Steely Dan in Australia

Dave from Perth

Senior Member
G'day. I have just returned from Steely Dan's Perth concert - their first port of call while here, in Australia, on their Shuffle Diplomacy tour. I was, yet again, blown away by the musicianship of all the players, but to see Keith Carlock do his thing behind the kit was inspirational stuff. Amazing chops and feel. To all fellow Aussies on this forum, if you have an opportunity to see the Dan, I'd recommend it. Cheers.
 
They put on an excellent show here not long ago. I like keiths drumming (he's amazing to watch) and his Yamaha Phoenix drums look awesome.

(Of course being a stagehand I get to see all the shows for free)
 
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They're playing at a winery this weekend here in Brisbane, would've loved to go (I'm a big fan of Aja) but don't have the money. Would've been a great concert.
 
I've seen them twice here in the States and always a top notch show. Steely dan always attracts the best players. Looks good on their resume.
 
They're playing at a winery this weekend here in Brisbane, would've loved to go (I'm a big fan of Aja) but don't have the money. Would've been a great concert.

I'm sorry to hear that you can't get to the show. The opening number at the Perth show was "Aja", one of my favourites too. Keith's kit sounded really nice, by the way.
 
Hopefully the mixing engineer would do a great job, unlike what they did in NY, sounded horrible, drums were too loud, didn't go well with the Steely Dan audiophiles like me.
 
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Hopefully the mixing engineer would do a great job, unlike what they did in NY, sounded horrible, drums were too loud, didn't go well with the Steely Dan audiophiles like me.

Saw them last night.

As expected, the musicians were first class but ... I found that the drum sound and Keith Carlock's style were more aggressive than I'd like to hear in those songs at times. It was often pretty well a wall-of-sound rock show and, yes, the drums were too loud. Also found it weird at times to hear Walter's guitar stepping on Donald's vocal lines at times - not something you'd expect from guys with their musical sophistication.

I don't think they were helped by the Sydney Entertainment Centre's boomy acoustics.

On the plus side, the rockier numbers worked great - My Old School and, especially, Bodhistattva were scorching. Aja at the start was a buzz before they cranked up the volume later on. Pretzel Logic with Steve Winwood guesting on vocs and Hammond organ was excellent. Hey Nineteen was much more fun than on the record.
 
I think Mr. Gadd was the best fit for SD's music. Tasteful, creative, not too loud.

Love how odd it is that Fagen is morphing into Ray Charles it seems...
 
I think Mr. Gadd was the best fit for SD's music. Tasteful, creative, not too loud.

Love how odd it is that Fagen is morphing into Ray Charles it seems...

Agree ... him or Pretty Purdie would work for me but Keith C obviously does it for the Danamic Due.

I see what you mean with the Ray Charles connection. A lot of people think Donald F reminds them of a muppet (including our singer, who was there last night) ... a few think he more resembles a vampire about to take a bite as he sings.
 
Carlock is a nice pocket/groove player with some flair/chops - perfect for Fagen...
Would luv to see Weckl do the gig!
 
I think Mr. Gadd was the best fit for SD's music. Tasteful, creative, not too loud.

Love how odd it is that Fagen is morphing into Ray Charles it seems...

Hahahaha! I love this!
 
Hey Nineteen was much more fun than on the record.

Ahhhhh....one of the first songs I played along to when learning the drums. Great memories.

My Old School is also one of my favorites. I bought their greatest hits albums back in the late 80's before I knew much about the band, and I instantly became a huge fan. It has some of their most popular material, and then some classic blues/jazz tunes that are awesome.
 
Ahhhhh....one of the first songs I played along to when learning the drums. Great memories.

My Old School is also one of my favorites. I bought their greatest hits albums back in the late 80's before I knew much about the band, and I instantly became a huge fan. It has some of their most popular material, and then some classic blues/jazz tunes that are awesome.

I find the Rick Marotta tracks like Hey Nineteen, Peg and Time Out of Mind are outwardly easy but are very hard to play as smoothly as he does (been trying for decades and still yet to crack it).

Yeah, they have so many great tracks in their catalogue:

Kings, Fire in the Hole, Bodhisattva, Show Biz Kids, Old School, Gold Teeth I & II, King of the World, Night By Night, Pretzel Logic, Black Friday, Dr Wu, Daddy Don't Live ..., Kid Charlegmaine, Don't Take Me Alive, Fez, Green Earrings, Royal Scam, Aja, Home at Last, Josie, FM, Babylon Sisters ... just amazing.
 
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