Detroit: Steely Dan & Michael McDonald

All this current talk of the 2003 tour and Detroit, brings back memories of my trip to Detroit last year, to enjoy a show with my internet friend these past 6 years, Snakehips.
Into Steely Dan or Michael McDonald? Read further.


Dateline Detroit: 9/2/06

Arrived early in the morning at 5:15A and got to my hotel by 8:30A. A nice new La Quinta. I had set up an early check in and managed to augment my 4 hours of sleep with 3 more. A better condition then I normally have to deal with, flying east. Met up at noon with Snakehips and she and I went to lunch at in the Rugby Grille in The Towsend Hotel. It was a beautiful hotel, harkening back to a kinder gentler time. We both had chicken salads and as a surprise for the out of towner, the waiter gave me a sample of Sanders Ice Cream and hot fudge. The fudge looked more like caramel sauce, then fudge, but it was excellent!
Spent a bit of time at Snakie's lovely home and then over to the concert.
The DTE Energy Music Theatre is way out to the north and west of Detroit, in the Auburn Hills area. Snakie's Hubby drove us to the venue and we had a pleasant conversation pre concert, with the album Gaucho playing on the CD player. As we walked through the outer area of the venue, there was a waterfall and behind the theatre was a ski slope with a chair lift. I was informed that Pine Knob is a ski area that just happens to have a Music Theatre built in front of it.
Dinner consisted of hot dogs, nachos and a beer from one of the concession stands. The food was good, but expensive. The normal for these kind of events. While out in the concession area, I finally bought my Steely Dan t-shirt. It is the gray one with the circle surrounding the Countdown to Ecstasy era Steely Dan logo. A fitting purchase for an evening with Michael McDonald and Steely Dan. We then went to find Snakehip's seats. We got past the Nazi ticket takers and I found a nearby seat and almost immediately, Michael McDonald took the stage. He said how much he really loved Detroit and the crowd was quite pleased. As many have mentioned before, I ended up being quite impressed with Michael's set list. Old songs, Doobie songs "New" song (Heard it through the Grapevine) Motown songs, everything was done well by a real nice band.
The drummer was great, as was the sax player. The sax man also played flute for one of the numbers, which impressed this Moody Blues fan.
Songs I remember are Minute by Minute, Keep Forgettin', What a Fool Believes, Ain't No Mountain, and the finale, Takin' it to the Streets. About 2/3's of the way through his set, Michael brought out a Detroit Choir to back the band up. They were excellent and quite a nice addition to the evening. In bad news for me, somewhere along the way during his set, the Nazi ticket taker figured out I didn't belong and sent me off to my real seat. I said goodbye to Snakie and moved over to the Donald side of the stage. A quick set change and there came the rhythm section, breaking into Turtle Song. Donald, Walter and the girls come out and off we go again.

Set List

Turtle Song
Bodihissatva
Time out of Mind
Aja
Hey 19
I've Got the News
Home at Last
Black Friday
Chain Lightening
Green Earrings
Dirty Work
Funky Band Intros that go into Showbiz Kids (With Michael McDonald)
Do it Again
Peg
Don't Take Me Alive
Kid Charlemagne

Encore
FM
My Old School

Some disjointed thoughts of the evening.
There have been many comments about how much Walter has been taking the lead on guitar this tour and some of the songs that I noticed Walter taking long nice solo's on were "I've Got the News", "Home at Last" and "Black Friday". He seemed in good spirits and did a great band Intro. Donald did nice work on the between song banter and was in fine voice this evening. He was not so tight on lyrics when I saw them last month in San Diego, so I was very happy to see him perform flawlessly. Michael McDonald was also in very fine voice and did a great job on the chorus of Peg. Many have commented that they could not hear him, but tonight he was clear and definitely did Peg justice. I also noticed that I heard the bass much more then at any other concert I have seen from 2003 and 2006. Freddy Washington did a great job, especially on the funky band intros. Keith Carlock was again in fine form. He is just such a joy to see live with his boundless energy. Jon Herrington was off on the side, as usual but just smoking on his solos. I particularly love the back and forth between Walter and Jon during "Bodhissatva". The girls were doing just fine this evening and due to the cold, they were dressed in pants and long sleeve blouses, Carolyn with a sweater tied around her waist. The brass was hot and Jeff Young did some real nice work on his Hammond B7. He did backing vocals, especially noticeable on Dirty Work.
My favorite moment was after the band finished Showbiz kids and Donald says something like: "Back in the 70's I was talking to Jeff Porcaro about the fact that we really needed another vocalist to help me with the tour we were planning. Jeff said that he knew someone and would ask him to come by the studio. So he did and one day in walks Michael McDonald with his keyboard in hand. We hired him to join us on tour and we did this next song, exactly like this." They then broke into "Do It Again". I was thrilled!
Somewhere along the evening, they called their guitar tech, Skip Gildersleeve, out and gave him a banjo. He seemed quite pleased with the gift.
Show lasted til around 11PM and Snakie and I hooked up again and drove back to my hotel, where they dropped me off. Snakehips and I said our goodbyes, promising to try to see each other again. It was a great day and evening and I was so sorry to see it end. My only regret is that it turned out that it was not the final night of the tour. That distinction goes to St. Louis.

