Santa Barbara Bowl

This is what I wrote on the Steely Dan Website, in regard to the concert on Wednesday night.



Santa Barbara Shuffle Diplomacy Review

WHAT A NIGHT!

The End. :-)

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


Actually, I loved the venue. Santa Barbara Bowl is just beautiful. Lots of money going into the renovation of it and it shows. Take a look at these photos, which were the only ones I could take. The first one is the view of the Channel Islands, from our seat. The second is my view of the stage and the third, the rest of the bowl.


On a personal level, I just couldn't get over being just 12 rows from The Donald and for the first time, I could see him playing his keyboard. It was mystical and wonderful and just added to the magic of the evening. The only bad part is that I was the last seat in row 12 and that meant that I had to keep getting up to let people in and out and more importantly, I had to not use my camera, because security was "SO OUTRAGEOUS"! My Husband (many on you know how even tempered he is) finally got into a shouting match with the security guard, because he kept shining the flashlight at him, to check out the lady with a cell phone next to him. She had a set list and was checking it each song. She was not taking photos, but he kept coming at her anyway. It was truly a royal pain!

Me and 4 others behind me danced the entire show. We were the people over on the far camera right totally enjoying the evening. Some guy passed us by and said he wanted to come over for our after party. We thought that was pretty funny, actually.

EMG being played for the first time since 2003 (if memory serves) was just Masterful! Folks, it was an interesting song in 2003, but the words now days just show that Steely Dan was 5 years ahead of their time with this song. You couldn't write a better song about this current depressing economic downturn.



I enjoyed the way they shifted the songs around, I had seen the set list, but didn't have it memorized, so it was a nice change for me. I think Paso Robles was the only other time I was so clueless about the set.
I would have liked them to try out something else that they plan on using, later on in the tour, but it was not to be.

Place was packed. I was surprised, since it was a small town and a Wednesday night.

Special thanks to my "Steely Dan Friend" who made my night...Gus.


Thanks guys and girls...or is that ambassadors and brats. ;-)


Set List 7/6/11 Santa Barbara Bowl

INTRO: Dizzy's Business

Your Gold Teeth
Aja
Hey Nineteen
Green Earrings
Everything Must Go
FM
Time Out Of Mind
Godwhacker
Show Biz Kids
Black Cow
Dirty Work
Neighbor's Daughter/Band Intros
Night By Night
Josie
Peg
Reelin' In The Years
Bodhisattva

ENCORE: Kid Charlemagne

OUTRO: Last Tango In Paris

Internet Request Night At The Gibson

Final night of my 4 show Steely Dan Marathon brought me Internet Request Night AKA "Taking It To The Seats".
We had heard that the big adds for this show would be the long asked for song, Dr. Wu, from Katy Lied.
For me, it has meaning not just as a song, but as a nod to my real name. :-)

I owned this album as a young teen. (My sister kept it when I moved west, but that's life and another story altogether.) I loved the sax solo that was masterfully done by Phil Woods and the Bosendorfer Piano played flawlessly by Michael Omartian. Donald's voice, almost crying, when he sings the line "Katy Lies, you can see it in her eyes".
It's an unforgettable experience, when you listen to this song. Unfortunately, it is not a favorite song, of Donald Fagen's. They had sound checked the song for a concert at Soboba (near Palm Springs), back in 2006 and Donald nixed it, when its turn came on the set list. This elevated the song even more, because Donald then commented that it felt "not complete" and he did not want to sing it. I was sure I would never get to see this song played live.
Boston Internet Request Night comes along and amazingly, there it was, along with Rikki and Any Major Dude. Blasts from the past and hints that my night would also have these songs performed. In NY, they played Wu just after Rikki. When Rikki was followed by Home at Last, my heart almost stopped, because I thought that Donald had done it again, getting me so close to the song and then nixing it.
We had the final victory, because then the opening piano began and Dr. Wu was mine. I recorded it, just for me, because I figure I will never see this song live again, so my most vivid memory is of trying not to breathe as I sat there mesmerized by the song. Yes, The Donald has some problems singing the song, due to his not being able to hit all the notes, but the band just cooked and the end is masterful. Even the sax wasn't bad. Walt Weiskopf did a good job on it, which made me happy.

