Hall & Oates at the State: Spreading the cheesy & Christmas cheer

Daryl Hall and John Oates circa 2009 For a moment Friday night at the State Theatre, I was envisioning Kenan Thompson doing a "Saturday Night Live" bit in which he played both Hall & Oates, by switching off different wigs. (Yes, I know Will Forte and Fred Armisen did an SNL H&O sendup a few years ago.) Hall & Oates just seemed so ripe for parody. With his black leather jacket, tinted aviator shades and perpetual scowl, Daryl Hall seemed like a time-warp biker with clean hair (which he smoothed more often than an ingenue talking to David Letterman). With his vest, T- shirt and cascading black curls but no moustache, John Oates looked out of time, too. These guys looked so 1980s, sounded so 1980s and yet seemed so perfect (if not perfectly cheesy). As I explained in my review, their vocals sounded very good, (though Hall's mic seemed too hot/loud or he was singing too hard on the first few songs), the band was tight and occasionally jazzy, and the audience was thrilled. Most fans didn't mind that Hall seemed to be on autopilot with his patter (plugging his Internet show "Live from Daryl's House"), as if this was another casino gig in Milwaukee, Green Bay or somewhere. He never did apologize for canceling at the Minnesota Zoo in 2005 because of Lyme's disease. 'It's been too long since we've been here," Hall said. Well, six years to be exact because H&O was at the X in 2004 with Michael McDonald. Oates at least talked about all the support from Minneapolis, one of the first markets to embrace H&O in the mid-1970s thanks to KQRS playing "She's Gone" and other tunes from "Abandoned Luncheonette." "You got plenty of memories," Hall chided Oates. "Shut up," retorted Oates, who used to be married to a Minnesota woman. Hall & Oates did give the Twin Cities a Christmas bonus by adding a second encore featuring a trio of Christmas tunes that showed off the stellear band's versatility: Robbie Robertson's "Christmas Must Be Tonight," a nicely arranged, acoustic "It Came Upon a Midnight Clear" and a straightforward "Jingle Bell Rock." Here is H&O's set list: Maneater/ Family Man/Out of Touch/ Say It Isn't So/ Las Vegas Turnaround/ She's Gone/ Sara Smile/ Do What You Want Be What You Are/ I Can't Go for That ENCORE 1 Rich Girl/ Kiss on My List/ You Make My Dreams Come True ENCORE 2 Christmas Must Be Tonight (written by Robbie Robertson)/ It Came Upon a Midnight Clear/ Jingle Bell Rock