Steely Dan

Seven years after their last world tour, Steely Dan are finally back on the scene, and they're doing it in grand style with a monstrous band (dubbed by the duo themselves the "Steely Dan orchestra") made up of some of the most sought-after musicians the world has to offer today.

The "Holy Roller Tour", which kicked off on May 5th in Memphis, brought them to Italy for the first time, specifically to Lucca (Piazza Napoleone, as part of the annual "Summer Festival"), which hosted the final European date (the sixteenth, to be precise).

The concert kicked off shortly after 9:30pm, with a square packed not just with onlookers but with genuine fans. On stage: the astonishing Jon Herington on electric guitar, a horn section made up of Walt Weiskopf (tenor sax), Roger Rosenberg (baritone sax), Michael Leonhart (trumpet) and Jim Pugh (trombone), Freddie Washington on electric bass, Jeff Young on keyboards, the explosive Keith Carlock on drums, and two backing vocalists (Carolyn Leonhart-Escoffery and Cindy Mizelle). A brief instrumental overture served as a prelude to the entrance of Donald Fagen and Walter Becker, greyer and more hobbled, yet in finer form than ever.

Fagen straps on a small portable keyboard (the so-called Melodica), Becker picks up his trusty six-string, and the band launches into a blistering version of “Time Out Of Mind,” making the fired-up audience forget that twenty-seven years have passed since the release of the gorgeous “Gaucho.”

In the “making of” DVD for “Aja,” the band explains that recording the tracks involved two stages: reaching perfection, and then going beyond it, which gave the work a more “human” feel. Well, Steely Dan bring all of that to the stage too: despite the insane, metronomic precision of every musician in the band (“the best we've ever played with,” Becker announces at one point), the impact is light years away from feeling cold or calculated. It's worth remembering that Steely Dan's groove is so deeply funky that its roots can be traced straight back to the Motown sound.

The concert continues with a moving reworking of "Peg" (from "Aja"), a questionable “Dirty Work” (from “Can’t Buy A Thrill”) handed entirely over to the lovely Cindy and Carolyne, and an overwhelming, unforgettable version of “Aja,” in which both Herington and Weiskopf made sure the audience never missed Larry Carlton or Wayne Shorter. Spine-tingling stuff.

Fagen's voice, as rich and distinctive as ever but rather thin live, still gave the crowd several moments of pure emotion. Either way, the band seems to offer its best during the second half of the show (which lasted just under an hour and a half in total, including the two encore songs): Fagen and Becker have well and truly broken the ice with the Italian audience, and have finally realized they can count on us too.

Sadly, the Dan chose to skip quite a few of the hits that made them famous worldwide, such as “Do It Again,” “Rikki Don’t Lose That Number” and “Deacon Blues,” but, quite honestly, that was no real drawback: it was an unforgettable evening, and getting the chance to witness a performance by an ensemble of this caliber is a truly rare opportunity.

Ride the wave of great music

Add OndaRock to your favorite sources on Google Discover. Don't miss our reviews, milestones and latest news straight in your feed.

Follow on Google