Todd Rundgren Dec 17 Birchmere

I drove up from Eastern North Carolina on Wednesday and got to the venue just before the doors opened. We were lucky enough to go in with a good seating number sitting 4 seats back at center-right. NOTE: I read an earlier review that mentioned distorted sound, but that wasn't the case on the right side where we were; I think if it had been, I would've mentioned it to the sound engineer.

The food at the Birchmere was great and we meet some really nice people, as always with a TR show.

The setlist was the same as with earlier shows, in order: Love In Action, Walls Came Down, Black Maria, Open My Eyes, Lunatic Fringe, I Saw The Light, Mad, Afraid, Mercenary, Gun, Courage, Weakness, Strike, Pissin, Today, Bardo, Mountaintop, Panic, Manup, Couldn't I just Tell You, Just One Victory.

Great Vocals, Killer guitar work and not only was I pleased and surprised to see Rachel Haden on Bass, but also cool that Todd released much of the lead guitar work to Jesse Gress and Kasim on guitars and keyboards. I will also mention that Prairie Prince seemed much more confortable on this tour. This is a must see show. It's not often you get to hear a complete new album and you may not get another chance to ever see some of these songs live. It all made the drive back to NC much easier. My thanks to Sirius Satellite Radio for playing the new CD and mentioning the tour dates.

Al Cannon
Farmville, NC
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