Burning Wood

Tuesday, November 4, 2014

The Unpredictable Todd Rundgren, Live At B.B. King's: 11/3/14




The point of these live "unpredictable" shows is that Todd Rundgren and the band, and presumably those in attendance "have no idea what's coming next," except that he does, and so do many of the fans in attendance. Okay, I guess that's not completely true.

After opening the show with a cover of Cheap Trick's "Hello There," the band fell right into "Hello It's Me." I didn't know that would happen. But for the next 100 minutes, it was business as usual. This is not necessarily a bad thing.

At the completion of "Hello It's Me," a terrific solid version with Todd's voice as strong as ever...always a concern for me...he offered this, "We are playing the show in reverse order. You're all free to leave now. We've played the hit." Particularly snarky last night, even for Todd, Rundgren and his band, Kasim Sulton, Jesse Gress and Prairie Prince, were as good as I needed them to be. Again, Rundgren's voice was a powerhouse, sounding as good as ever, and once that has been established, I can breathe more easily and just enjoy the show.

As for the show itself...is it "unpredictable" that "Love Of The Common Man" was played or is it "ironic" to play "Love Of The Common Man" at an "unpredictable" show? Either way, as much as I love this song, it needs to be retired, as does the bossa nova version of "I Saw The Light." On the other hand, full band versions of "Cliche" and "It Wouldn't Have Made Any Difference" are a rare treat, especially when they are as solid as they were last night. Some rocking Utopia staples also made the set, but I won't spoil too much of the set, for the few who might be reading and planning on attending.

But here's what made me angry.

When I saw the first "unpredictable" shows in 2011 or 2012, it was a thrill to hear some oddball covers, like Clarence Carter's "Patches" or "96 Tears," by ? & The Mysterians. They were played straight, or at least as straight as Todd can be. Last night, it wasn't one or two covers, it was seven! And all of them were novelties. Johnny Preston's "Running Bear," "Muskrat Love" and the horrific "In The Year 2525." (My friend went nuts for "In The Year 2525." I was happy to see her enjoying herself. Me, not so much.) But it wasn't that the performances of these songs were bad. On the other hand, they were as solid as anything else in the set. But I get the impression that Rundgren was taking the piss out of both the songs and the audience. Does he really like "Muskrat Love?" From the way he broke down the lyrics and pointed out that the songwriter "picked the wrong rodent to write about," I think not.

I became angrier with each cover, thinking about those precious minutes that could have been devoted to some of the man's great, rarely played tunes.

That being said, there was enough bookending the comedy (?) to make the show worth the time. So if you're a long time fan, or a fan who has strayed, I suggest not missing these shows, if only to witness the man singing like it was 1973 all over again.


7 comments:

  1. Cool… sounds very similar to the version of this show I saw in Atlanta last year. Except that show wasn’t in reverse.

    Yeah, the unpredictability seems a bit thin if it consists mostly of oddball covers like “Running Bear.” And, he did that same cover at the ATL show last year, so even that isn’t so unpredictable.

    But when I saw the show, I thought, “He’s having fun, the band sounds great, he sounds great” and that was basically enough for me. Sure, I’d love more obscure Todd songs that would actually justify the unpredictable nomenclature (Saving Grace, Drive, Determination, Parallel Lines, Sweet, Future, We Gotta Get You A Woman, that song where he reference Laura Nyro (name of the song??), Change Myself and Second Wind would all be in my Top Ten Songs I Wish He’d Play.

    But just seeing him having fun, sounding great, with a few obscurities, was basically enough for me. Hope he returns to the ATL this year. I tell you what – the best Todd show I’ve seen in recent years was that one short Utopia tour before Moogy died, in 2010 or so. I think about that show a lot – so good.

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  2. "But just seeing him having fun, sounding great, with a few obscurities, was basically enough for me"

    And you know what AWITW, I usually feel the same. But there is also this fine line where it all feels very smug. And smug is never fun. A handful of covers is fine. Half the set could have been covers and I wouldn't have minded. It was his choice of covers, all arguably bad, novelty tunes. Remove those seven tunes and you would have had a killer 70 minute set.

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  3. Todd, it seems, strives to be a mixed bag for reasons only clear to the tortured artist.

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  4. Good point about the covers. So often, covers can be revelatory – like Patti Smith doing “The Hunter Gets Captured By The Game” or Van Morrison doing “Comfortably Numb” or Prince doing “A Case Of You”. Those all open a door you didn’t know was necessarily there, but make a lot of sense once you hear it. I do agree – “In The Year 2525” opens no doors.

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  5. Now that I've seen the YouTube cover of Muskrat Love -- I thought it was fab, personally. Sounds like it could have come off of any mid-70's Todd album (IMO)

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  6. Shriner,

    If I can just listen to it, I am with you. But he is clearly taking a piss with it, with his finger puppets, sound effects and mugging. I don't care for irony. If you like the song...and I kinda do...then just do it. I've seen this from him for years, always mocking the hits. It gets unpleasant and makes me NOT enjoy the song.

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  7. As a fan of Rundgren's since the first Nazz album, I was turned off by his attitude toward his earlier material. He treated his songs from Runt and Something/Anything, in particular, with a lack of respect. That drives me nuts and I'd like to think that he has matured. The only time I've been more offended was watching Dionne Warwick, one of my favorite singers, treat the Bacharach/David songbook with nonchalant disregard at a time when her voice was nothing less than magnificent.

    I so admire artists like James Taylor who attacks his old songs with the same energy as he did when they were fresh. If he gets sick of performing a song, he takes it off the setlist.

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