OldGit Posted October 12, 2009 Share Posted October 12, 2009 (edited) [attachment=34375:NearlyPeteGlobe.jpg] Basschat Member Pete Academy in action on his Roscoe summut or other. Pete Academy and Nearly Dan graced us with a visit last week. [url="http://www.nearlydan.co.uk/"]Nearly Dan website[/url] [b]WorkSurf Warning[/b]: It has automatic sound which starts as you arrive on the site! The Globe is a great 400 or so capacity venue in Cardiff with a good rep for biggish names (Walter Trout is there tonight and Johnnie Winter played here a while back, for example) local party bands and the better end of the tribute market. This is where Nearly Dan fit. Musically it was fabbo. I was pleased to find the band were not trying to [b]be[/b] Steely Dan but were, instead, a great band that had chosen to play some terric tunes from an outstanding and varied catalogue. I liked the excursions from the well known album versions and the obvious freedom everyone has to not play it exactly like the record note for note.. I find that sort of band a tad sterile. Certainly not the case here. The playing of every one was outstanding but that of Rob the lead guitarist* was stunning. All those tricky Steely solos flying out of his new Gibson semi with fun added and some great interplay between him and Steve on lead vocals and really good guitar playing himself. Pete himself looked very comfortable with the tricky and challenging basslines varying easily between the shuffle of Black Monday and some of Chuck Rainey's finest jazz funk lines on Josie. One tune was introduced as "we're not sure about this one..." and they were right to be unsure. It must get a bit repetitious playing the same 20 or so greatest hits for decades, and it must be tempting to play the less well known tracks from the albums now and then. That would be fine as nothing Steely Dan do is bad as such. But if you do that then you have to do it with enthusiasm and commitment and preferably without pre-announcing your ambivalence... Aside from that the evening was very relaxed, more like a bunch of mates playing to another bunch of their mates. Some of that was true as the band attracts a following and there were people there from some distance away, Poole in one case. The local numbers were probably diminished by Tom Jones being on in the Stadium that night. He's still a big local hero. As a sax player I really appreciated how firkin' brilliant "The Musicians" on the alto and tenor saxes were. Really impressive, especially at such tender ages. As a baritone sax player myself I missed the featured big horn in My Old School though. The women singers, "the Babble-on Sisters", did a great job, lead vocals on Dirty Work and just generally as they were both dying from man flu The greatest hits were here (apart from Haitian Divorce - asked for after the last encore, along with All Right Now ) Pete's bass sound was great in the featured bits, especially the one bar slap solo in Josie but a bit low in the mix in general. Mind you I did have my earplugs in. His Roscoe looked fabulous as you can see in the picture. Apart from that the band was mixed well out front buy their sound engineer, however the lead singer was clearly suffering from an on /off monitor problem. I wondered if the band, and Pete, got bored playing the same tunes but it certainly didn't look like it. There were some big smiles and some obvious enjoyment in the band at playing, and listening to, the fine soloing and ensemble playing. The big gay choir in the balcony was funny.. They were singing along to the verses as well as the choruses and the room was full of musicians. I suspect this is normal for Nearly Dan gigs. They even had a [b]really[/b] fanatical fan right down the front, shaking hands with any of the band who would go near him, doing that "aren't they just great" stuff to anyone nearby and going way over the top .. I guess it gets some people that way.... So, all in all a really enjoyable gig with some outstanding playing bringing the magic of Steely Dan to life - it's a cliche but that really was what it was like. * Rob is also a bass player in (one of the bands called) "The Barflys" where he plays yet another Roscoe [url="http://independent-web.co.uk/barflys/index.asp"]The Barflys Website[/url] Edited October 13, 2009 by OldGit Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Funk Posted October 13, 2009 Share Posted October 13, 2009 Sounds fantastic! I will hopefully be at their next London show! I've heard people say they enjoy watching Nearly Dan more than they've ever enjoyed watching Steely Dan! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OldGit Posted October 13, 2009 Author Share Posted October 13, 2009 [quote name='The Funk' post='624655' date='Oct 13 2009, 01:52 AM']Sounds fantastic! I will hopefully be at their next London show! I've heard people say they enjoy watching Nearly Dan more than they've ever enjoyed watching Steely Dan![/quote] I went back to watch some of the youtubes of relatively recent Steely and boy, do they look bored ...... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OldGit Posted October 13, 2009 Author Share Posted October 13, 2009 (edited) [quote name='The Funk' post='624655' date='Oct 13 2009, 01:52 AM']Sounds fantastic! I will hopefully be at their next London show![/quote] Stand close enough to infect them with some of The Famous Funk Sartorial Elegance will you? I personally found the worn denim aspect of the front persons/people a bit disappointing. It's classy music and I think that deserves a bit more attention to wardrobe. The women had done so and Pete had his customary Bass Player's Black get up on but it looked like half the band had left their stage clothes at home ....... Edited October 13, 2009 by OldGit Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete Academy Posted October 13, 2009 Share Posted October 13, 2009 It was great to meet Simon Old Git...top bloke. Hope £50 was enough for posting this review. Great venue , people and sound (on stage, anyway). It's always a tad disappointing to know you weren't loud enough, but what can you do? After the beginning of the year, having the usual band niggles, we seem to have settled again with a more stable line-up. Must be the 12-year itch. It's difficult to know what to play in the set, as there are so many great songs. Over the years we've covered almost 70. I think it's time we brought Aja back, and I'd love to do Gaslighting Abbie and Jack Of Speed again. Don't know if anyone noticed in the photo, but I've retired my Superfly in favour of a Markbass LMK. I love it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete Academy Posted October 13, 2009 Share Posted October 13, 2009 [quote name='OldGit' post='624727' date='Oct 13 2009, 09:34 AM']Stand close enough to infect them with some of The Famous Funk Sartorial Elegance will you? I personally found the worn denim aspect of the front persons/people a bit disappointing. It's classy music and I think that deserves a bit more attention to wardrobe. The women had done so and Pete had his customary Bass Player's Black get up on but it looked like half the band had left their stage clothes at home .......[/quote] I'll have words with the wardrobe department. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.