The voice was still there, strained and squeezed at times, but alive and electric and calling to the crowd from the 70s like out of some long dark tunnel of time.
But there he was: Donald Fagen, lording over the Fender Rhodes center-stage Sunday night at the Masonic Center in SF, leading a 13-piece band through two hours of suburban angst wrapped in jazzy chops and peppered with frenetic horn solos – a song list that a generation can’t get out of its head.
Fagen dug down into the keyboard, then leaned back, looking up at the heavens at that Stevie Wonder-like 45-degree angle, with longtime collaborator/soulmate Walter Becker standing a few feet to his right, the gentleman scholar on lead guitar, punching out more than thirty years of cherished rock licks that brought the audience of about 1,300 to its feet over and over again, as if sitting down was a show of disrespect.
With music driven forward by the strong smart bass lines of Oakland musician Freddie Washington, pumped up with a horn foursome that never let their energy drop an inch below the red-hot top, and laced lovingly with the soulful harmonies of the band’s three singers, Fagen took the crowd down the Memory Lane they had specifically requested on a ticketholders’ Internet survey ( described hilariously by its creators at http://radiodupree.blogspot.com/2009/06/steely-dan-live-2009-internet-request.html)
From 8:30 p.m. sharp, they were off and running, hand-delivering their past delicacies to a room filled with helpless dreamers and pot smoke. From Black Friday to Aja, from Hey Nineteen to Bodhisattva, the music unwound and filled the Masonic, while the two elder statesmen of rock-and-soul worked away, beaming, as if they, like their audience, had forgotten what year it was they were reelin’ in.
Cuz, after all, it really didn’t matter.
Here’s their set list, in case you missed it:
SAN FRANCISCO 10-25-09
ANY MAJOR DUDE
RICKY DON’T LOSE THAT NUMBER
DO IT AGAIN
DON’T TAKE ME ALIVE
MY OLD SCHOOL
And here’s the band:
Keith Carlock – Drums
Jon Herington – Guitars
Michael Leonhart – Trumpet
Jim Pugh – Trombone
Roger Rosenberg – Sax
Freddie Washington – Bass
Walt Weiskopf – Sax
Jim Beard – Keyboards
Tawatha Agee – Backing Vocals
Carolyn Escoffery – Backing Vocals
Catherine Russell – Backing Vocals