Crashed at the hotel and checked out in the morning with just enough time to make a quick trip over the Canadian Border to Windsor.
I wanted to take pictures of Detroit from the other side of the Detroit River. There are 2 ways to accomplish this. One is a bridge and the other is a tunnel from Downtown Detroit to Windsor. I elected to try the tunnel first and then take the bridge going back to the US. As I drove through the tunnel, I could see a long line of cars waiting to go through US immigration. That made me definitely decide to take the bridge back home.
The Canadian side had a beautiful park and I took many pictures. I wish I had more time to visit, because it definitely had a French feel, especially the buildings and citizens. But that must wait for another occasion. Then I recrossed the river, declared my US Citizenship and was back on the road to the airport. A great but short trip to Detroit. I hope someday to return.

My thanks again to Donald and Walter, for putting up with us fans.

San Diego Bayside At The Marina - Steely Dan

Steely Dan Bayside at the Embarcadero 7/24/06

Drove down to San Diego after spending a blistering day in LA. My house hit 90 degrees in full air conditioning and we couldn't wait to drive down on Sunday Morning. Made it down by 2:30PM and went for a swim in our pool in the La Quinta Old Town San Diego. Nice warm water that felt great, after the heat of the past 2 days. Got dressed and headed to Casa Guadalajara to have dinner. It was an excellent Mexican restaurant with lots of atmosphere, especially on the patio. Checked out the trolly station right down the street, but decided we did not have enough time for a trip down to Mexico this time around. For a minor fee, the trip brings you to San Ysidro and the border. Maybe next time. We decided to call it a night and headed back to the hotel and to bed. Monday morning we headed out to the Downtown San Diego Waterfront area to check out the Aircraft Carrier Midway . We took the tour and it was quite interesting, but pricy. Kidlet has a love of all things moving and we figured he would enjoy it. We all did and we ended up spending over 3 hours touring the ship and eating lunch at the nice cafe on board. We decided to do a bit or reconasense, before heading back to our hotel. We had great difficulty finding anything having to do with the venue, parking or even how to get there. We finally tried pulling into the back end of the Convention Center and there were so many trucks unloading that we turned around. This ended up being a mistake because 2 hours later, this was exactly where the signs pointed for parking. So not knowing what we were going to do later in the day, we returned to the hotel, showered and got the kidlet settled in the hotel room, with food and TV. Made a quick call to Aja to find out if she was going and if she knew anything. Unfortunately, she was not going and she knew nothing about the venue. I was sad to hear that, because it would have been nice to see her again. Headed back to Downtown and swung by the Convention Center again, to see if we could figure out more. Now there were signs showing where to park and we were in business. We went over to Seaport Village to have some dinner. Before we decided on a dinner choice, I called my favorite DHS G-Man and found out that he was within 4 minutes of the venue and had underage daughter in tow. We made plans to hook up later and looked around. We decided that we wanted to try for the sound check, so we ate at a take out seafood place, rather then a sit down restaurant.

It ended up being the right thing to do because as we parked in the area we were directed to, we could hear the band playing Glamour Profession. Instant excitement! All in all we heard 6 tunes: Any World, Monkey, Black Cow (all business, no Uptown Baby" this time around), Showbiz Kids, and Cousin Dupree. The definite more obscure tunes that this fan was looking to hear, so that wasn't bad at all. Took a few digital pictures and then stowed the camera back in the car.

