Steely Dan at the Beacon Theatre

Michael McDonald reunites with Steely Dan

In 1967, while in college in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York, Don Fagan passed by a café and heard Walter Becker practicing on electric guitar. They met and, discovering that they enjoyed similar music, soon began composing songs together on the piano in the common room of Becker’s dormitory. Becker and Fagen performed together locally in the Don Fagen Jazz Trio, the Bad Rock Group and the Leather Canary, playing cover songs and original compositions. Fagen graduated in 1969, and the two moved to Brooklyn hoping to launch a songwriting career. They wound up joining the touring band of Jay and the Americans for about a year and a half. In 1971, the duo relocated to Los Angeles, California, where they worked as staff songwriters for a record company, and after realizing that their songs were too complex for other artists, Becker and Fagen in 1972 formed a band that would become Steely Dan. Steely Dan initially had a few hit singles, then retired from live performances in 1974 and became a successful studio project until splitting in 1981. Since reuniting in New York City in 1993, Steely Dan has toured steadily and released two albums of new material. The band has sold more than 40 million albums worldwide and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2001. Becker died from complications of esophageal cancer in 2017, leaving Fagen as Steely Dan's sole official member. In an ironic reverse twist, Steely Dan now tours almost annually but seldom records; the band's ninth and most recent studio album is 2003's Everything Must Go.

Steely Dan's nine-night residency at the Beacon Theatre this year once again saw the band play several of its albums in their entirety. Donald Fagen added a new member to the band in guitarist Connor Kennedy, whom Fagen initially recruited for his Nightflyers band in 2017. Fagan also hired guitarist Jon Herington, keyboardist Jim Beard, bassist Freddie Washington, drummer Keith Carlock, a four-piece horn section and three backup vocalists. On this night, the eighth performance in the series, the set reprised Fagan's debut solo album, 1982's The Nightfly, for the first set, and then mined Steely Dan's 1970s catalog in the second set. Fagan started the first set center stage playing a melodica, framed by blaring horn arrangements and background vocals. Performed by such a large band, the music was thick and slick, presenting vintage songs in slightly newer arrangements and allowing room for many of the musicians to shine. By the end of the set, the 13-piece band was joined by former Steely Dan member Michael McDonald and Jimmy Vivino. Blending elements of pop, jazz, and rhythm & blues, Fagan and company presented a full, dynamic and sophisticated evening of soft Dad-rock.

Visit Steely Dan at www.steelydanofficial.com.

Setlist

Set 1: The Nightfly

1. I.G.Y. (Donald Fagen song)
2. Green Flower Street (Donald Fagen song)
3. Ruby Baby (The Drifters cover)
4. Maxine (Donald Fagen song)
5. New Frontier (Donald Fagen song)
6. The Nightfly (Donald Fagen song)
7. The Goodbye Look (Donald Fagen song)
8. Walk Between Raindrops (Donald Fagen song)

Set 2:

1. Hallelujah Time
2. Bodhisattva
3. Hey Nineteen
4. Time Out of Mind
5. Dirty Work
6. Black Cow
7. Keep That Same Old Feeling (The Crusaders cover)
8. My Old School (with Michael McDonald)
9. Peg (with Michael McDonald)

Encore:

1. Reelin' in the Years (with Jimmy Vivino)
2. Pretzel Logic (with Jimmy Vivino)
3. A Man Ain't Supposed to Cry (Joe Williams cover)