Rikki, by the way was note for note perfect. They really should do this one once in a while. 13 years between live renditions, is just a little long for their first big hit. :-)

Any Major Dude was lovely and so nice to hear.

Carlton was HOT and since his 2 big songs ended up back in their rightful concert location at the end, he was showcased well.

My rating of the four shows. A big surprise to me was that Gaucho turned out to be the best. It JUST beat Aja. Both were huge audience reaction shows. By the time Royal Scam and Internet Request came around, the audience was much more subdued.
Number 3 on my list was Internet Request Night, due to Carlton, Wu and Rikki. My absolute favorite album, Royal Scam, ended up dead last and that is mostly because of having the 2 biggest songs on the album turn up so early in the set. It gave the end of the set, a bit of a let down. Carlton was not as good as he was on Internet Request Night, due to learning to work with the band and finding his place amidst 3 guitars. Big props though, cause he did a masterful solo on Third World Man.

I am glad I went to all 4 of the shows, because each one was unique and worthy of seeing. Tracks that I will probably never see again, were performed and that just made my day.

I will never forget this.



Intro: Teenie's Blues

Black Friday
Aja
Hey Nineteen
Peg
Dirty Work (Ladies on Vocals)
Bodhisattva
Rikki Don't Lose That Number
Home At Last
Dr. Wu
Any Major Dude Will Tell You
Do It Again
Love Is Like An Itchin' In My Heart/Band Intros
Babylon Sisters
Daddy Don't Live... (WB Vocals)
Black Cow
Josie
Don't Take Me Alive
Kid Charlemagne

Encore: Reelin' In The Years, Original Version
Outro: Last Tango

I Crossed My Old Man Back In Oregon - Don't Take Me Alive

Royal Scam: Wow, an uneven experience. This is the first time in my life I have seen so many shows one after the other and so I am hearing those nuances of difference as they do the same songs, night after night.

Might as well start with what I didn't like.

Having Kid C start the show. These two people placed themselves in the handicapped area right in front of my section and danced their hearts out, totally blocking our view. Here we are wanting to see Larry at work and we saw squat. Thank goodness for the guy in the first row who went over to them (twice) and finally got them out of there.

Having Don't Take Me Alive as the third song. Again, this album is plum in my book, but I found that I really like those songs in the "Kick it into overdrive" section of the concert. I really missed that. As someone mentioned before in the NY review, Larry is a bit low in the mix and that hurt these two songs. Especially with everything else that was distracting me, people still being seated, the drama in front of me and even the band getting used to having Larry there.

Things I loved!

Sign In Stranger. Who knew I would be so enthralled with this song. I have it on Alive in America, but it truly was a special moment for me. Great work by everyone.
Haitian Divorce with The Donald on lyrics. Again, have heard this many times with Walter, but The Donald is just so special. :-)

Third World Man: Saw it the other day, but this one kicked major butt! Thanks Larry.

Walter did one heck of a good Hey 19 talk. After none the past 2 times, it was a good change. If I am not mistaken, he got a standing O for Daddy Don't Live. If it wasn't a true standing O it might have been that he got VERY appreciative applause from the crowd and that might be the first time seeing that.

The Gibson rocked again. The crowd are fabulous and make the experience worth it. One lady behind me kept yelling "I Love You Keith". I so agree. :-)

I do want to say that getting the entire album played has been a huge success, at least for this fan. Each night was different and special in its own way. Let's see what Taking It To The Seats does for me, Tuesday night.

My absolute final comment on the evening.
Jon Herington, you are a GOD! (There, I said it)


Set List

Intro: Teenie's Blues

Royal Scam (Album)
Hey Nineteen
Daddy Don't Live... (WB vocals)
Aja
Black Friday
Home At Last
Parker's Band (Ladies on vocals)
Love Is Like An Itchin' In My Heart/Band Intros
Third World Man
Peg
Josie
My Old School

Encore: Reelin' In The Years (Original Version)
Outro: Last Tango

Gaucho Night At The Gibson

Gaucho night and there we were, Hubby and I and a bunch of people we had seen the previous night. Obviously, the buy all 4 nights, was doing well for Steely Dan. :-)

Sitting waiting for the back up band, Sam Yahel (with sit in's from the Steely Dan '09 Band - Michael Leonhart and Walt Weiskopf), we were asked by the people behind us, what we thought of last night's show. Next thing you know, others got into the conversation and we found out that all of them had seats for all nights. The consensus from all in our area of the venue, is that the seats were excellent and the band was HOT SO. :-)

Steely Dan came out and this time we saw Carolyn put down the needle for the first side of Gaucho. Babylon Sisters starts up and we are on our way. The crowd is again a happy cheering crowd, but a bit more subdued then the night before. Not a bad crowd, but really, could we keep up the energy that Aja brings?

