- Super Group Rips Up SPAC In LiveNation Concert Finale
By Arthur Gonick
Saratoga TODAY
SARATOGA SPRINGS – In a concert season that had many highlights on the schedule, many would argue that LiveNation saved the best for last with Steely Dan’s performance at SPAC on Sunday evening, August 31. For most in the rain-dampened yet enthusiastic crowd, there was no argument.
They saw the best in the business, still innovative and at the top of their game.
Normally, we have Mark Bolles cover these retro groups, but I was anxious to see a unit that I had enjoyed since their first hit Reelin’ in the Years decades ago, yet had not seen since their tour in support of their first album (it was a record, meaning: Vinyl, back then) Can’t By A Thrill in 1972. In truth, the band had stopped touring for nearly 20 years because founders Donald Fagen and Walter Becker felt that they could not replicate the studio sound at a live venue.
Well, they certainly worked it out – and how!
Part of working it out comes from innovation, improvisation and keeping the band young by adding fresh members to the group. In this connection, the “Danettes”- a trio of backup (and sometimes lead) singers, drawn from a roster of about a half-dozen each night, were a crowd-pleasing standout.
Part of working it out is launching hit after hit until the crowd is frenzied. Consider this list in rapid succession: Black Cow, Aja (in which Fagen debuted a concertina solo,), Hey Nineteen, Black Friday and Rikki Don’t Lose That Number.
The audience barely had time to catch its breath when the “Danettes” brought them up to a higher level: Taking the lead on a soulful version of Dirty Work followed closely thereafter with a ripping, rapid rendition of Bodhisattva that was easily the evening’s highlight among highlights.
But they weren’t even close to being done. More big boys and best-sellers: Daddy Don’t Live In That New York City No More, Josie, Peg, My Old School, Reelin’ and Kid Charlemagne for an encore. Neat, tight and done.
A great tribute to Steely Dan’s performance is that they left a few hits in the tank, as it were. Two that come to mind are Deacon Blues and Do It Again.
Hey, Freihofer's Jazz Festival! How about these guys as the mainstream headliners next year? They are certainly more faithful to jazz tenets than some of the others you’ve put up at the top of the bill. Just sayin’.