When I returned Sociology Man from Phoenix asked if we knew what they had played before he got there and I read him my set list. After the Sound Check, Ed Beatty did indeed turn up with his now much older daughter in tow. Last time I had seen her was in 2003 for the EMG tour. She has grown up quite a bit. Pete Fogel also turned up with his wife Shari and her Mother. It was good to see them all again. Went through the check point, got everything in again and checked out the seat selection. We ended up being in row 17 on the left side of the stage. Just behind us and over a bit was the soundboard, so we looked forward to having good audio for this show. After checking out our seats, we decided to check out the concessions behind the seats. Drinks and food, but no real dessert, except kettle corn. Sigh... Bought my Steely Dan keychain (becoming a tradition, I now have 3 of them). I really liked the shirts and actually helped the seller with his sale just before me. Maybe I will break down and get one of them when I go to Detroit. The hoodie sweatshirt is great, but very expensive. Back to our seats and Ducky walks by and we talk. She is loving the life in San Diego and I was glad to see her. Then spotted Steveedan and his son Jonah up toward the front. He was indeed gimping around with a bright blue leg cast (call me Deacon Blues?). It was good to see both of them. Then the lights went down and the band came up on the stage. Turtle song began and off we went.

Set 1

Turtle Song (Band only)

Bodhisattva

Time Out of Mind

Aja

I've Got the News

Hey 19

Cousin Dupree

Josie

Any World (Jeff Young vocals)

Glamour Profession

Black Friday

--

Set 2

Steely Dan Show

Green Earrings

Monkey in Your Soul (Walter Becker vocals)

Band Intros by Walter and into Showbiz Kids

Black Cow

Do It Again

Dirty Work

Peg

Don't Take Me Alive

Kid Charlemagne

--

Encore

My Old School

FM

The band was hot so. Everyone seemed to be having a good time, even to giving them a standing ovation after every song in the beginning and then during Hey 19, the folks who could, got up and danced. My feeling is that these folks have a very active tribute band "The Steely Damned" and that they are used to going up to the front dance floor during the dance songs and so the did so. Donald commented at the end of the song that he liked seeing that, it was OK with him, so they stayed. I did not see people getting upset, but I am sure there were some who did.

Bodhisattva: I have heard Bodhisattva live on the bootlegs from '74, but nothing could compare to the way this song kick started the concert. Great song and great solos.

Time out of Mind: I heard this in 2003 and it was basically unchanged. Donald does the melodica thing on this song.

Aja: Again a tune from 2003 and it too was basically unchanged. Carlock Rules!

I've Got the News: Now we're talking. I love this tune and was really looking forward to watching them perform this song. Great rendition and I loved the Broadway Dutchess part. Thanks guys for finally putting it in the set list.

Hey 19: Well, in spite of Owen Wilson saying that this was the title of his next film, it was good to hear this again in concert. Aretha was back, I do believe and so was the worm.

Cousin Dupree: Owen Wilson's current movie is called "You, Me and Dupree" and the boys must have gotten bored on the tour and wrote a fake nasty letter to Luke Wilson, telling him that his brother stole their Grammy Winning Song. In honor of all the flap going on right now, the boys brought it back into the set list for this tour and began performing it. I have never seen it live, so it was a treat for me.

Josie: No drum solo, but exactly as seen before. Nice riffs by both guitarists.

Any World: This was highly anticipated, but the reggae beat and Jeff Young on vocals, though interesting, lost a lot of the sorrow from the original. Still, it made me happy to hear it at all and so that was a good thing. Glad to hear it twice, both at the sound check and live.

Glamour Profession: I have heard this song before, but only on boots of the 2000 tour. Donald was all over the place on the lyrics and I seem to think this is deliberate. Anyway, glad to hear it, no matter what lyric was sung.

Black Friday: Guitar tune end to the first set. Nice to hear live.

Went out back to the concessions for some lemonade and kettle corn. Met Ed Beatty and he was on the phone with Little Wild One. So I got to talk to her about the lyrics to Glamour Profession, for one. :-)

Back to the front and talked some more to Steveedan. He is playing a gig out in my neck of the woods and I am trying to set something up for him and his band.

Back to my seat and off we go again.

--

Set 2

The Steely Dan Show: Hubby singing this? I don't know for sure, but he did comment that it wasn't hard since they projected the lyrics on the stage.

Green Earrings: My SONG! Great trading 4's going on and wonderful stuff all around. Sorry angel...

Monkey In Your Soul: Walter steps up to the mic and gives us his rendition of this Pretzel Logic era song. I have heard him do it before and generally like it a lot, but I was not impressed with his vocals on this night.

Band Intros/Show Biz Kids: After finishing up Monkey, Walter keeps the mike for intros, as the band breaks into a real funky tune that eventually evolves into Show Business Kids. The girls take the "F" line. High point for me. Good song live!

