Few things are more prototypically Pine Knob than the Steve Miller Band playing “The Joker” to a packed crowd on a perfect summer night.
He’s been doing that for 50 years now, and it happened again — for a 27th time — Saturday night, Aug. 12. And it was as every bit as good now, and perhaps even better, than when Miller and company first played the venue in 1973, or when it recorded his first live album there nine years later.
At 79 Miller has not lost a perceptible step as a player or as a low-key, affable showman. On Saturday the quintet delivered exactly what the audience came for — the hits, especially from 70s albums such as “The Joker” (celebrating its own 50th anniversary this year), “Fly Like an Eagle” and “Book of Dreams.” But its stretched-out arrangements of those favorites often allowed Miller to show off his nimble-fingered chops (keyboardist Joseph Wooten got a few spots, too), which in turn freshened well-lived songs such as “Swingtown,” “Living in the U.S.A.,” “Space Cowboy” and “The Joker.”
Playing on an austere stage set, the Miller band — in its first metro area stop since the pandemic and its first in seven years at Pine Know — touched on its blues grounding early with a hot version of “The Stake,” Miller firing off the first of many extended solos that reminded us of his august spot in rock’s six-string pantheon. He dedicated a long rendition of “Jet Airliner” to his godfather Les Paul, offering a loving preamble in which Miller recalled the iconic player and inventor showing him his first chords when he was four and a half years old and speaking about the pride he took in finally acquiring a 1959 Gibson Les Paul guitar, which he played on the song.
The group also muscled up the semi-novelty hit “Abracadabra,” while “Fly Like an Eagle” was another epic, with a more insistent beat and slightly faster tempo and Wooten soloing on organ before Miller took over, again, including a vocal vamp that referenced his 1986 song “I Want to Make the World Turn Around.” He preceded “Shu Ba Da Du Ma Ma Ma Ma” with more warm memories — this time about the San Francisco scene of the late ’60s (though he also referenced Detroit’s Grande Ballroom), and the troupe added some deft dynamic touches to the mellow “Serenade.”
The night’s only glitch was an odd mid-show malaise when a too-hot drum mix spoiled the trippy, laid back “Wild Mountain Honey.” And a second offering of “Jet Airliner” was curious; Miller intended the solo acoustic performance as a demonstration of how a song can change from inception to final recording, but the fact he didn’t write the song (composer Paul Pena released it in 1973, four years before Miller) made it seem like an odd choice for that exercise.
That did, however, serve a purpose of letting both band and audience relax before things throttled up again. By the time the lone encore, “Rock’n Me,” ushered fans out of the venue, another memorably summer night had been notched by one of Pine Knob’s most frequent and dependable visitors.
Extreme at the Fillmore Detroit, 5 things to know
Darius Rucker lets the good time roll at Michigan Lottery Amphitheatre
Jelly Roll finds surprising success in country, rock and rap
Godsmack, Staind throw an old school hard rock party at Pine Knob
