Steely eh

I went to see Steely Dan play last night in Wallingford, CT . It was a birthday present to my sister, who, while she greatly influenced my musical taste growing up, failed to get me into the Dan. At the age 15 I wanted to hear chiming 12 strings, tambourines, feedback, wah-wahs and incessently ringing ride cymbals. Thus, the Dan conjured up for me college faculty parties with turtlenecks, elbow pads, scotch on the rocks, Valium and maybe a wife-swap or two. Not my vision (YET!) of coolness.
It was working at Stop and Shop in the mid-late 90's that finally did it. Now, while I don't know their catalog inside out, I do genuinely love much of their stuff.

So, last night. This was the first rock concert my sis and I have been to in probably 10 years. From 1987-95 or so we saw a ton together. From the Dead to Dinosaur, from the Monkees to Elvis Costello, Ringo to Lou Reed. And it was so much fun. Despite crazy inevitable changes in our lives, it was like nothing had changed.

But the show. Hmm.
I wont even mention the ushers who gave us conflicting directions to our seats. (Go here. No, you're up there. No, you can stay here. No, go back to where you were). We were dead center, final, back row. Our seats leaned against the back wall. But you don't need to watch Steely Dan. Anyway...
There was an opening act--I've no idea who they were but let's just say a Hammond-driven jazz trio really shouldn't be playing to 5000 people. They were very good and talented, but it was kind of a Berklee final project. And you could hear people talking over them as loud as anything.

The Dan came on. Donald Fagan's voice sounded great, and Becker took a lot of the guitar solos. There was another guitar player who took the more out-there solos.
Knowing what wise-asses the two guys are, it was really hard to take Becker seriously when he said "this is the best venue and crowd of the whole tour". Unfortunately the crowd roared in agreement. He HAD to be kidding.
They did some newer stuff, and almost all of the Aja album. They started with "Time Out of Mind" and ended with "Bodhisattva". In between there was Bad Sneakers, Hey 19, Kid Charlamagne...
BUT, and this is a big-ass but. (ha).
The drummer was SO not doing it. And it broke my friggin heart.
Nothing pleases me as much as the drumming on so many of the Steely Dan albums--Jeff Porcaro, Bernard Perdie, Steve Gadd, Rick Moratta...
They swing, they rock, they make you wanna dance to these weird complex tunes.
They guy last night, it was like "dude, pick it up and hows about some subtlety?".
Bad Sneakers was like "I can't walk these sneakers are so bad". And "Peg", same thing. Draggy.
For guys who've fired and hired session guys like yesterday's pizza, it was puzling how they could put up with it. My only guess is that they're so used to programming drum machines for their newer albums, that they now want something safe.

The solo in "Aja"...liek my sister said, the thrilling thing about Steve Gadd on the album is that it threatens to go off the rails, and never does. Last night it was by-the-numbers. A couple imprerssive flourishes, but nothing that made you go "woooo!".

But, whatever. It was actually very close to how I imagined the show to be. I'm glad they're still out there doing it. But I think we were the youngest people there.
And when I went to the bathroom during "Babylon Sisters", the lobby and bathroom were totally packed. The people next to us left during Kid Charlaimagne (one of the highlights, actually). Crikey! Have you no respect?

alright. I'm not heading toward any conclusion. So we'll leave it here.

actually, we'll let Jeff Porcaro have the final word. You may know him from the band Toto (Rosanna--1981, yo). He actually did die in a bizarre gardening accident, o Spinal Tap fans (though some say it was actually a not-so- bizarre accident involving too much blow).
Anyway, who knew about his Krusty the Clown bitterness? Dig this:

"I did a clinic a couple or years ago at the Dick Grove School," Porcaro says in his groggy baritone. "The students brought CDs of my stuff to play and ask me questions about. I knew what would happen; they'd ask about the 'Rosanna' beat, which is probably the most unoriginal thing I've ever done, yet I got all this credit for it. Stupid. So I brought along the CDs of the records I stole the beat from--"Fool In The Rain" from Led Zeppelin's In Through The Out Door, and Bernard Purdie's 'Home At Last' and 'Babylon Sisters' with Steely. Without saying anything, I put on the CD and played 'Babylon Sisters.' Half the class knew the song, but none of them knew who the drummer was. This is a class of 18 to 33-year-olds. Then I played 'Home At Last,' which I copped all the shit for 'Rosanna' from. Once again, no one knew the drummer. I said, 'Guys, it's Bernard Purdie. Who in this room has heard of Steve Gadd?' All the hands went up. 'Aja?' All hands up. 'I'm sure you all know Steve won Performance Of The Year for that in Modern Drummer. Well. you're all fucked up! I just played you 'Home At Last' with Bernard Purdie, and that's on the same record. What do you do, listen to 'Aja' and then take the needle off? As musicians you should know everything I just played for you. Some of the best drum shit ever is on that record. Each track has subtleties."

Subtlety.