Highlights for me. Donald singing Gaucho, the title track and just going totally into Steely Dan mode of sneering as he sings. The song was written that way and he just nailed it.

My Rival. If not for this type concert, I would have NEVER have heard this song live. What a treat to hear such lyrics as "The smell of Prickly Pear" "The milk truck eased into my space" and "Yes, I will match him whim for whim now". It's a song about a baby who arrives into the life of this man and though he loves the child, you can see a bit of adjustment will need to happen.

I can't resist, the lyrics follow...

The wind was driving in my face
The smell of prickly pear
[My rival - show me my rival]
The milk truck eased into my space
Somebody screamed somewhere
I struck a match against the door
Of Anthony's Bar and Grill
I was the whining stranger
A fool in love
With time to kill

I've got detectives on his case
They filmed the whole charade
[My rival - show me my rival]
He's got a scar across his face
He wears a hearing aid

Sure he's a jolly roger
Until he answers for his crime
Yes I'll match him whim for whim now

I still recall when I first held
Your tiny hand in mine
[My rival - show me my rival]
I loved you more than I can tell
But now it's stomping time

Sure he's a jolly roger
Until he answers for his crime
Yes I'll match him whim for whim now

Moving on.
It was good to see Glamour Profession and Third World Man again. Both I have seen in concert, but not often.

The rest of the night was as expected, except they put in Godwacker for Do it Again and Dirty Work instead of Parker's Band. Songs from Aja were added to the greatest hits section and the ones that they had played the night before from Gaucho were deleted. Reelin' 72 Version closed again.

Nice!

Set List:

Intro: Teenie's Blues

Gaucho Album

Godwacker
Daddy Don't Live (WB vocals)
Black Cow
Bodhisattva
Showbiz Kids
Black Friday
Dirty Work (Ladies on vocals)
Love is Like an Itchin' in My Heart/Band Intros
Peg
Josie
Don't Take Me Alive
My Old School
Kid Charlemagne

Encore: Reelin' in the Years, Original Version
Outro: Last Tango

Aja Night At The Gibson

This is the first mini review of 4 Steely Dan Concerts in the LA Area.
Gibson (formally Universal) Amphitheatre.


I wasn't really into the idea of an Aja night. Hubby was, but I wasn't.
OMG! They made me a believer.

It was just spectacular!

The LA crowd was on their feet multiple times. At the start of Aja, at the end of the cut Aja, at the end of the album. After a while of that, Donald said something like "We are now going to do some of our hits. Everyone just sit down and we will do the rest".
The crowd obviously considered Deacon Blues their song and gave it a standing O, too. At one point I was so happy with how this LA crowd was behaving (many wanted to dance but they would be good to their neighbors and sit) come the end, they would be up again showing their love at the break between songs that I shouted something like, "This is LA!" just so Donald and Walter KNEW that we love them here in this town. It was truly a spine tingling evening. The band feeding off the crowd type thing.
At one point Donald said something like he felt like Kermit the Frog tonight. Not sure why. His voice was good, but not perfect. In a concert setting, that is to be expected. I didn't hear any flubbed lines, but sometimes he got low, so that might be where he may have got lost for a second or two. No biggie to me, because I lose track of lyrics all the time. lol

All in all, it was just great. Lighting, sound and band.

They closed with Reelin' 72 which I have never heard performed and it was everything I would have wanted...and more! What a closer!!!!!

