Todd Rundgren concert at Clearwater Ruth Eckerd Hall

We are not aging gracefully. The symptoms were on full display Tuesday night in the Ruth Eckerd Hall audience - the balding, the bifocals, the bodies. We are all slowly slipping. Alas, for our hero, it's his performance that is slipping. His voice has lost some of its range. He forgot both chords and words numerous times. With Todd however, we don't expect virtuoso vocals or musicianship; we go because of his songs.

He's always played with a sense of humor, but this time we got a dose of sarcasm and carelessness in his arrangements. The crowd sensed this, with less than half applauding at any one time. Of course the ones that did made up for the rest, but they'd have cheered had Todd coughed up breakfast in the middle of a song - oh wait - he nearly did. He lost his way on the piano during "Hello It's Me" so many times it was pathetic. I've heard better renditions of his self-accompanied MP3 songs in many a Vegas lounge. When he had difficulty placing his guitar back into its floor stand, it seemed like his instruments were fighting back - and winning. I could go on, but won't. Why would any artist consciously choose to treat their own material in such a way? It was a disappointing performance, to say the least.