Due to an incredible act of generosity on behalf of the Bank of Ireland’s CFO, I came into the possession of two tickets (great seats) for Steely Dan at the Beacon Theater, who are doing a two night run as a part of their “Heavy Rollers” tour. Suzanne was feeling a bit under the weather, and so I took my father- a long time dan fan, as an early father’s day present.
We met on a jam packed train (due to the yankees-sox game)- something that Metro-North really should consider looking at, along with the myriad other problems the plague the New Haven line (a long winded, vitriolic rant for another time) and spent the hour from Stamford discussing family trivialities and such, the hour went by fairly quickly.
We decided on Citrus Bar and Grill for pre-show dinner and drink. It seemed to be mentioned fairly frequently on one of the food boards I lurk and was about a block away from the venue.A brief review:
Atmosphere:
Pros: outside patio, nicely furnished, clean bathroom (also any bathroom with motion sensor towel dispenser gets an automatic rating++ from any self respecting borderline germaphobe). As a side note, the firefox spellcheck suggests “hermaphrodite” for germaphobe. That is a little bizarre.
Cons: loud, shitty music. Small, wobbly tables outside- I felt like my beer was going to spill. Crappy beer selection.
We started with an order of calamari, served with a chile remoulade and a chipotle-tomato dipping sauce. The calamari was cooked well, though the dark brown breading was a bit heavy and it appeared that the deep fryer could’ve used an oil change. The remoulade was tasty, a little smoky though lacking any discernible heat. The chipotle-tomato sauce tasted of neither chipotle nor tomato, and while not offensive certainly lacked any real depth.
I choose this restaurant because I was excited by the idea of a latin-asian fusion, and while several of the entrees intrigued me (pomegranate-ancho chile glazed salmon with cauliflower-wasabi mashed potato) I chose for some reason to get a sushi sampler for $21. I chose this, despite having sworn off mediocre sushi after my near religious experience at le miu sushi. It was, unfortunately, completely pedestrian. However, the amount of fish for $21 was enough to satisfy me so I cannot really complain. Dad had the soft-shelled crab, served on wilted greens with a mango salsa (which while tasty, was almost more of a jelly). The crab was fresh, well season and defintely a much better choice. The meal overall was fine, though I won’t be returning.
The show:
The Beacon is a great venue. We had nice LOGE seats, with a perfect view. I go to a lot of concerts, I like a lot of old music- and this was certainly one of the older crowds in recent memory. Though I do love seeing 50 year old men in business suits smoking herb out of small wooden pipes and listening to Steely Dan. The NYC-based Sam Yahel Trio opened and served up some great original tunes pushed forward by the stellar drum work of Brian Blade. I found guitarist Peter Bernstein’s tone to be insipid and flat, but his compositions were exciting and provided a solid showcase for Sam’s B3 work.
Steely Dan somewhat accurate setlist:
Jazzy Intro
Godwhacker
Bad Sneakers
Two Against Nature
Hey Nineteen
Haitian Divorce (sung by Becker)
Peg
Babylon Sisters
I Got the News
Dirty Work
Josie
Aja
Pretzel Logic
Kid Charlimagne
Encore:
Black Cow
Bodhisattva
Jazz Outro
1. Becker has that great, honking midrange tone that makes me want a strat.
2. Fagan is great fun to watch, clearly someone who did way too much cocaine for way too long- the kyphotic arch, head nodding like a marionette with tourettes. His voice has certainly lost some of its clarity, but still has that signature nasal tone that works so well with their compositions.
3. The guitar work of Jon Herington was phenomenal, while Becker took some very tasteful solos, all the truly virtuoso parts were effortlessly handled by Herington.
4. Really solid band, great horn section.
5. Drummer Keith Carlock is competent, but pisses me off. He had no dynamic range- everything was one speed, one volume and lacked any technical nuances. There is also something that just annoyed me about him physically- he had that simian/retarded/orgasmic grimace that was reminiscent of G.E Smith from the old SNL band, simultaneously amusing and annoying.
Highlights- Josie was infectious, and gave the band a moment to stretch out. Aja was great to hear, and the tenor player certainly gave the album version (wayne shorter IIRC) a run for his money; though Keith Carlock != Dave Gadd. Dirty Work was handled by the two female backing singers, and I actually enjoyed it more than the original version. To be honest, the show was a very faithful replication of their album material, with a bit more energy and some witty bantering in between, exactly as expected with a studio band such as SD. The entire set was truly enjoyable, with some expert workmanship, but there were no face-melting exploding brains moments. In summation- a very enjoyable evening. I am certainly glad I got to see Becker/Fagan before they got TOO old.
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