It is 2024 and Mr. Rundgren is still touring the US at the age of 75. That is truly dedication to his music and to the fans. Go see this musical genius and legendary producer if you can.
Read on!
Hooooo Ra!
Todd Rundgren
New Victoria
Concert review by Pete Makowski
THE FIRST night. I stumbled into the New Victoria, “Willie” Wilcox was halfway through his drum solo in the ‘Glass Guitar’ extravaganza, the audience looked well warmed up but I couldn’t really get into it until the encore, then it took off. I was bouncing on my Doc Martin’s like an epileptic yo-yo along with the Runt during ‘Boogies (Hamburger Hell)’.
Next night I got there 7.30 pm sharpish, following people’s advice and about 8 pm the show began with a series of films, commencing with an audio visual rendition of ‘Magic Dragon’ which looked like a Roger Corman interpretation of Fellini. Mondo cheapo but tasteful in a bizarre sort of way. This was followed with a film contribution from the cast of Utopia culminating with something a friend described as “The Magic Roundabout meets mescaline”.
Then — “wham bam thankyou Ra” — on they came amidst a generous blast of dry ice, straight into ‘Communion With The Sun’ with Rundgren looking more like a cosmically inclined macrobiotic rabbit zipping around the stage. The rest of the band — Wilcox, Roger Powell (keyboards/vocals) and Kasim (bass/vocals) — were placed strategically across the stage for maximum visual impact, their own patch to roam. Todd’s presence just seemed to exude from every corner of the domain wielding his spectacular custom-made six string machine, eyes popping out along with his teeth as his soloing reached a new peak.
To prove the democracy laid out in this Utopia everyone got their musical end in. Wilcox with ‘Jealousy’, Kasim in ‘Windows’ and Powell with the by now infamous ‘Emergency Splashdown’ a piece of purposefully hammed up theatrics with some exceptional doodling on the synthesised Aunt Jemima.
A mixture of music and theatrics amalgamated in the second half (there was a short intermission) with ‘Hiroshima’, a powerful piece that can be appreciated on many levels and the tale of ‘The Glass Guitar’, featuring solos executed in a painless, enjoyable, in fact entertaining fashion. Strangely enough I felt Wilcox came out the best, he looked the most comfortable when confronted with the task of entertaining the audience on his own, while the rest of the band including Todd looked a bit self-conscious during the process.
A two page documentation of the gig wouldn’t truly convey a particle of the excitement generated on the night. At the end the audience just filed down to the front of the venue as if they were almost in some kind of hypnotic ecstasy and the group returned for three encores. By now the tension and timing of the performance had been alleviated and now Rundgren had some free time to go into some of his favourite rockstar fantasies, with more than the occasional Pete Townshend knees up and a futuristic interpretation of Chuck Berry’s duckwalk complete with machine gun geetar.
Basically Utopia’s aims seems to be to entertain on every level, a kind of musical compromise, they really look as if they’re having a good time and so are the audience. Rundgren still retains a slight tongue in cheek “take it or leave it” attitude on how deeply the audience take to the importance of his work, although understandably the repertoire is leaning towards a Utopian bias. This did seem to put off a handful of the ‘I Saw The Light/Hello It’s Me’ brigade who obviously weren’t particularly enamoured by the more technical pieces. But generally, and judging by the sales of ‘Ra’, the majority seemed to accept Todd in his multi-directional role.
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