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Steely Dan Orchestra 2003
Paso Robles July 24, 2003 (Second day of their tour)
Set 1
Cubano Chant (Band Only)
Aja
Time Out of Mind
Godwacker
Caves of Altamira
Blues Beach
Do it Again
Slang of Ages (Walter)
Band Intro
Peg
Home At Last
Steely Dan at the California Mid-State Fair
Set 2
Steely Dan Show
Janie Runaway (segue into)
Hey 19
Haitian Divorce (Walter Sings)
Things I Miss the Most
Parker's Band (Back up Singers do lead)
Josie
Kid Charlemagne
Don't Take Me Alive
Encore
My Old School
FM
"Let's go to the California Mid State Fair", I said to my husband one sunny March day. "Uh, Why?" he replied. "Because Steely Dan will be playing there on July 24th and it's only $38 a ticket. What a deal.!" Well, we scored the tickets and made some reservations, for a very short 2 day vacation. At the last minute my husband actually got out of work early enough for us to start the journey Tuesday Evening, July 22nd. So off we went to Ventura, Ca. Made it to our hotel by 7PM and were eating chowder in a buoy, by 7:30PM at Andrea's Seafood. A favorite place of ours, when we visit that area. What a nice way to watch the sun set on the Pacific Ocean. Swam in the hotel pool and spa and off to bed, due to the long trip in the morning. Woke up to a typical summer morning on the coast, no sun and lots of fog. We had the hotel breakfast and we were on the road by about 9AM. Once we moved inland, the sun broke through and we traveled by Santa Barbara, Buelton, Santa Maria, Pismo Beach, San Luis Osbispo, Morro Bay and finally our destination for the day, Cambria. We were there just in time for lunch and had some pizza at the JBJ's Roundup Pizza. It was quite good and fortified again, we decided to hit the road up Highway 1 for an hour or so. We made a short stop at Hearst Castle's Gift store. My 12 year old had never been there and we figured it was at least an introduction to the Castle. Did some shopping and buying of fudge (yum) and off we went again, to Hwy 1. The last time I had driven that road, was around 11 years ago and all that I remembered were the steep and dangerous curves. Amazingly, there are actually long stretches of roadway where you can do speeds of at least 40 to 50 miles an hour. We made it up to Lucia (about half way to Monterey) and then had to turn around. The views on the way back are even more spectacular then the ones on the way up and we enjoyed it immensely. We then came back to Cambria and checked into the San Simeon Pines Resort. A lovely and (relatively) inexpensive older resort on Moonstone Beach Drive. San Simeon Pines Seaside Resort Website
It had croquet, shuffleboard, golf, a pool and access to Moonstone Beach. A throwback to another era and we were totally enthralled with it. Our room was lovely, too. Lots of wood beams and a sliding glass door that opened to our patio and pool area. We decided to go have an early dinner and ate right on Moonstone Beach Drive. Then it was time for the sunset and we sat by the water and took pictures as we watched it. We then went back to the room and wanted to swim, but there were no lights at the pool, so we decided to stay in and just watch TV. The next morning we woke up and went to breakfast at the Pine Tree Inn. It was similar to the Sunday breakfast we have at our local cafe. We then shopped in town a bit, stopping at Seekers (a glass gallery) and the Soldier shop (a place with lots of miniatures of battle scenes, chess sets, pins and prints). Bought a few souvenirs and moved on to Paso Robles. The drive over took us thorough some of that areas lovely vineyards and we would like to return there to check them out, another time. We had lunch and checked into our hotel the Paso Robles Inn. What a lovely place to stay. They have waterfalls in the spa and gardens, that the rooms overlook. There are thermal spas in some rooms, too, though we did not have that. Paso Robles Inn Website
We went in the pool and spa and found lots of people in the pool were going to the concert that evening. So it was pretty nice. Some were already doing some libations, though we did not partake. We went and got dressed and picked up the shuttle bus right in the front of the hotel. What a great service that was. You did not have to worry about drinking and driving in a strange town. Kudos to the city for providing the service. A five minute drive and there we were at the gate of the Mid State Fair. We looked around a bit and then had some ribs and hero sandwiches for dinner. Looked around some more and just before we entered the area where the concert was, we had our ice cream dessert. As we headed for the entrance, I suddenly saw Ed Beatty and Pete Fogel having a drink before entering the grandstand area. Ed and I were thrilled to find each other and talked for a bit. Then Pete came over and talked to me. He actually was with Q (Down in Tampa) and some others, who I did not know. I assume they were spouses, though. Finally Ed Beatty's family came over and we got to talk to them, too. It was very nice, to see them all again. We then passed through the turnstiles and we were there. There were Steely Dan Tee-shirts and other things to buy for lots of money. I called up Blaise and ran some of the choices by him, but they were way too pricey at $35 for a tee-shirt. So off we went to our seats. From the pictures, you can see that we were way over to the left. What actually was nice about it was that when Donald and Walter left the stage, they came our way and we could watch their reactions. After I settled down I saw that Ed and his family had arrived at their seats and that they were not far from ours. I went over there and along came Steveedan. We talked a bit and then another gentleman came over and Steve introduced him to me as South of Hollywood. The 3 of them had all been at the concert the night before and were beginning to talk about the set list and I did not want to hear about it, so I left them all and returned to my family. Soon after, the band came on and played a jazz instrumental. The people took their seats (for the most part) and then Donald and Walter appeared and off they went into Aja. What a start to the concert!. The first set there was a wind blowing and it was quite cold. Donald and the Back up singers were all wearing leather jackets, though the girls had on their Steely Dan Tee-shirts, underneath. The wind died down and the 2nd set, it was a bit warmer. Maybe it was all those people, being in the same place, warmed it up. A lot of the details are a blur to me now, because the concert was about 3 weeks ago, but things I do remember are that the first few numbers seemed a bit tentative, I think due to the crowd still coming to their seats. Godwacker in particular, was a bit off. I loved it anyway. The having to sit and not dance, did get to me a bit, but I endured and finally toward the end, people were up and dancing and I could do that. It was the best part. Walter did do a great job with Slang of Ages and he held his own with Haitian Divorce. The Jail bait segue between Hey 19 and Janey Runaway was quite funny and so was the Divorce mini suite of Haitian Divorce and Things I miss the Most. Yes, there were lots of their older material, but lots of new stuff for us to enjoy, too. As far as I could tell, the audience had a good time and so did we. As we left, we stopped at the tee shirt shop again and we picked up the "Things I Miss the Most" tee shirt. The three of us figure we will share it. :-)Some of the other shirts were a black Aja Shirt, a Coffee and a Kiss picture shirt, a wonder waif style tee shirt with the Steely Dan logo from Can't Buy a Thrill. There was also a EMG tee shirt (traditional tour type thing), a mouse pad of the cover of EMG and a computer case (I believe). It was late, we were getting tired and off we went to the bus and the trip home. Friday morning we got up at 6AM and got out of town at exactly 7AM. We hustled down the 101 Freeway and got to our house by exactly 10:10AM and managed to get the car unpacked and get my husband to work by 11AM and me to work by 11:30AM. What a vacation! We managed to cram quite a bit into 2 days and hope to return to the Central Coast again, soon. We also plan to have another go at Steely Dan, when they return to LA for a show at Universal. We can't wait.
Other Steely Dan Concerts 2003
Steely Dan at Roseland, NYC 2003
Steely Dan at Universal Ampitheatre, CA 2003
