But people did remember once, before they forgot, and there is a reason for it. The same reason I shelled out well over a hundred to see them at Sirromet, one hungover Sunday in October. They were actually a pretty good band.
Hailed as the "anti-heroes of the seventies" by Rolling Stone magazine, Walter Becker and Donald Fagan were definitely not the hippest of the bunch but they knew how to craft a song, very well, and are well known for being a top notch studio band. Apart from production value, their lyrics also standout as complex, cerebral and at times cheeky, and I have a soft spot for their harmonic style. There is a lot of cheese, but there is some amazing musical moments amongst the cheese that make me crank out the 'Pretzel Logic' or 'Can't Buy A Thrill' every now and then.
Sirromet reminds me of the Riverstage set up in the Botanic Gardens, with a nice big and slightly lopsided tent, and a large seating area with a few food stations (and queues galore), but an easy to access drinks tent (not that I was taking advantage of this). We missed Oh Mercy but arrived about half an hour before Steve Winwoods set (or as dad called him, Stevie). I knew Steve's famous groups (Spencer Davis Group and Traffic ) but hadn't realised how much I really knew until his set began. He opened with "I'm A Man", an excellently groovin' and powerful start to the set, his voice strong and expressive . Amidst some jamming, he also played the classic "Bring Me a Pile of Money"... I mean "Higher Love", and others I knew but didn't know I knew, such as "Can't Find My Way Home."
tiny people!
The only issue I really had was that it was so goddamn long. It was an hour and a half of music, which is nice for such a classic artist, but a huge chunk of that time was spent on extremely elongated solos and jammin' jams. There was the guitar solo (played by a magnificent guitarist, to be fair, who played it with the constant look of ecstasy on his face), then the bongo solo (yes the bongo player was also great, but what can you do with bongos to make it go so long AND keep it interesting?), then the drum solo. Great musicians, but how many times can you hear the same riff over and over again. It was just unnecessary, or as my dear godmother would say "WANKY SHIT!" or something to that effect. I know this is what people want to see at gigs sometimes, but I've never been a long solo fan, which is why I enjoy but don't love Pink Floyd, and skip the middle bit in "Light My Fire" by the Doors. (musical hell for me?)
this is actually the best photo. Courtesy of father (my camera failed at this event)
Anyway Stevie finished on a pretty high note with the song that has been in every film, "Gimme Some Lovin' " which had all the oldies in ecstasy, and finally made his way off the stage. Or he did a few dozen encores, I'm not quite sure. In between sets, we were treated to the house DJ dressed as a bogan version of Evel Knieval, strutting the stage while spinning old classics amongst recent radio fare (just to remind the crowd that Adele exists, thankyou), which the ageing crowd just absolutely lapped up. As we stood for some food we couldn't help watch and chuckle, particularly as this old fellow looking about 70 danced right next to us blind to the world like he had OD'd on his arthritis meds. I had reassure my dear godmother that she and my parents were not as old looking and odd-behaving as he was.
Steely Dan rolled onstage. They appeared to figure that they were supposed to follow Steve's act, and opened with a drawn out instrumental song I didn't recognise as theirs, but was certainly in their style. For good measure, it also went on for a bit as well. As you might see from the first photo, as far as appearances go, nature, or maybe drugs have not been too kind. Walter is a tubby balding bearded fellow with small eyes and a ridiculous lisp (hence not ever really hip), and talked like he was still stuck in California in the 70's. He addressed the crowd in a way that brought my cringe on, talking about how cool getting high is and what great weed they got from somewhere, and that this was going to be the greatest fucking show ever and we were going to party like it's nineteen seventy something, and other things that just didn't need to be said. Get back to your guitar old man. Don looked like he was only there to do one thing, and that was to sing the songs, and play the piano, that was all he wanted thankyou very much, and that was all he did. His voice was not the greatest I have to say, but had it's pleasant moments, and behind the cracking there was still the heart and emotion from the original recordings. And, despite Walter's blabberings, Don did portray the image of being the major player of the band, bringing the melodies and warblings to life onstage as on record. All I could really see Walter doing was having a bit of a fiddle around on his guitar and doing a bit of a boppy dance thing (maybe he was quite high). Even the really great guitar solos, riffs and drum fills were done by the backing band members, so I wasn't sure and really couldn't pick how Walter was contributing at all. But hey, after decades of living an inoffensive musical legacy with your partner, why not just muck around and have a jolly good time with it? Good for Wally.
Don. the camera was just tricking, it's actually quite good
Anyway, they played a lovely heap of hits, including "Bodhisattva", "Peg", "Hey Nineteen", "My Old School", and the big one, "Ricky Don't Lose that Number". The music and the backing vocals were outstanding as par the course for for travelling studio rock classic acts, and my parents and their friends looked like they were enjoying even the songs they weren't fans of (e.g. "Dirty Work", in which the backing ladies carried the whole song minus Don beautifully).
The couple beside us (one of whom had been asleep when we arrived), were so blissfully drunk, that they provided extra added amusement to the event, particularly thanks to their dancing. As the concert appeared to be on it's last legs, we all chanted "DO IT AGAIN!" at various moments before the end: as we hadn't heard this (total fave) yet, and where the heck was it? The couple chanted with us merrily, until the last song played and the house music came on, at which point they realised we were asking for a song, not just generally wanting some more music. Cue chuckles.
And that was the biggest suck of the night- we could NOT believe they would skip such an excellent song, arguably their best, which some might think of as their biggest hit. What! The hell! People!
Sitting in a car for a good half hour while the traffic dissipated, we had no steely in the car to rectify this great desire to hear this song, so HERE IT IS FOR YOU in youtube glory. But you know what, if you don't have it, download it or iTunes it, and put it on the surround stereo system. Grab a glass of wine, comb your fringe over, put on some wayfarers, cross your legs on the couch, and turn it up. It will make you feel so lame yet SO COOL at the same time. ENJOY.
No comments:
Post a Comment