Old times as good as ever at Nokia
The Dallas Morning News
GRAND PRAIRIE, Texas – They may never go back to their old school, but Steely Dan was happy to jump into the time machine Wednesday night at Nokia Theatre. The masters of jazzy rock welcomed old bandmate Michael McDonald back into the fold for the final stretch of their set, capping off a night of freakishly tight musicianship and hits that kept on coming.
But the funny thing about the Dan is that it never really sounds old, not even when a chestnut like “Do It Again” gets placed over the fire. A Swiss army knife of a band always led by keyboard player Donald Fagen and guitarist Walter Becker, Steely Dan still combines the tricky, jazz-based chords of jazz with the groove and attitude of rock. They swing and they snarl. They build long improv extensions onto old favorites, and they execute concise compositions. They don’t do a lot of new material, but they do just about everything you could want from a live band.
They’ve always been creatures of the studio, expert craftsmen who surround themselves with crack performers on every instrument. But Wednesday’s set showed that they also know how to add fresh wrinkles for a live performance.
For “Bodhisattva,” performed early in the set, the band let the four-man horn section do a lot of the heavy lifting handled by the guitars on the studio version. The song swung, and hard. For “Dirty Work,” the gifted backup singers stepped up to handle the lead vocals. Every choice seemed to work and flew in the face of any accusations that the Dan is too pristine to rock live.
The 12-piece outfit was in sync all night. The stalwarts included former North Texas State student Keith Carlock, a drummer who managed to dazzle without showing off; and guitarist Jon Herington, who matched Mr. Becker lick for lick and meshed perfectly with the horns.
Mr. McDonald started the evening with his own set, featuring hits from his solo career and his Doobie Brothers years and a selection of R&B cover songs that met with mixed results.
The recent butt of an ongoing joke in The 40-Year-Old Virgin (and, more recently, a singer of the national anthem during the NBA Finals), Mr. McDonald couldn’t add much soul to Marvin Gaye (“I Heard It Through the Grapevine”) or Smokey Robinson (“I Second That Emotion”).
But his keyboard playing was robust throughout, and he ended his set with a rousing version of “Takin’ It to the Streets.” This was fierce gospel-fueled rock, complete with a nine-person choir and plenty of soul claps. This antiseptic venue is the last place you’d expect to catch the Holy Ghost, but for a few minutes Wednesday, you could have sworn church was in session.
From Dallas Morning News, July 13, 2006
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