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For many fans, Steve Miller Band never gets old
Miller time is a family affair for one father and daughter.
Going to a Steve Miller Band concert is a summer ritual for many. The classic rocker’s annual tour stops at the big sheds, such as Post-Gazette Pavilion, see a lot of repeat business.
Miller’s many timeless cuts (“The Joker,” “Take the Money and Run,” “Jet Airliner” and about a dozen more) are the primary draw. But for some, the shows have grown into a tradition.
Take Harold Gwin of Sharon, Pa. The Vindicator reporter has seen Miller at least eight times at Post-Gazette Pavilion, including his most-recent concert in August.
“I’ve always liked his music, although I never saw him live until 1994, and that was at the request of my daughter, Carley, who was a senior in high school at the time,” said Gwin. “I think we paid something like $15 for lawn seats.”
That 1994 show turned into a father-daughter ritual that kept being renewed.
“We went back every year for seven or eight years,” said Gwin. “We never got tired of hearing him perform live. We stopped going when she got married in 2001 — and I still have the souvenir T-shirt from that show — but she arranged a trip this summer as a birthday present for me.”
Although Gwin and his daughter have never seen Steve Miller in an indoor venue, they won’t be able to catch his Nov. 13 concert at Chevrolet Centre. Carley lives in Erie, Pa., and can’t make it down on a week night.
It’s not just the concerts that have made Miller’s music a big part of the soundtrack of Gwin’s life.
“I remember putting a new roof on my house around 1977 to [Miller’s] tunes blasting from a stereo,” said Gwin. “‘Fly Like and Eagle’ keeps playing in my head when I envision myself on that roof. I painted the house another summer, again to Miller’s tunes. ‘The Joker’ keeps coming back when I think about that one.”
And the memories might one day be handed down to a third generation. “When my grandson, Garrett, was just a few month old, I would hold him up and ‘dance’ him across a table top, all the time singing the words to ‘Swingtown’ to him,” said Gwin. “My wife, Dorothy, and my daughter would join in. I don’t think he remembers that now at the ripe old age of 5.”
Gwin likes the fact that Steve Miller always plays his hits in concert. “When I go to a concert, I want to hear the songs I remember, and Miller has been pretty good about filling that wish,” he said.
In an interview in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette before his August show at Post-Gazette Pavilion, Miller explained how he keeps it fresh despite playing the same songs at every show.
“We got these 14 songs that we have to do for our audience and these nine other ones that we add that make things interesting,” he said. “When you come to our show, you get to hear the greatest hits, but you also learn something about Texas blues or Chicago blues or jazz or electronic music.
“And songs like ‘Fly Like an Eagle’ are always spontaneous. Something new happens every time we play it.”