Black Cow: Same as we have heard before. Jeff Young takes the solo, but it was better during the Donald Fagen band tour, in my opinion.

Do It Again: Donald introduced this song with words something like "Walter and I moved to LA in 1971 and formed a band and this was our first hit". I have heard this tune, but never saw it performed live. Very well done. Good guitar work.

Dirty Work: Donald dedicated this to David Di something and Danielle. Girls did a real wonderful job on the song.

Peg: Kicking it into guitar God overdrive, we start with Peg. Not my favorite tune, but well done. Great Herrington solo.

Don't Take Me Alive: As usual, I have now officially died and gone to heaven, love this song. Great guitar work.

Kid Charlemange: Number 2 in great Larry Carlton solos, Herrington on his 335 goes at it. Fagen says goodnight and see you next time. He has learned his lesson regarding saying see you next year.

--

Encore

My Old School: One jumping number. Got us up and dancing and clapping and all around having a good time.

FM: Thought I had had enough of this tune. I was wrong,. Well done and a wonderful end to the evening.

--

Walked out of the venue, watching the crowd and up ahead we see Steveedan and Jonah making their way to the car. I take the large bag that Jonah is carrying (because Steve is on crutches) and grab his hand to keep the drivers from running the little one over. We get to his car, say goodnight and stroll over to our own. Nice mellow evening, friends to add the the excitement, what more could you want?

Thanks Donald and Walter for pulling out the dog and pony show, one more time. I truly enjoyed it.

The Donald Fagen Band At The Wiltern Theatre

This was written on a train, with very little sleep, so apologies in advance for any disjointedness to the narrative. Some form of this will probably get posted onto my website, with pictures and such, but for now, here are first impressions of Monday evening. Enjoy.

Donald Fagen Band 2006

Set List

Here at the Western World
Green Flower Street
The Nightfly
New Frontier
Maxine
Home At last
Black Cow
The Goodbye Look
Third World Man
Mary Shut the Garden Door
Misery &the Blues
Brite Nightgown
Black Friday

Encore
Pretzel Logic
Viva Viva Rock N’ Roll

We started our evening by meeting at my work place, which is about 3 miles from the venue. Ate a quick dinner, before heading to the Wiltern Theatre. Our plan included checking out the scene at the Opus Bar and then hooking up with my Steely Dan friend from work, for the show. Rain was just beginning to fall, which I considered a blessing because my guys made good time getting to my work place. We parked in the structure behind the Wiltern, which set us back $10 and then walked to the front. The marque had Donald Fagen Band 2006 (sold out) on it. My informal tally found that I was asked more times if I had tickets to sell, rather then having someone asking me if I wanted to buy a ticket. We went across the street and took a quick shot of the marque and then over to the Opus. There was the Rajah right out front with Pete Fogel’s wife Shari. I was told that Pete was inside and that in addition, she had her mom accompanying her this evening. Rajah told me that Gretchen was in the bar and so we headed into the Opus and there indeed was Gretchen, sitting with Still Sparkin’. He had come all the way from Hong Kong to see the show and it was a real thrill to meet him. Then Hubby mentioned that Ed Beatty was over on the other side of the bar and so I walked over to Ed and we did a quick hug between “Roseland” Wife and Husband. It was good to see him again. Pete Fogel showed up and I got in a quick hi and asked him if there had been any taping of this tour for a DVD. He told me no. I was sorry to hear that and hope that it turns out to be incorrect. In bad news for that wild hope, I did not see any cameras taping, so I do not think we were taped. Too bad, because it ended up being a great show.

We decided to try to find our friend and so we split from the bar. Walked over to the door of the Wiltern and got searched for camera and drinks. Got both in, no problem. I am getting good at this, after my horrendous Roseland experience back in ‘03. We found our seats and sat down to wait. Felice Hernandez came over to me and we talked a bit. She is one of the singers for the Pretzel Logic Band and it was nice that she remembered me. My friend Peter finally showed about 10 minutes to 8:00 and we talked a bit. Right around 8:10 the lights went out and the band entered from camera left. They immediately broke into the uptempo “Here at the Western World”. I had heard it several times (thanks, friend) and was quite used to the different feel of the song. I think that made it more enjoyable to me. Good upbeat start to the show (I can’t believe I am saying that about a depressing song like Western World, but it was).

Impressions of the show.

