everyone's a critic
Here's my rant about the LA Times review of the Donald Faga concert. Enjoy...
I'm not sure that Richard Cromelin has a great deal of depth of knowledge concerning his subject (Fagan). It always amazes me when a reviewer tries to sound witty and "inside", but in doing so shows that they only have a superficial insight into the music and/or the artist. "Home at Last" and "Third World Man" are not "relatively ignored" as the author states...with the former being a staple in the Steely Dan '03 set list, and the former trotted out all the way back to the '93 tour.
But I digress. As for the concert, I can say "thumbs up." And I am almost diametrically opposed to the opinions concerning when the show went "fast" and "slow." "Mis'ry and the Blues" was far from a point of "grinding to a halt,", but rather a high point of the show for me. Extended solos by Weiskopf and Leonhardt were stellar, as was the off-time bridge section (which the author I assume thought was a "rough spot").
Continuing his brilliance from the '03 tour, drummer Keith Carlock is one of the best playing these days. And Herington and Krantz were indeed a powerful one-two punch from the 6-string perspective (does that make it 12 strings?). And Cindy Mizelle is just flat out compelling.
In short, a well crafted set of amazingly well crafted tunes with enough twists in the arrangements to keep them fresh. And despite some opinions, the energy was well maintained throughout the evening. Need I remind people that this was not a Steely Dan show, and when creating a set list, you don't just go for the throat every tune. Frankly, I could do without hearing Deacon Blues again live...I'd rather go *really* deep into the list pulling out gems like "Charlie Freak" and "King of the World" instead of the radio-friendly tunes that the reviewer seems enamored with (only ones he's listened to perhaps).
In short (again), but the album. Nothing sounds like Fagan, nothing sounds like Steely Dan, and that is both a good and bad thing. But listen to the real thing, a true original, and an uncompromising vision wrt aural delights.