need 18 to surpass my last "big week."

Need a bell.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: Steven D. Miller [mailto:steve@born-today.com]
Sent: Tuesday, August 26, 2008 11:49 PM
To: 'Terrie Miller'
Subject: Set List



Everyone’s Gone to the Movies (instrumental)

The Fez (Becker and Fagen enter)

Royal Scam

I Got the News

Show Biz Kids

Bodhisattva

Two Against Nature

Hey 19

?? “…not the case…”

FM

?? “…yes we’re gonna have a…”

Gaucho

Black Friday

Parker’s Band

Josie

Aja

?? “…Can’t Stop the Fire…” band intros (Guitarist John Harrington, drummer Kevin something, alto sax, Bob something, yeah I got THOSE down!)

Black Cow

Peg

Kid Charlemagne (Encore)