So, there we all were at rehearsal the other night for our forthcoming return to Jagz in Ascot (Fri 10 Oct, as if you needed reminding), and the tricky topic of what to put in the set-list inevitably came up. The more songs we add to the repertoire, the more challenging it becomes when deciding which ones to leave in, and which to leave out.
With Steely Dan not being particularly renowned for troubling the UK charts much over the years, it makes sense that we tend to always include the BIG SMASH HITS! at every gig (you know who you are…yes, I’m looking at you Rikki and friends) and therefore a certain percentage of the set does tend to pick itself. But the rest of it comes down to keeping a healthy balance of new tunes we’ve just added, a mix of tempos, trying to recall which ones we played the last time we were at a particular venue, ones we’ve not played for a while, and so it goes….
It usually kind of works out ok, but I would guess we all have some of our own personal favourites left out from time to time. However, this must be more of a soul-searching conundrum for Don and Walt before they embark on a new tour, as Dan-fans are generally a knowledgeable bunch and obviously will have great hopes of hearing their favourites given an airing. They don’t tour that often (well definitely not in the UK…..hello guys? we’re still here and waiting you know?!) so to wait several years to see ‘em and then they go and miss out ”fill-in-the-blank-as-personally-applicable” ….well that’s going to be disappointing isn’t it? Solution? Come and see Stanley Dee on a regular basis, and if we aren’t playing the ones you want to hear just request them for next time and we’ll do our best to oblige. Although apologies must go to the regular requester of ‘Show Biz Kids’……we will get there eventually, we promise!
In the meantime, check out the link below to see what Steely Dan have been wowing the crowds with on their recent trek across the USA. Some pretty fine tunes included I’m sure you’ll agree:
http://www.setlist.fm/setlists/steely-dan-7bd6be38.html
Hope to see some of you at Jagz, but ’til next time….Toodle-oo!