Hammersmith Apollo, London

It’s probably the warmest night of the year, but it’s worth braving heavy, tetchy traffic to get across town to see the coolest band playing tonight. Steely Dan ain’t your average duo. If you went to see Ike & Turner or you go to see Brooks & Dunn, the band will be good but you’ll be in no doubt who is running the show. Most of the time in this ensemble, Becker and Fagen seem to want to be members of but not lord it over the group.

Every now and then B and F bring a bunch of mostly jazz and soul virtuoso’s over to England to visit their songbook. Make no mistake, this is a jazz/blues orchestra which includes the SD duo as part of the overall and even the vocal arrangements are heavily weighted to show off the three female vocalists  brought along on this Left Bank Holiday tour.

The show starts with a ‘Round Midnight’ style 12-bar showpiece which cleverly gives the engineer the chance to balance up the four-piece horn section – brilliant soloists all, of course – and drummer Keith Carlock who is a crowd favourite and vigorous but cool bassist Freddie Washington sounding tonight as though he has strolled over from an Atlantic or Blue Note recording session. Once Becker and Fagen have arrived with their singers and their left-wing and ex-Bette Midler guitar slice Jon Herington they are ready to float through a rearranged ‘Reelin’ In the Years’. This sounds like a Mel Torme piece, in this incarnation.

Becker and Fagen don’t say much but have clearly put the setlist together to get the best out of the lineup rather than play every hit. It’s the same old problem, when you’ve made a lot of records you cannot include everyone’s favourite. Once a vociferous drunk standing near us had taken his unwelcome statements elsewhere, your scribe could enjoy the show. Although an acquaintance elsewhere in the house later reports that his enjoyment of tonight’s show was marred by the oafish singing along of the Uninvited Tuneless Chorale, yes those audience members who assume that having paid for a ticket to see the featured  artists, you would rather hear their atonal groaning along during the better-known tunes. Curse these selfish cretins !

What Steely Dan DID play was mostly fine, if a little too close to the recorded originals for a live show. Few spontaneous moments occur, but to be fair this is a big lineup and discipline must be pursued. We get a grinding ‘Black Friday’, a sigh-strewn ‘Bad Sneakers’, the strange musical maelstrom filtered into melody that is ‘Two Against Nature’, a joyful ‘My Old School’ which still sounds like it was written this week. Herington’s guitar runs are received with audience whoops ; Becker’s guitar stylings this evening are jazzy and angular and his tone  for some reason uncannily close to blues/soul man Robert Cray. He later sings ‘New York City’ with great aplomb.

I was hoping with this lineup for ‘Babylon Sisters’ and it is given a crisp and precise outing with fabulous singing as is the lament ‘Hey Nineteen’ ; crowd favourite ‘Peg’ is close to sublime, those horn hooks cutting through. Highlight for me the twisting melody and arcane lyric of ‘Deacon Blues’ – blues, soul, jazz, bitterness it’s all in this song and it’s a great choice for tonight.

This week’s tremendous guesting in London is supplied tonight by the arrival on stage of a man Becker describes as ‘an old friend of ours who lives in London’..and it’s none other that guitar ace Elliot Randall. Hence the original speedy rockin’ take of ‘Reelin’ is revisited with three guitarists blazing away and the crowd response is pure ecstacy as you might surmise. Randall sticks around for the curious SD song that seem to want to burst out of its framework as an exercise in tension, ‘Kid Charlemagne’.

No great surprises but fine players working great material and an exciting finale – that’ll do for us overheated Londoners tonight. The cool night air was welcome

Pete Sargeant     www.fairhearing.co.uk