Editorial Review:

Description:
Steely Dan has not had a new studio album in twenty years--"Two Against Nature" was worth the wait! This concert, recorded live in New York at the Sony Studios, contains new songs as well as classic hits from the minds of Donald Fagen and Walter Becker. Together, they deliver a unique music experience that is truly unforgettable. Songs: Green Earrings, Cousin Dupree, Bad Sneakers, Janie Runaway, Josie, FM, Gaslighting Abbie, Black Friday, Babylon Sisters, Kid Charlemagne, Jack of Speed, Peg, What a Shame About Me, Pretzel Logic.

Full Frame - Color - English - 5.1 Dolby Digital, 5.1 DTS

Amazon.com:
Having discreetly disbanded at the dawn of the MTV era, the 1970s' most stubbornly faceless pop subversives returned after 19 years with their first new studio album, followed in short order by this stunning long-form video project. Part concert, part documentary, Steely Dan: Two Against Nature offers a savvy cross-section of both old and new material performed by the latest incarnation of the formidable stage bands that founders Walter Becker and Donald Fagen have assembled for the periodic tours unleashed since their early '90s concert reunion. True to form, they preside over immaculately arranged, flawlessly executed performances that confirm the Dan's state-of-the-art standards, then undercut that achievement with devilish audience sound bites and their own faux cable-access interviews, as if to debunk their artistry with a blast of anticelebrity.

For hardcore Dan fans (including this reviewer), Becker and Fagen long ago distanced themselves from rock culture, their music steeped more in '50s jazz and rhythm & blues, and their lyrics pitched to a darker, funnier world-view divorced from youth culture and self-congratulatory rock personae. Fagen, with his close-cropped hair, austere beard, tinted glasses, and prominent incisors resembles a pale, vampiric Ray Charles as he huddles over his keyboards and croons those dangerous lyrics. His partner's longer locks and steel-rimmed glasses reinforce the spectre of a postbop Franz Schubert who's traded clavichords for custom electric guitars--a studious image reinforced by his dry, articulate gibes in the interviews, if undercut by the twisted imagery and shadowy, second-person perspectives pervasive in the band's lyrics (like the music, written by both men, but conspicuously shaped by Becker).

The material hews to the group's later albums recorded after they downsized the band into a de facto studio laboratory and dialed up the jazz accents, with understandable showcases for the sneaky new songs on the Two Against Nature album: sleek, seductive songs about incest, midlife crises, pyromania, designer drugs, and other fun stuff. Sonically, the performances are as meticulously recorded and mixed as the duo's albums, with the performance footage beautifully shot and edited. We'd knock director Earle Sebastian for a few too many tilted camera angles, but then we might have to wait another 19 years for the next one. --Sam Sutherland

You cannot go wrong with Steely Dan and this is no different. Excellent album from an excellent band

Average Rating:

Rating: - excellent product
You cannot go wrong with Steely Dan and this is no different. Excellent album from an excellent band

Rating: - STILL THE BEST!!!
THEY ARE STILL THE BEST AT WHAT THEY DO PERFORMING AT SUCH A HIGH LEVEL!!!AND IT IS SO GREAT TO WATCH AND LISTEN TO THEM ON THIS VIDEO.

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Rating: - Fabulous Surround Sound
I don't think I've ever watched a finer sounding concert video ever. The mix of the 5.1 Surround is truly spectacular. This DVD is a must for any Dan fan or audiophile.

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Rating: - Don, Walt, Peg, Josie, Cousin Dupree, Carolyn, Cornelius etc.
Much more than Two Against Nature, because only 5 of the 9 tracks from that CD are featured in this concert video. Instead we get great live versions of Green Earrings, Bad Sneakers, Josie, FM, Peg, Kid Charlemagne, Pretzel Logic, Babylon Sisters and Black Friday, that match or surpass the originals. Wise choice, since all this material is stronger than most of Two Against Nature, my least favorite Dan album. However, even the cuts from that CD performed here are taken up a notch. Oddly absent is the title track, a far better tune than What A Shame About Me, which they chose to include instead.

Five stars for excellent audio quality and a very fine ensemble performance by Dan and musicians. I have a gripe with the unnecessarily quick-change camera work and weird angles that distract from just looking at the screen and enjoying the sounds. However, the main attraction remains the audio, and it's easy enough to focus on that once you get used to it.

In between songs is a variety of candid footage, including some "interviews" to which Donald and Walter subject several of their band members. These consist primarily of Donald and Walter heaping psychobabble on their victims in a manner I found frankly hilarious. Not sure what this says about me, but it's probably not good. I understand the negative comments many have posted regarding these interruptions in the concert flow, but personally I don't mind them. They're short and easy enough to skip over.

This is one concert video that I will continue to play, since the performances and audio are on a par with or better than the original recordings. Most definitely worth owning if you're a Dan fan.

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Rating: - GREAT SET,INTERVIEWS WAY LOW IN MIX....
YEA,THE PICTURE,SOUND AND PLAYING DURING THE SHOW ARE TOP-NOTCH.ONLY DISBELIEF IS HOW YOU CAN'T HEAR THEM DURING THE TALKING SEGMENTS SOMETIMES AND YOU HAVE TO TURN IT UP!YOU'RE LIKE,WHAT IDIOT DID'NT MIX IT?DID THEY EVEN LISTEN TO IT BEFORE MASTERING?WER'E THEY FIRED AFTERWARD?!OCCASIONALLY I GET A DVD WHERE CERTAIN TITLES ARE MIXED WAY LOUDER OR WHATEVER BUT ITS NORMALLY DONE BY PEOPLE ON A WAY SMALLER BUDGET THAN THE DAN HAVE.THIS DVD IS STILL A GREAT PURCHASE THOUGH.

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