Todd Rundgren - The Highline Ballroom, NYC, 5.6.15

by Bruce Alexander
Posted: Jun 2015
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Todd Rundgren - photo by Bruce Alexander

As he has been for well over forty years, Todd Rundgren is again out on tour promoting his new recording “Global.” Rundgren usually changes up his shows and it’s usually a mixed bag. This was certainly the case here.

Rundgren was actually the only musician on stage. There was a DJ and two dancing girls dressed in futuristic space age disco jumpsuits. Rundgren came out dancing as well, and did some aerobics for good measure. This was all with psychedelic, trippy background strobe lighting. It was a very weird show.

A new song performed called “Earth Mother” is about female empowerment, and was quite funny as these girls were dancing like bimbos. Another new tune called “The Golden Triangle” was a goof of Tolkienesque proportions. Most of the songs were from the new recording. However, Rundgren did play a few classics, such as “One World.” When Rundgren broke into his old tune “Can’t We Still Be Friends” it was so different as a electronic techno rendition that I hardly recognized it. The same goes for his renderings of his classic hits “I saw The Light” and “Hello It’s Me.”

Rundgren consistently reinvents himself, and is certainly doing so now. He has very dedicated fans who are usually supportive. For better or worse, a Rundgren show, and in this case a new record, can never be called old hat. For his sense of adventure, I’ll tip mine to Todd Rundgren.