Steely Dan has put on an incredible show every time I’ve seen them. They’re in my Top 10 of best concerts I’ve ever seen. They make some of the best music out there.
The first stop of the afternoon was to the Nokia Theater to get will call tickets.
Unless you enjoy standing in long lines, always get your will call tickets as soon as you can.
Ticket pick up was followed by a quick trip to the Grammy Museum. The new Ringo Starr exhibit is really cool! You can see it for free on Wednesday afternoons next month:
And then to a quick meal before the show.
Doors were at 7:00.
It was pretty packed. I’d guess there were almost 5,000 people there. 
The DEEP BLUE ORGAN TRIO opened the show at 7:30 with a great set of jazz music. They are a fantastic band. I’d love to see them again in concert.
Bobby Broom – guitar
Chris Foreman – Hammond B3 organ
Greg Rockingham – guitar
The Steely Dan band (Donald Fagen calls them the Bi-Polar Allstars) came out at 8:30 and did a tune before Donald Fagen and Water Becker arrived for “Your Gold Teeth”. The back-up singers sounded good. I got a good view of Keith Carlock playing drums from the 100 section. He’s an incredible drummer.
As expected, the assembly of musicians played great, but something was wrong with the sound at the venue. I kept hearing the drums echo off the back wall. I fixed that by using an ear plug. I’m thinking it may have sounded better if the entire place was packed out. And it sounded kind of distorted up front (I roamed up there to check it out).
Becker said some really funny stuff during “Hey Nineteen”. As promised, the great(est) hits just kept coming. The band intros were pretty entertaining since everyone in the band is so talented. Having them “stretch out” on their instrument for a second was a lot of fun to watch.
Fagen’s voice seemed to give out a little during some of the songs later in the set, but he finished strong. It was a solid set with just a few little things that made it less than perfect.
After Kid Charlemagne, I knew it was time to bail. I did a quick stroll through the venue and the sound quality didn’t really seem to improve much anywhere in the orchestra section. I kept thinking all night that they should be playing in a slightly smaller venue (like the Gibson Amphitheatre).
The concert ended at a decent hour and was nice way to spend a Sunday evening. Getting home before midnight was a huge bonus. It wasn’t the best time I’ve ever seen Steely Dan (among others, I have seen Steely Dan with Larry Carlton guesting and a fan request show before and those concerts blew this one away), but this was still one of the best shows I’ve seen this year. They’re that much better than most other bands.
Steely Dan MOOD SWINGS 2013
TOURING BAND:
Jim Beard KEYBOARDS
Keith Carlock DRUMS
Jon Herington GUITAR
Michael Leonhart TRUMPET
Jim Pugh TROMBONE
Roger Rosenberg BARITONE SAX
Freddie Washington BASS
Walt Weiskopf SAX
La Tanya Hall VOCALS
Carolyn Leonhart-Escoffery VOCALS
Catherine Russell VOCALS
Concertologist 
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