Steely Dan recently announced a short tour in April that will include a set at Coachella. Elvis Costello will join the band in July for a 21-date summer trek following the music festival. The outing kicks off July 6 in Morrison, Colorado, and wraps up Aug. 12 in West Palm Beach, Florida, Consequence of Sound noted.
Fans of Coachella and Steely Dan were equally surprised when the lineup announcement for the festival was unveiled. Sure, AC/DC is also on the bill, but the Australian hard rock group has been in the limelight a bit more than Steely Dan recently. There were not really any dad rock bands on the bill last year, and 2013 saw U2 headlining the event, but they have managed to cultivate a youthful following with recent releases.
That is not to say that Steely Dan is a bad choice for Coachella, but it is certainly an interesting one.
Donald Fagen and the band have not released an album since 2003's Everything Must Go. It received positive reviews and was moderately successful. But it was 2000's Two Against Nature that really revitalized the band after a 20-year recording hiatus. It won Album of the Year at the Grammys behind the hit single "Cousin Dupree."
"Two Against Nature is Dan defined," Rolling Stone wrote about the album, giving it 3 1/2 out of five stars. "The album mixes world-class chops and jazzy, postgraduate soul sound with some wonderful, vague storytelling (sample simile: 'sizzling like an isotope'). As always in Steely Dan's marvelously impressionistic world, we often don't know what the hell the people in the songs are actually doing, but we're pretty damn certain that they shouldn't be doing it at all."
Check out the dates below.
07/06: Morrison, CO @ Red Rocks Amphitheatre
07/09: Auburn, WA @ White Rivers Amphitheatre
07/11: Mountain View, CA @ Shoreline Amphitheatre
07/13: Los Angeles, CA @ Hollywood Bowl
07/15: Albuquerque, NM @ Isleta Amphitheater
07/17: Austin, TX @ Austin360 Amphitheater
07/18: Houston, TX @ Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion
07/19: Dallas, TX @ Gexa Energy Pavilion
07/22: Maryland Heights, MO @ Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre
07/24: Highland Park, IL @ Ravina Festival (Steely Dan Only)
07/25: Highland Park, IL @ Ravina Festival (Steely Dan Only)
07/27: Clarkston, MI @ DTE Energy Music Theatre
07/28: Cuyahoga Falls, OH @ Blossom Music Center
07/30: Boston, MA @ Blue Hills Bank Pavilion
07/31: Boston, MA @ Blue Hills Bank Pavilion
08/01: Holmdel, NJ @ PNC Banks Art Center
08/03: Camden, NJ @ Susquehanna Bank Center
08/05: Bristow, VA @ Jiffy Lube Live
08/06: Raleigh, NC @ Walnut Creek Amphitheatre
08/08: Nashville, TN @ West Riverfront Park (Steely Dan Only)
08/09: Atlanta, GA @ Chastain Park Amphitheatre ASO
08/11: Tampa, FL @ MidFlorida Credit Union Amphitheatre
08/12: West Palm Beach, FL @ Cruzan Amphitheatre
