I saw a pretty special concert this last weekend. It was Steely Dan playing one of their albums in its entirety and then followed up by several of their hits. I was fortunate to see the “Goucho” album played. Now I know, since that was their last studio album of their first ruling era, that it sometimes gets a bum rap. It had two big radio hits off of it. “Hey Nineteen” and then “Babylon Sisters” were both biggies when I was growing up and kind of had that overplayed feeling to me. However, the rest of the album is really smooth and some of the finest rock and roll available. The title track, “Goucho” says so much and Mark Knopfler (of Dire Straights) played guitar on the final track, “Third World Man” and really makes it special.

So, when they finished the album, they came up for air with some smart aleck-y crowd banter and then the hits came one after another until we were all left catching our collective breath and the Gibson Amphitheater came back to Universal City via NYC, The Caribbean Islands and some place like Lake Cuomo. I want to say they have a unique international sound but, really they have an American sound that sounds good all over the world. They sound just as exciting in First Class high over Myanmar as well as in a Village walk up at 3:30 in the morning. And this night was no exception. They really did it.

The played a good mix of the old and new so, “Black Cow” and a few other from “Aja”, Walter stepped up and sang “Daddy Don’t Live in that New York City No More” and even the back- up singers got in on it with “Dirty Work” replacing the original singer on a gem from the first album before Donald pretty much took over all vocal responsibilities. They pulled out gems like “Kid Charlamagne” and “My Old School” and generally knocked it out of the park.

Please explore their entire catalogue. They really are talented and have been at it for a long while here. Steely Dan was a fan and critic favorite and that is rare and worthy right there. If you like your music with some bit of fun, sarcasm, brains, and unusually high quality musicianship, this band may just be for you. The show was awesome.