Gaucho tonight. :-)





This is what it looked like when they lit the crowd, to let the band see what they had done. I cropped the photo, so it's a bit hard to see, but these people are all standing. :-)







Set List that I wrote down:

Teenie's Blues

Aja (the Album)

Time Out Of Mind
Daddy Don't Live in NYC (Walter Vocals)
Bodhisattva
Babylon Sisters (Definitely an LA song)
Showbiz Kids (Lots of screams and claps for the F bomb)
Parker's Band
Hey 19
Love is Like an Itchin' In My Heart (Band Intros)
Black Friday
Do It Again
Don't Take Me Alive
My Old School
Kid Charlemagne

Encore
Reelin' In The Years (72 Version)

Last Tango Outro

Think Fast Steely Dan - At The Honda Center In Anaheim

My second Steely Dan concert experience of this Think Fast tour took me down to the former Arrowhead Pond in Anaheim. The renamed Honda Center looks just like a hockey rink and comes with the inherent problems of having a concert in a place not made for one. With that said, the ride was easy, even in rush hour and we were down in the parking lot, a little after 7PM. The crowd was 50 plus and mellow and for the most part, they were enthusiastic. They seemed to know Steely Dan, so that was good.

Being we got there on time, we again got to watch the Joey Defrancesco Trio in action.
I found that I enjoyed them more this time, though it was sometimes difficult to see them, through the crowd moving to their seats.


We had the added burden that our stairs led to the place where you got onto the floor, so anyone who was seated on the floor, passed our seats on their way down.
Joey and and trio did a half hour and then the crew set the stage for the band. At around 9PM, there they were.

Steely Dan.


========

Set List

Everyone's Gone to the Movies/The Fez/Keith solo/Royal Scam Intro
Donald and Walter arrive and go into The Royal Scam
I've Got The News
Showbiz Kids
Bodhisattva
Two Against Nature
Hey 19
Godwacker
Home At Last
New Frontier
Gaucho (Walter On Vocals)
Babylon Sisters
Parker's Band (Steely Women)
Third World Man
Josie
Aja
Love Is Like An Itchin' In My Heart (Band Intros)
Peg
My Old School

Encores
Don't Take Me Alive
Kid Charlemagne

The Steely Women were truly beautiful in their Supremes inspired long brown/gold dresses and afro wigs. Donald and they were in fine voice and even Walter kicked Gaucho butt and held the audiences attention for his song. Unfortunately, almost every song brought out the bathroom crowd and the many people passing us was an issue from our location, since we were at the end of a row.
A minor thing that bothered me a bit, was the fact that the lights only highlight the person doing a solo. There was no way to watch a person who was not soloing at the time. We did not have monitors for this venue and the lack of light really hurt the enjoyment of the concert. Being you could not see them well (darn, I should have brought my binoculars), I felt that there was more of a disconnect in regard to seeing how the band enjoyed our enthusiasm. I hope they knew we liked them.
We had 3 songs that switched out from our Nokia concert 2 weeks ago. We had Bodhisattva, instead of Everything You Did, Home At Last instead of Glamour Profession and My Old School instead of FM. Nice changes, especially since we saw the shows so close together.

All in all, a good night and minus the trouble we had finding an on ramp for the I-5, as we left the concert, the evening was a total success.

That's all for me this year. I hope you enjoyed.

Think Fast - Steely Dan At The Nokia Theatre

This years Steely Dan tour is called Think Fast and I didn't have to think too much, to take them up on the offer of an evening of great music. We decided to park in North Hollywood and take public transportation over to the new Nokia Theatre. Nokia is right across the street from Staples Center, in Downtown LA. The complex is still under construction, but the theatre is finished and it's fabulous. We ended up getting $49 tickets up in the Mezzanine Section, dead center. No one in front of us, so our site lines were perfect! We sat down early and then waiters came around with gourmet chocolate with the Lexus symbol on them and flutes of champagne.
I have never been treated to such luxury at a concert before! It was wild and it only seemed to be going on up in the Mezzanine. Wow!
A family of 4 turned up next to us and I ended up with a young male sitting next to me who was definitely savvy to the ways of Steely Dan, but had never seen them in concert. You should have seen his eyes shine when the concert finished and we discussed such things as Keith Carlock. Andrew, if you ever see this, thanks for sharing your concert experience with me.

