I'm fairly qualified to talk about Todd and Utopia and just how great it can be or how f*cked up it can be. I saw Todd/Utopia seven times between 1977 and 1982 and even back then it was an eclectic ride. I saw him headline festivals and sell out 20,000 seaters plus a couple club shows. I even saw Utopia play most of a yet to be released album before a Todd Rundgren show on a New Year's Eve. After I saw the tour for 'Swing To The Right', I bailed. Part of the reason was my musical tastes changing but it had more to do with Todd and Utopia changing. Looking back, I wish I would have hung with him a little longer because some of the 80's output was not horrible and actually pretty good.
Soooo....fast forward about 25 years. I was playing on my computer and googled up "Black Maria". I saw a kick ass performance of Todd cutting loose on guitar and I wondered how old is this performance...it's from last week! Wow, that's pretty cool, I wonder if Todd is playing near me...next week!! I was back on board.
I've seen him a total of 22 times now but that is really nothing for fans in northeastern Ohio. He plays here a couple times every tour and I've talked to plenty of people that have seen him over 100 times. The last 15 years or so I've skipped more shows than I've seen. I don't like seeing a tour more than once though i have doubled up a couple times by accident. More importantly, I've intentionally skipped several tours because of it's themed at a new release that sucks. I appreciate Todd's transparency about upcoming tours.
There are two artists that I love that still push the envelope and challenge their fans with evolving styles. Todd is one and the other is Sparks. These two artists continue to push forward and I'm glad. Alice comes close because his recent (last 25 years) material is good but it's still the same genre, same could be said for Cheap Trick. Also, Alice and Cheap Trick don't theme a tour toward their latest release, you're lucky if you get one or two songs. Todd and Sparks will piss you off with so much new material if you let them!
This is what I wrote in 2008....
Todd Rundgren
Allen Theater, Cleveland
1/16/2008
I decided to pay an old friend a visit last night. I have to say that I was more than a little apprehensive about the get together. Twenty-five years have passed since our paths last crossed and things have changed for both of us. I'm now married with three kids and Todd has put out countless albums ranging from OK to not so OK as he's slipped from arena headliner to cult hero. It's strange that you can be so close with somebody and somehow, someway over the course of time, you drift apart. You can remember the memories of the good times but can’t really feel the moment.
I remember my first festival concert with Todd’s Utopia headlining the "World Series of Rock". I remember spending a couple of new years eves at a sold out Richfield Coliseum with Todd. I remember watching a Todd show being filmed at the Agora. I remember Todd, Ian and Ronno on stage together. I remember Todd at Legend Valley and even at Blossom Music Center. I remember them all and it brings back fond memories like leafing through an old picture book, those were the days my friend.
I also remember that Todd must have terminated his quality control director and Utopia albums started becoming an iffy proposition at best. As I grew older my taste in music changed and I just didn't have the time or the energy to spend chasing Todd's follies. Todd has always been an elusive artist because as soon as he does something perfect he'll turn around and do the opposite. He went his way and I went mine.
It’s ironic that an evening filled with firsts was also completing a circle. Last night was my first at the Allen Theater in Cleveland's beautiful Playhouse Square district which is a collection of five theaters built in the early 20's. More importantly, this was my first Todd show in over 25 years and we had some catching up to do. It was time to complete a quarter century circle.
In the past when I’ve picked up “will call” tickets I simply got stamped and entered the venue without a ticket. I considered it a bonus last night that we actually received tickets to tuck away for memories but I shouldn’t have been surprised. Todd shows have always been lucky affairs for me. I speak not in jest; every Todd show I’ve ever attended has an accompanying story of good fortune. In hindsight, maybe I should have played the Lotto yesterday. I didn’t play the Lotto but I did stop by a promo table of a local radio station and spun a wheel of fortune and scored a great shirt. It really was starting to have the buzz of the Todd shows I remembered as we crowded with fellow fans around the merchandise tables to pick up the obligatory souvenirs.
The ushers in this old ornate theater were all volunteers. I’m pretty sure the prerequisite for volunteering in this theater is that you had to be alive in 1921 when the theater opened. I could be wrong but it did seem that age and varying degrees of confusion seemed to be a job requirement. I’m not complaining, it was actually quite charming and it didn’t bother us one bit as we showed our usher where the correct seats were. We weren’t complaining because what chance would these volunteers have of stopping us later in the evening if we decided to bum rush the stage.
Finally, let’s talk about the show itself. The band took the stage, Todd was flanked by Kasim Sultan on bass and Jesse Gress (I think) on guitar, behind was Prarie Prince on drums. Not only was this my first trip to the Allen Theater and my first time seeing Todd in 25 years, this was the first time at a Todd show where there were no keyboards anywhere. That’s quite a departure from the first Utopia line-up that featured not one but three keyboard players. The stage was big and the amps were small, the band was set up in a tightly packed formation in the center. This sure wasn’t the RA tour.
It took no time to realize that I wasn’t thumbing through an old photo album trying to recapture a memory of a feeling. I was feeling the moment. Goose bumps raced over my body as Todd threw back his head and went into the first of many outrageous guitar solos. Nobody and I repeat nobody can throw their head back and waz on a guitar like Todd. The visual is as striking as the sound itself.
The tour is called “My Tour, My Music”. Todd has been releasing albums for nearly 40 years and he provided concert goers with a raw, guitar edged attack that touched base with nearly every phase of his career. This was not a greatest hits tour as Todd’s hits excluded from the set list far out number the hits included. It was more like tasty samplings of songs that fall into the “deep tracks” category.
I thought the song selection was excellent. Old fans were treated to songs from “Runt”, Something/Anything”, “Todd”, “Faithful” and “Healing” along with a couple Utopia songs thrown in. These earlier songs blended perfectly with the cuts from past 25 years. Todd even managed to find time for a couple cover songs.
Highlights for me besides Todd’s usual friendly banter with the crowd were the oldies. Old favorites included “Black Maria”, “Black and White”, No. 1 Lowest Common Denominator”, “Broke Down And Busted”, “S.L.U.T.” and the lone hit of the evening was “I Saw The Light.” Favorite memory of the evening was after we raced our way by the cat like ushers and headed down front for the encore. We were treated to the Utopia favorite “Trapped” with Todd and Kasim trading lead vocals.
I must say this show was worth waiting for and I’m sure it won’t be another 25 years until our paths cross again. I’m very fortunate to be a fan of an artist that I not only have great memories of but can also fast forward to present day and really feel the moment.
