"A Walk Down Abbey Road" - The Sun Theatre - 6/17/01

Review by Chris Angelos (Switch to
)
6/18/2001

My friend Kelly and I arrived at the Sun Theatre at 7:00 and the show was set to start at 8:00. I am a huge Todd fan and Kelly didn't even know who Todd Rundgren was, so I had to bribe her by offering to pay for half of her ticket. We decided to have cocktails in the Sun Lounge, which by the way was very cool with its Moroccan theme and leopard print furniture. We were given a special wristband pass for access to the lounge and I noticed that most of the buzz was for Todd!

A local deejay from an Anaheim radio station announced the musicians one by one and the largest roar from the audience came when they mentioned Todd. The band opened up with "Magical Mystery Tour" and Todd then played "Open Your Eyes" and a beautiful rendition of "Hello It's Me." I was very surprised that he chose "Hello It's Me" because I have read that he doesn't enjoy singing that song live. He probably chose it because it was his biggest commerical hit and even non-Todd fans would recognize it. During that song, Todd turned to John Entwistle and jokingly asked him to sing along with him. John gave Todd a look like he was from another planet and Todd just laughed. I especially enjoyed "Bang The Drum" with Todd going nuts on his bongos. Ann Wilson from Heart sounded great and "Dreamboat Annie" was very nice. David Pack from Ambrosia was a welcome addition and his voice lent itself well to the Beatles tunes. John Entwistle just kinda stood there and most bass players do and his vocals for "My Wife" and "Boris The Spider" weren't that great. Alan Parsons did a great solo version of "Blackbird" and at the audience really appreciated his effort, since he's not know as a lead vocalist. The second set consisted of all Beatles songs and Todd did not disappoint. He sounded great on the lead vocals of "While My Guitar Gently Weeps", "Hide Your Love Away" and "Lady Madonna." He word a black shirt and black pants for the first set and an "Abbey Road" teeshirt, bare feet and some sort of floral mumu. He announced he was dressed as a Beatles Maharishi. Our seats were in the third row dead center directly in front of Todd and Kelly was wearing a black and white teeshirt with "Fuck Milk, Got Pot?" written on it. At one point during the 2nd set, Todd noticed her shirt, smiled and gave her a thumbs up. A few minutes later, Ann Wilson turned to Todd and said something to him and he just pointed at Kelly and said he just wanted to talk to the girl with the pot shirt on! We got a huge kick out of that! Incidentally, Kelly's shirt was a big hit last night. Everyone kept making comments and smiling about it all night.

All in all, the show was great and I highly recommend it to everyone. After the show, they held a "Meet and Greet" backstage, but unfortunately our wristbands didn't get us in. We needed a backstage pass and Kelly was very anxious to get back to Los Angeles. Truly a great show!

P.S. I'm looking for another Todd fan to go to the San Diego show on Todd's birthday. If you live in Los Angeles or nearby and would be interested in going and have a heads up on some good tickets, please e-mail me immediately at Christineangelos@hotmail.com. I would like to give Todd a "Milk" teeshirt for his birthday.


Other reviews for A Walk Down Abbey Road
6/17/2001 - The Sun Theatre - Anaheim, CA

Other reviews for overall A Walk Down Abbey Road

The Todd Rundgren Connection is brought to you by Roger D. Linder & The Linder Logo Rocemabra Web Services.