Thursday, June 14, 2007

Steely Dan 5/21/07 At The Beacon


As readers of this blog know, I am a big music fan, and attend several shows a year. Steely Dan has always been one of my favorite bands due to their acerbic lyrics and shocking level of professional polish. So I took my brother in law James Goldsmith to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame members' show the day before he turned...er, the day before his birthday. We had a splendid, mellow time as we were regaled by a set list that featured much of my personal fave album Gaucho and almost all of the legendary Aja album. Front man Donald Fagan was in excellent voice, crooning and rocking at the piano like a white version of Ray Charles, as you can see in the excellent picture by Mick Hutson. Co-Dan founder Walter Becker noodled oodles of bluesy licks, and lead axeman Jon Herington smoked several razor sharp solos throughout the set, particularly on a rousing Kid Charlemagne and an almost feral Bodhisattva to close out the show. As usual with the Dan, all of the musicians were top shelf, but special mention goes to Keith Carlock, the second best drummer I have ever seen (behind Neil Peart of Rush, of course) . If you get a chance to see this band live, jump at it...unless you hate jazz, in which case run in the other direction.