CLEVELAND HOUSE OF BLUES

Review by Anthony William Rogers, Esq (Switch to
)
5/13/2017

well here are some impressions from someone who kinda rip van winkled his way through the last ten years.. Yes, the last show was in December 2008..

as for the new show, my first impression was that I know (well) about half of the songs..for me, who in the past knew every instrumental nuance of every arrangement-this was an odd experience..i came into this not liking the whole modern singer and dancer thing-I still wopuldnt do it if it were my show but-wouldn't it work together with the band?, the focus was on tr and the gals and gals were great dancers and brought it.

it was very well done and although global and state are not my faves, they were the focus-long with the new lp- in this show..sir reality worked well and was particularly very nice

my real regretabout the creen set up is that you cant really see the band well even when there are spotlights like on gregs sax (like his synth patches) or jesse doing satrianis riffs.(.wow..imagine having to learn that for the gig.).but I think the concept is pretty cool- remember seeing a silhouette bowie greatest hits where the band was behind..belew was with him..but this was on another level and the feature projections were overwhelmingly innovative..(party liquor, JOV) I do wish I could have seen the band just a little bit better..- what would be cool would maybe be to have the band projected playing love behind the screen they are playing..there was at times a sensory bombardment ala Warhol velvets...as an aside at one point, it sounded like some tracks were really almost sped up..the video for deaf ears was one and so was NWO- very fast tempo.. but that was a minor detail, generally, the show was seamless and flowed naturally in segments..

for me, personally, the best part of everything though was seeing/ hanging with the best of old friends Roger and Sue Steel, Kim and Vickie Huffman and Rick Demcheck/ his wife. After being away for awhile Lisa and I both realize that it's the people that make this scene special. I've spent a lot of time over the years as an honorary Clevelander seeing lotsa great shows throughout the whole state but mostly hanging with Roger. Kim , Brain Tapp , and Jerry Noonan etc. still have great love for these folks

I was amazed at the energy voice and precision that this man exhibits at age almost 70, I think since the king of soul is gone, considering his schedule, is there any doubt who is "the hardest working man in show business"?

And it also dawned on me that there is not an cannon of work that I know of that which requires such super human strain and effort as does this man pushes forward every night.

This tour is another vocal showcase much like Liars was, catch him while you can. It is a bargain.

As usual the presentation is cutting edge .. there is no one like the dude..maybe white knight will allow him to clutch some long overdue commercial kudos but I have no idea how that is accomplished in 2017... place was packed....

Personally for me, the final irony was ........ that the gals each threw out a tee shirt into the crowd on the prince inspired (kiss-like) "Buy My Tee"..the words are roughly ..."you can bootleg the music buy you have to buy the tee"

Some of you may know or may not know (or not care) that in years prior, I devoted a large chunk of my life listening, sharing, eqing, collecting, trading, encouraging always the boot or live thing (cassettes to mini disc to dats).

And who who got the t thrown by ashle?...

Band was great as usual...was going to do a detailed song by song but you know..i gotta get back to work..that kinda thing I used to do in the....

Great times....bless you all...hopefully more to come


Other reviews for Todd Rundgren Dates
5/08/2017 - House of Blues Cleveland - Cleveland, OH


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