Todd at the Majestic Ventura Theatre 12-5-09.

Review by Steve Thompson (Switch to
)
12/12/2009

Started out with Todd, Jesse Gress, Kasim Sultan and Prairie Prince rocking some Robert Johnson delta blues songs for about 40 minutes. The boys made these songs their own with a sound recalling the sixties British blues outfits such as Savoy Brown. Todd's voice was in fine form, and Kasim's bass had awesome tone.

After a long break (over an hour) here came AWATS. The band was in white tuxedos with our hero wearing a different costume for almost every song. He started out in a space suit -- what else could you wear to play "International Feel (Le Feel Internacionale)"? The production was almost like listening to the record -- I never dreamed that AWATS could be reproduced live on stage. Todd was in fine form; he had us howling with laughter, marveling at his guitar wizardry, and harking back with the sentimental numbers. "Cool Jerk" was a particular highlight with Todd in a gold lame' 70's lounge-lizard outfit trading moves with the sax player.

Mrs. Rundgren joined the band for the encore, "Just One Victory", singing backup vocals with Kasim, who stole a kiss from her onstage.

I left the theatre in a state of bliss that lasted for days.

Side Note: I met my friend who jams with nearby Ojai resident Jackie Lomax (60's British pop star) at the show. Turns out Jackie sold Todd the famous Eric-Clapton-owned guitar "The Fool" which Todd wore out playing throughout the 70's. The day after the sale, Jackie went to a TR autograph session and asked to get the guitar back. Supposedly Todd told him to come back the next night to get it, and then left town that evening. Jackie still holds a grudge. Todd reportedly sold the guitar for over $100,000 and now plays a replica of it.

Dut


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12/05/2009 - Majestic Ventura Theater - Ventura, CA

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