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Had 16th row seats to see the Dan with Michael McDonald opening tonight at whatever they're calling the World Music Theatre these days.
Got there about a half-hour before the show started. They ran a tight ship - they had McDonald and his band set and ready to go at 7:29pm and the tix said 7:30, so if you're going to these shows, be early. Luckily we were fairly promptly in our seats.
The sound sucked for the first two songs of McDonald, it was obvious that they had set the levels expecting far more people to be there, and had to dial them back over ten-fifteen minutes. The crowd was sort of late-arriving, not expecting the tickets start time to be accurate (I guess), so the pavillion was only about half full at this point.
Luckily, McDonald stacked the set back-heavy and had the presence of mind to introduce the band after the second song because I think he could tell that the sound was way off. We they finally came back in with "I Keep Forgettin'" things got a whole lot better.
The man is a machine. You can tell he literally lives and breathes music and he is a fantastic keyboard player and vocalist. I was literally blown away by almost every song he did. I also have a lot more respect for him then I did in his 80s days, because he could've easily made a conscious decision to follow Phil Collins and Elton John down the Lite FM Adult Contemporary road, and instead he took a sharp left turn back to his rhythm and blues roots with his motown series, which was very impressive live.
McDonald's band were all pros, and all had obviously been playing together and rehearsing together for some time. Every member of the band was exceptional at his/her instrument. Essentially, it was guitar, bass, organ, sax, female vocalist and (kick fucking ass) female drummer/vocalist backing him up.
The Setlist
It Keeps You Runnin'
You Belong To Me
I Keep Forgettin' (Everytime You're Near)
I Heard it Through the Grapevine
Minute By Minute
What a Fool Believes
That's the Way God Planned It (Dedicated to Billy Preston)
Ain't No Mountain High Enough
Stop, Look, Listen to Your Heart
Ain't Nothin' Like the Real Thing
Takin' It to the Streets
he may have played one other song, too. The Motown stuff could've sounded completely canned but instead it fared very well. His interpretations are organic enough to breathe new life into the songs. In particular, Minute By Minute and What a Fool Believes had everyone up and singing obviously.
Steely Dan started promptly at 9:00, and right away you could tell the band vibe was far different. The band was made up of a middle aged lead guitarist, a drummer, Freddy Washington on bass (I swear I've heard that name before), two female vocalists and a four part horn section including bari sax, tenor sax, trumpet and tenor trombone (and obviously Walter and Donald on guitar and keys respectively). Most of the backline had charts in front of them, including the bass player, and it was obvious that they were all pros hired to do this tour and they had little camaraderie between them except for Donald and Walter.
While Walter was sporting a Jeans/t-shirt look, Donald had an oversized bright red double breasted sportcoat, oversized sunglasses and black slacks on. He seriously looked like a stoned cockroach out of a burroughs novel. The first half of the show was note-perfect up through Green Earrings and Black Cow. A rendition of "Dirty Work" featuring the two back up singers trading verses was a little forced and awkward, but was well received and it was nice to hear the song without those awful Bread-style vocals.
The band was really good, except for the guitarist, who while technically great sort of had an off night. I don't envy him, because being asked to emulate Larry Carlton, Denny Dias and the like over a 120 minutes span is a very tall order.
As expected, Mcdonald joined the band for the last half of the show to play keys alongside Fagan and sing backing vocals. Most of the hits were there, but the set was only 100 minutes and they have so many hits that a few were bound to be missed. Still, I was shocked that they omitted Deacon Blues, one of their signature songs
In general, the first album trio of Dirty Work, Do It Again and Reelin' In the Years wasn't well executed, mainly because the band that recorded those songs was actually sort of a rock band. In contrast, the band that Steely Dan became is a slick fusion machine, doing mostly jazz stuff. Hearing them "interpret" those songs was a little bit strange altogether, and the lead guitarist actually dragged a solo section almost through the first line of the third verse. He missed that cue so badly that during Peg later in the show Donald hit the Rhodes so hard to cue him out of the solo (which he also sort of botched) that I burst out laughing.
For the most part, the sound was way more under control for their set and everything sounded note perfect, but it was obvious that this was an early show on the tour and some notes and bridges were dropped. There were several modulations during Do It Again that sort of sucked in transition, and at one point McDonald just STOPPED PLAYING and looked over at Fagan like "you want me to play who in the what now?"
The Setlist
Boddhisatva
Time Out of Mind
Aja
I Got the News
Hey Nineteen
Any World That I'm Welcome To
Josie
Green Earrings
Black Cow
Dirty Work
Don't Take Me Alive
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band introduction - Mike McDonald introduction
Showbiz Kids (mike mcdonald lead)
Do It Again (mcdonald lead second verse)
Peg
Kid Charlemagne
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Reelin' in the Years
My Old School
In general, the show was a fantastic time, despite some of the minor shortcomings. Well worth the $100 pavilion seat.
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