In 1974, the leading members of Steely Dan quit touring, tired of the rigor of the road and opening for heavy metal bands. That led to the departure of most of the band — including guitarist Jeff "Skunk" Baxter, who enjoyed playing live and joined the Doobie Brothers, like backup singer Michael McDonald who eventually joined him there — leaving songwriters Walter Becker and Donald Fagen to turn the Dan into a studio-only machine that dominated album-oriented rock radio for more than a decade.
Thirty-plus years later, the tables are turned. Becker and Fagen still own the Dan franchise, but they've morphed back into a touring outfit, only occasionally putting out new music that fails to excite most older fans or attract new CD buyers.
That explains why Steely Dan has scheduled five, count 'em five, dates in Florida at the start of their latest greatest-hits and catalog-flogging tour, self-deprecatingly called "Rent Money '09." The band warms up in North Carolina, Florida and Alabama with normal sets that should feature both note-for-note versions of their best, as well as some reconfigured hits and lesser-known tunes thrown in to delight the Dan-heads who know every album solo note-for-note. What Florida fans won't get, apparently, is what Steely Dan is tuning up for: Four-night stands in L.A. (it's a glamour profession), Chicago and New York's Beacon Theater, where the band will play (on separate nights) the full music from Aja, Gaucho and The Royal Scam, as well as a ticketholder-Internet-voted setlist night. (Boston gets similar treatment but is being shorted one night and misses out on The Royal Scam.)
Yes, the band has yet another greatest hits package reportedly coming out this summer, so that also explains the tour. But still, the chance to see these two jazz-rock pioneers ply their trade live, with their vaguely dirty and mostly nonsensical lyrics and angular-banjo chord voicings is a treat and worth it in any context.
Steely Dan, Fri., June 10, 8 p.m. Ruth Eckerd Hall, 111 N. McMullen Booth Road, Clearwater, $68-$128.