Set List
Everyone's Gone to the Movies/The Fez/Keith solo/Royal Scam Intro
Donald and Walter arrive and go into The Royal Scam
I've Got The News
Showbiz Kids
Everything You Did
Two Against Nature
Hey 19
Godwacker
Glamour Profession
New Frontier
Gaucho (Walter On Vocals)
Babylon Sisters
Parker's Band (Steely Women)
Third World Man
Josie
Aja
Love Is Like An Itchin' In My Heart (Band Intros)
Peg
Kid Charlemagne

Encores
Don't Take Me Alive
FM

Wow, what to say. I have been to 7 Steely Dan Concerts since 2003 and yes, I can definitely tell there is a difference this year. Confidence, total confidence in what they do and how they execute the performance for the audience. Everything has little tweaks of rearrangements, sometimes Walter is taking a more active part in the guitar, or a new open, perhaps. Donald was even more in command of his voice and he exudes total confidence that he will not screw up. There have been some times where screw ups on Glamour Profession lyrics were the norm...not this tour, he nailed it! As a matter of fact, I only heard one missed lyric the whole night. No startled deer in the headlights looks, just cool as all get out and so Ray Charles in his look, as his head bounces around. It's a beautiful thing.
Someone said that Walter owns Gaucho and I want to state for the record that HE DOES!!!! I screamed "GO Walter!", at one point. No mass exodus to the rest room in this crowd, I was totally surprised and glad to see him get the respect he deserves!
I hope someday to see something else performed by him...Dr. Wu, perhaps? :-)

All too soon, it was over and we headed home. Unfortunately, the mass transportation system was having a bad day and delays on two lines caused us to make it back home at almost 1:30AM. Great time anyway and I can't wait until Honda Center, to get to see this again and take better notes.

It was unforgettable...oh and Catherine Russell performed for us in the babe choir. A nice treat.

Heavy Roller's Tour 2007

This review is of the 2nd night of their Heavy Rollers Tour. Steely Dan played 2 nights in California, this past winter. I was lucky to attend one of their shows.

Dateline: Santa Ynez 1/19/07

As I promised on the Blue, I woke up to a beautiful Southern California day. After the past few days of ice and snow and freezing weather, this was a WELCOME change. I took a quick look at the damage to my plants and saw that I lost many of them to the freeze, including my Steely Dan rose. Knowing roses, I am sure it will be back with us, soon reminding us that "Perfect Moments" do happen more then once. Got myself packed and ready for the road, washed and gassed the car...is there gas in the car?...oh yes there is...and off I went. The drive up was through the citrus orchards of California and thankfully, it looked like most of them had survived the weather. Blue sky, mountains and then...the Pacific Ocean as I turned north at Ventura. Put in a CD of America's Ventura Hwy and then Hwy 101 by Herb Albert as the soundtrack to the drive...turquoise water, green trees, yellow grasses, beautiful sites. Folks, it just doesn't get better then this. Finally, I turned off the 101 at Buellton and made my first stop, a place calledOstrichland. Paid my money and made my acquaintance, up close and personal, with the resident ostriches and emus. Interesting creatures to photograph.

