Nearly Dan – The Spirit and Sound of Steely Dan, La Belle Angelle, Edinburgh 19th April 2024

There is a certain irony in that statement, but in music, I think there is also a tipping point where alternative pleasure beats the traditional main event, and sometimes watching the very best tribute bands up-close can actually be a more enjoyable experience than paying a large sum of money to watch a diminished version of what remains of an original band pad out their pensions in an enormo-dome.

I certainly found that to be the case last year when I finally got around to seeing Blondie for the first time in a big theatre in Fort Lauderdale. Chris Stein was a no-show but a 78-year-old Debbie Harry was there, and for about 20 minutes, there was undoubtedly a thrill at being in the presence of greatness, but that quickly wore off when she started ducking out of the difficult bits and holding the mike up for some discordant mass-karaoke. She will always be a legend and an iconic figure and I would have loved to have seen that band in their prime but if I’m being honest, I’ve had much more enjoyable times watching our local band Dirty Harry putting on a faithful tribute show with more energy and a better set-list.

As I witnessed in Glasgow at The Hydro in 2019, Donald Fagen can still put on a great Steely Dan show, especially when surrounded by the best of players, but he’s 76 years-old now and has missed a few shows due to illness and family matters in recent months. Now that The Dan have been replaced by The Doobie Brothers on the Eagles tour, you have to wonder if we will ever see the great man perform again in this country, so maybe now it is time to embrace and savour an alternative presentation of the Steely Dan songbook.

When it comes to rating highly-talented tribute acts, you would have to place Nearly Dan near the very top of the list, although they prefer to style their show as a “homage” rather than a tribute. Any major dude will tell you that Steely Dan, as well as being named after the world’s most famous dildo (with respect to the rampant rabbit), are a very difficult band to cover and possibly only Rush would be comparable in terms of complexity and degree of difficulty. Nearly Dan are certainly no fools, but they seem very happy to do the dirty work for Donald Fagen & Co and they deliver a velvety smooth performance with passion and dexterity.

They rolled into Edinburgh as a 9-piece combo, featuring Steve Hayes on lead vocals and guitar, alongside two lady backing vocalists, bass, guitar, drums, a 2-piece horn section and Paul Kilvington on keyboards and driving duties, sporting his trademark hat and looking fit and cool in a blue and white striped shirt that may have been his own homage to Diego Maradona (or perhaps the hippo out of the old Silentnight Beds TV advert’s pyjama top for those with long memories).

They quickly got into the groove with a set that mixed album tracks and “hits”. ‘Peg’ got an outing quite early in the set – probably just as well because its insanely addictive hook had been in my head all week in anticipation. There was no Michael McDonald of course, but the ladies did a great job on the BVs. Michael is generally regarded as the ‘MVP’ of the notoriously hard to define genre of Yacht Rock and ‘Peg’ scores 92 on the definitive “Yacht or Nyacht” list – one of the highest scores on that chart, as you would expect for such a classic tune, although there is one Steely Dan number that is rated even more highly down at the marina.

A sublime rendition of ‘Haitian Divorce’ captured the spirit of the original 1976 cod-reggae, cultural appropriation classic perfectly, just as 10cc nearly did a couple of years later with their slightly inferior ‘Dreadlock Holiday’. I had not anticipated that audience participation would be a part of this particular show but the “where did you get those shoes” line from ‘Pretzel Logic’ got an enthusiastic call-back from a discerning and well-informed crowd.

After a short interval, the second set takes it to even greater heights. “The girls” were back in town, with ‘Josie’ putting in an early second-half appearance, followed by the gorgeous musical swelling of ‘Rikki Don’t Lose That Number’ in which the band’s harmonious wall of sound ebbed and flowed beautifully.

It’s a fine line between “Jazzy” and “Jazz” and the song that most conspicuously crossed the Rubicon into full-on jazz odyssey was ‘Green Earrings’. The Nearlies’ rendition was absolutely on-point and whiplash-smart, albeit the extended instrumental “noodling” was not quite my tempo as a die-hard rocker. That’s the way that “really” Dan wrote it though, and it was quite something to see this ensemble hitting all the right spots in an astounding live rendition.

Probably the deepest of deep cuts on the night was ‘Daddy Don’t Live in That New York City No More’ from ‘Katy Lied’; a dark tale but an unexpected delight on the night. After that, it was prime cuts all the way to the end, starting with the 93.75 on the Yachtski scale gem ‘FM (No Static at All). As you would expect, it’s smoother than the greens at Augusta National after a bikini wax, but the girls do seem to care tonight as there were many more ladies in the crowd than I had been expecting. There was probably still a majority of fun-loving, navel-gazing baldies but there was a diversity of ages in attendance, including some multi-generational family groups, and everyone seemed to be getting what they wanted out of it.

Even approaching the 20-song mark after more than two hours, there was still gas in the car for Kid Charlemagne and some more well-timed audience participation, before ‘Reelin’ in the Years’ and ‘Bodhisattva’ closed the main set. Some anxious on-stage watch-checking had me thinking “Oh no, 10 o’clock curfew won’t do” but it wasn’t a school night, so we still had time for a valedictory trip back to Annandale for a rousing version of ‘My Old School’ to round things off beautifully.

Becker and Fagen were undoubtedly among the finest and most enigmatic song-writers of their time and their genre, but let’s face it, they were always principally a studio band and more focused on technical perfection and overdubs than live performance. In their absence, Nearly Dan absolutely nailed it on-stage and exceeded all expectations by putting on a brilliant display of musicianship, mixed in with a quietly engaging stage presence and a deep knowledge of their chosen field. The musical dexterity required for these songs must be quite intense but, on the bright side, Steely Dan never really had an identifiable visual image so there’s no need for dressing-up, cos-play or wigs. Apparently they have enough material worked up for two completely different sets, so there was talk of putting on some two-date shows in the future, but whatever the format, Nearly Dan are very definitely worthy of attention for anyone who has even a passing interest in Steely Dan or top-notch musicianship. I will definitely ‘Do It Again’ the next time they’re in town.

As a footnote, La Belle Angele was packed to the gunnels for this show and I believe the Deeper Purple show on the same night at The Voodoo Rooms down the road was similarly well-attended. That might well offend a few artists in bands producing original material, although many of those folks will also have a covers band on the side or have cut their teeth in such a band. For me, all types of musicians have their place and I am sure that venues and promoters will be glad to raise some funds from shows like this to offset the risks of putting new music. It also seems to have been a good week for new music at Edinburgh’s Bannerman’s too, with low-ticket availability warnings going out in advance of several shows, including Beaux Gris Gris & The Apocalypse, and Anthony Gomes selling out his Sunday night gig. It seems that if the product is good enough, the people will still come. Maybe rock ain’t dead after all? Or jazz, and definitely the blues.