By Scott Lewis Portland Oregonian Steely Dan Not many bands can take seven years between tours and two decades between studio albums and sound like they haven’t missed a beat. But then, not many bands are like Steely Dan. While the Blazers took a break from the Western Conference playoffs, Steely Dan nearly filled the […]
Tag Archives | Concert reviews
Mixture of Pathos, Elegance and Brisk Timekeeping
By Stuart Maconie Q Magazine LONDON — If ever a line confirmed Steely Dan as the most rebarbative, sly, smart alecky rock stars there have ever been, it comes at the close of “Show Biz Kids” from 1973 when, at a loss to further denounce LA’s airheads, Fagen sneers “they’ve got their Steely Dan t-shirts.” Nowadays […]
Steely Dan: Wembley Arena
By Samantha Wimsatt Chimera LONDON — Modesty prevents me from describing how deeply fetching I looked on this particular evening. Many hours of thought and experimentation preceded my decision to go with a black satin mini, spikes and a low-necked, plum-red sweater, vintage circa 1955 (during the interval Bernard Copland told me I looked like […]
Review: Steely Dan
By Mike Boehm Los Angeles Times IRVINE, Cal. — Steely Dan has distinct advantages over other ’70s pop warhorses trying to justify their existence a generation beyond their hit-making prime. When mainstays Walter Becker and Donald Fagen go on stage with whatever assortment of ace players and singers they’ve assembled to flesh out their band-in-concept, […]
Not Alone with Steely Dan
By Carola Dibbell The Village Voice Filing into Roseland to hear Steely Dan three Saturdays ago, I think of Lester Bang’s Elvis obit: “So I won’t bother saying good-bye to his corpse, he concluded. “I will say good-bye to you.” The last time I saw this band in concert was just months before they launched […]
A Pleasant but Not Powerful Hit Parade
By Chuck Crisafulli Los Angeles Times DEVORE, California — The records of Steely Dan are triumphs of studio technique and jazzy craftsmanship, and there’s probably no better way to test high-end stereo equipment than to crank up Aja or Countdown to Ecstasy. Their music becomes more problematic in live settings though, and in a pair of […]
Deja Vu From Days at the U
Originally published on Sept. 21, 1993 By David Menconi Raleigh News & Observer CHARLOTTE — Steely Dan is a band that has both no context at all, and all the context in the world. For the most part, Steely Dan didn’t exist outside the studio during their ’70s heyday. They never played live except for […]
Veteran Rock Stars Show Fans They’ve Lost Little to the Years
By Steve Dollar Atlanta Constitution ATLANTA — Dinosaurs walked the earth again in Atlanta over the weekend, causing a ruckus in the city’s bigger music venues and proving, as if promoters of three heavily attended concerts didn’t already know, that old rock stars never quite become extinct. In fact, they’re a hardier species than anyone […]
Doing It Again
By Owen Gleiberman Entertainment Weekly Greeting each other with a handshake at the center of New York City’s Madison Square Garden stage, Walter Becker and Donald Fagen seemed less like the pop stars Steely Dan than like a couple of reformed dweebs exchanging a brusque hello at their 25th high school reunion. Considering that they […]
Steely Dan in LA: Old School, New Liberation
By Richard Cromelin Los Angeles Times In the sunshine of the ’70s, Steely Dan’s Donald Fagen and Walter Becker were a voice of doom, prophesying from the heart of subversively seductive, sophisticated pop hits. In the turbulence of the ’90s, they’re a couple of pussycats. Well, not entirely — the two brand-new songs they played […]