Another 2 or so miles down the road and there was Solvang and my stop for the night, the Vagabond Inn. Pulled in and got settled. Changed out of my Donald Fagen tee shirt and put on my clothes for the evening. Then drove over to Santa Ynez, to check out the casino and the Maverick Bar, location for the pre gathering. Since it was already starting to get late, I pulled into the Maverick first at 4PM. I saw the room where we were obviously going to gather, but no one was there yet. Since I wanted to do reconnaissance on the Casino, I went back over to where it was. Found the parking garage and walked over. The showroom was all the way in the back, forcing me to have to walk through the Casino and slots. Lots of smokers and the room reeked of smoke. This Angelino has mentioned it before, but living in California lo these 28 years, I no longer like or tolerate well, the smell of smoke. Oh well. The Samala room area was guarded, but I heard no sounds that would indicate a sound check going on, so I then decided to go back the the Maverick. Well, in the 45 minutes I had been gone, people had showed up, Steely Dan music was playing, Robert and Laurie were hosting and there were tee shirts for us all. The black shirt did indeed come out excellent, kudos to both our hosts and to Denise in Hinktown for the design. I bought one and put it on immediately. As the room got colder, that extra layer of clothing was welcome. I had not eaten since 11:30, so I ordered a chicken breast sandwich and a beer, sat down with some fans from Torrance and we had a pleasant time chatting about last years tour and Soboba. The more I hear of that event, the more I am pleased that I chose the San Diego date, instead. I was ready to head over to the casino at about 6:45, but then in walked Rajah, Gretchen, Steve and Alan from Australia, who I had never had the pleasure to meet in person. So I ended up staying until about 7:15. By then we had about 30 or so people, including Ed Beatty, Hoops, Little Wild One and Geoff Lloyd. Pictures taken, lots of talk and drinks flowing and then I rounded up a bunch of concert goers and we drove back to the Casino. We stopped at the Rajah's room for a quick freshen up break and then I saw a little water bottle on the maids cart and snuck it into the showroom. The tradition continues... :-) Walked into the Samala Room and saw how very small it was. Great views from all seats and I was congratulating myself on saving almost 100 dollars by buying the cheap seats just behind the soundboard. Great view, slightly elevated. The show begins and the Casino announces that if you want to dance, please use the sides of the showroom. GREAT! I know I will want to dance to Bodhisattva, so as the band breaks into Turtle Talk, I work my way over to the side. Don and Walt walk on and off we go, with this angel dancing her butt off. They started at exactly 8PM and were done around 9:45P. No break but Donald was given time off during Dirty Work and Haitian Divorce, to rest his voice. Donald was in excellent voice and he had a short hair cut that looked just too hot! Kudos...59 looks great on him! :-)

Set List:

Turtle Talk (Band Only)
Bodhisattva
Time out of Mind
Aja
Godwacker
Hey 19
Josie
Babylon Sisters
Green Earrings
Dirty Work (The Girls take lead)
Haitian Divorce (Walter on Lead Vocals)
Peg
Kid Charlemagne
My Old School
Last Tango (Band Only)

The songs were basically as we have seen in the past. Godwacker, from their 2003 CD "Everything Must Go" was good to see after a 4 year absence. I had seen this one for the 2nd night of the 2003 tour at Paso Robles and the change from that poor attempt, to tonights excellent version was icing on the cake for me. So good to hear that "trusty angel girls" line from Fagen. It made me feel that they picked it out for me alone, to bail out my sorry butt in regard to saying that Walter would do 2 tunes from his forthcoming new one. I didn't get that, but I got something not from the Jurassic Steely Dan era (with my handle in it) and it was enough. Carlock on drums was just on FIRE! I can't say enough about him and this time, being I was slightly elevated on the risers, I could see him clearly between his cymbals. Jeff Young had his whirly and during Green Earrings he just let that thing fly! Great stuff all around from the guitars, to the bass, to the horns on that tune. Never a disappointment to me. Walter did the Cuervo Gold part of Hey 19 this time around and he did this hilarious talk about driving over from Santa Barbara this morning and then something about "the decay of the social order" He mentioned that we could settle on the shores of Lake Cachuma (which is just over to the east of the Santa Ynez area) and later mentioned in his talk about the drink that could not be named from this stage at this venue (the Casino is dry). The back up singers then broke into "The Cuervo Gold" part of the song and they finished it up. By the time Peg came on, I could feel that the show was winding down toward the end and I returned to the side of the room. Well, there was Ed Beatty, Little Wild One, Hoops and others dancing and enjoying Peg. So I started dancing again and then we went into Kid Charlemagne and the Band took it into overdrive. Then came the encore time. We made our way to the very front of the stage and I was right under Jon Herington and his guitar. As many of you are aware, Jon hailed a cab for me in 2003 and it was just so nice to be able to watch him rip through those guitar parts during My Old School and then the final tune, Last Tango in Paris. Walter was just behind him so this guitar loving girl got 2 guitars for the price of one and took several pictures of them in action. Donald was across the stage and I had an OK view of him, too. A very nice, unforgettable 5 minutes of my life.
So then the lights come on and we are told to go over to the hotel and the after party was in room 216. So I head up and others follow and we had a nice hour or so rehashing the concert, meeting more people who post over on the Blue and all in all a decent end to the evening. Got back to my hotel before Midnight and off to bed.

Thanks again Donald and Walter for the great music and for sharing it with us.

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

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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

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.