Carlock was just fabulous, as usual. He is mostly the timekeeper for the band, which limits him. Once in a while he breaks from his time chains and is allowed to fly. What a thrill when that happens. He is one powerful drummer and a pleasure to watch. Guitarists Wayne Krantz and Jon Herington, were a study in contrasts. Both cool, but in different ways. Jon always slightly removed from the action, mostly self imposed. Krantz on the other hand was closer in, but with a cool wild edge to him. I enjoyed watching them both. We had an upper balcony view of the evening and that actually gave us a slightly different view of Donald. We could actually see him playing the Rhodes piano. At Roseland I couldn’t see anything except him singing. I thought the bass was a bit low in the mix, or maybe it was my ears, since I remember commenting on the same thing at Roseland.

Things I remember about the songs.

Green Flower Street - One of my favorite songs from Nightfly. I always enjoy hearing it when The Steely Damned play. So it was quite a thrill to have Fagen doing his own song. One thing kind of confused me a bit. Carlock didn’t seem to do all the beats on some of the parts of the song. He did get the end right though. His choice in how to drum it, I guess.

Nightfly - Yes, Donald channels Lester and some of the lines were very funny in a concert setting. I can’t believe I am saying this but it dragged on a bit.

New Frontier - I laughed when Donald sang about “Yes we’re gonna have a Wing Ding”.

Maxine - I loved the vocal harmony on this song. I truly enjoyed it. I believe Carolyn took the “Mexico City” solo.

Home at Last - Basically as we saw it in ‘03. Carlock doing the Purdie Shuffle. I like this song and enjoyed this foray into the Steely Dan file, especially after that huge chunk of Nightfly songs.

Black Cow - Another one from the file and again, mostly as we saw it in ‘03, but the change I noticed was Jeff Young on the organ taking the Victor Feldman solo. It was great.

The Goodbye Look - What can I say. I had real high expectations for this song and every one of them came true. It was one cooking end!

Third World Man - Back to its original form, I think A great song and the guitar solo’s by both Krantz and Herington were so exquisite to watch that I had shivers running up and down my spine. An unforgettable moment.

Mary Shut the Garden Door - Finally, Finally, Finally I got to hear something off the new one and it did not disappoint. The band really looked like they just fit right into the sync locked groove and showcased their work on the album they helped Fagen create. Great song and it could have gone on forever, if I had my way.

Misery and the Blues - I had also heard this one several times, so I knew what to expect. My feeling on this song is that Fagen is paying tribute to the music of New Orleans, in his own, low key, way. I really loved Michael Leonhart’s solo and then Walt Weiskopf’s, during this almost 10 minute piece. I enjoyed the song better then I expected to and as others have said, anywhere Fagen wants to send me, I will gladly go.

Brite Nitegown - 2nd song from Morph and it went well, considering I did not think they were going to be able to carry the weird vocals. I enjoyed it, but would have preferred either Security Joan, or Mona. Just my choice.

Black Friday - Not my favorite song, as a general rule, but it was great. Herington and Krantz traded gnarly guitar work on this one and I loved it. What a wonderful end to the show.

Encore:

Pretzel Logic - A better choice couldn’t be found, in this girl’s book. One heck of a song and Jeff Young picking up the “Stepped up on the Platform” vocal, was just icing on the cake for me. Herington guitar solo, similar to the one he did on the Plush.

Viva, Viva Rock and Roll - Very short, but a rockin’ way to finish off the concert. A nod to his very 50’s Rock and Roll roots, I think. I enjoyed the energy. Donald going out in style and on his terms.

Walked out to the lobby and checked out the Donald Fagen tee shirts and finally decided to pick up 2 Morph the Cat keychains. I have a $10 Steely Dan keychain from ’03 and I saw that inflation had hit the keychain market. I paid $15 each for them, which made it tough to impulse buy a few extras for Steely Dan friends. I did get one for my sister, who is a huge cat fan and who loves the title track from the album. There was Ed Beatty and Still Sparkin’ again, standing in the lobby and we talked some more and then we got kicked out of the Wiltern, so they could close down the place. We said our goodbyes and walked out back toward the parking structure and I bought a cheapie Donald Fagen tee shirt from the “entrepreneurs” out back for $5. We will see how many washes it goes through before it totally disintegrates, but hey, I only bought it for me and I will be the only on suffering the “you get what you pay for” result of this impulse buy. Then we bumped into Felice Hernandez again, on the top level of the parking structure. She also had a cheapie tee shirt in tow and you could tell she loved the concert. She mentioned that she would love to work the back up singer position, if Donald ever needs someone. :-)

Great evening, great time, great people. Thanks all.