Sat. July 25

Steely Dan? Back among us again? My first thoughts upon getting the news that Donald Fagen and Walter Becker (and whoever's else is in there now) are making their first appearance ever at the Citi Performing Arts Center Wang Theatre with a resident run of three shows. The band will wrap up its thre gig stand Saturday July 25 with "Takin' It to the Seats" Internet Request Night, as the set list will be determined by internet votes from ticket-holders. Hey, they've entered the modern world!
That initial thought - back again? - made me think of something I wrote back in 1994 and I went to my files and looked up the Globe review I did at the time. Excerpts follow, as my thoughts are pretty much the same 15 years later.

Steely Dan: Back again? Has lightning -- er, a slow-burning, less intense kind of lightning -- struck twice? The 1993 summer shed back- from-the-grave tour was expected to be it for the reclusive, recalcitrant '70s hitmakers, guys who brought class to the Top 40 for a while. But here they are one more time: Donald Fagen and Walter Becker plus 11. Say this about Steely Dan: They are tasteful, they are fluid, they are cool . . . and they are bloodless. They are also exceedingly, weirdly, popular. No new album in eons ... Part of it, no doubt, is nostalgia and the popularity of '70s-centered soft-rock radio. Steely Dan was at the epicenter of critical cool and pop stardom in the early-mid '70s -- a rare interstice. Catchy as all hell, but oblique, sophisticated and quietly cynical. A mix of funky jazz chords, witty lyrics and hummable melodies. Also, a shroud of mystery hovered about the project and its primary creators. A studio band that hated to tour. Perfectionists. Dweebs. In a moment of frustration last night, I poked my pal, Boston producer-engineer Tom Dube and yelled, "This is music for techno-studio nerds and dweebs." "Absolutely!" said Dube, proudly.

The up side to Steely Dan, as Richard Cromelin wrote in Rolling Stone long ago, was, "They emit a faintly sinister glow as they illuminate Steely Dan's gothic, demon-riddled world." And last night's "Deacon Blues" still retains its wicked twist: "Learn to work the saxophone/I play just what I feel/Drink scotch whiskey all night long/Die behind the wheel." Down side? As another Stone writer, John Mendelsohn, carped, "however immaculately tasteful and intelligent it may be, I personally am able to detect not the slightest suggestion of real passion." Not to do a Bill Clinton, but I agree with both positions. Credit Steely Dan for not just being a breathing jukebox -- they radically rearranged "Reelin' in the Years" -- and they omitted some of the hits ("Rikki Don't Lose That Number," "Do It Again," "Everyone's Gone to the Movies"). There's something vaguely annoying about Fagen, who looked as if he'd stepped out of "Carlito's Way" -- he's got that collegiate, smarter- than-you vibe. Rhythm guitarist Becker sang two of his own songs, but basically stayed in the shadows.

So, when Fagen said, "What a night, huh? I'm stoked." What would he be like, un-stoked? Strong points: sizzling, plangent guitar work from George Wadenius; soaring, swelling backup vocals from Diane Garisto, Catherine Russell and Brenda White-King. I have some quibbles with the set selection, too heavily weighted toward the latter-day, meandering, glossy jazzbo albums "Aja" and "Gaucho," and less of the darker, twisted early stuff. "Kid Charlemagne" and "My Old School" kicked it up at the end, leaving you with a nostalgic glow. That's not quite enough, but it's something.

Tickets for the Wang show: $195 - $45. 

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