Reading over the reviews and commentaries, it fascinates me to see people's usual wide variety of emotions and reactions going more to the extreme edges of the spectrum (similar to today's national climate politically), than those opinions expressed in the recent past.
Over the past seven or eight years, we TR fans have been, to varying degrees, allowed to be exposed to:
1) Full-length solo (guitar and piano) shows (without a net).
2) Speculation of each tour being his last.
3) The usual suspects band accompaniment in acoustic, acoustic/then/electric and full-blown Liars "show band" modes.
4) TR playing a short set with Hall & Oates' band with subsequent multiple-artist encores.
5) Rare, yet occasional, shows (has it been 2 or 3) reviving TR's Broadway musical score.
6) Television appearances on Conan and Letterman, as well as in panel discussions on music and politics.
7) Several tours with Ringo and those with the Abbey Road fellowship of the ring-o.
8) The opportunity of patronage through the Internet.
9) The Twist, One Long and Liars CDs, plus many Archive series live CDs.
10) Speculation of no-Utopia-again-ever to, now, "possibly next year."
11) The 2005 tour with Ethel and Joe and short-set solo TR (without a net) with subsequent multiple-artist encores.
And these are just off the top of my head. Who else has done as much -- as broad a much? All this from a musician/performer who has had to "imagineer" most of the situations he involves himself in -- hoping to make good business decisions to buy the kid's shoes, while staying creatively innovative enough to maintain his own interest -- and initially interest the other parties involved in a cooperative effort. (Mind you, at times he has appeared to be the uncooperative one down the road.)
Okay. But how many of us have been to shows by bands/artists we admired in an earlier era to find that they have not created anything new in decades? Or have one-half of an original member left and milk their legacy in a setting much smaller and dingier than the arena you saw them in their heyday?
Those seem to be the rule rather than the exception. On the other hand, TR is in that smaller group of artists that continues to create and reinvent their art as they approach pre-retirement age, while trying to make enough return on their efforts to do it again a little differently next year.
Within the 2005 reviews and commentaries, I see the gamut of TR fans, from those who bought a couple or three of his albums in the 70s and haven't followed his output since, to those who have never stopped following his career, to the disciples of his messianic vibes, to those who live to see the RA tour one more time (the progressive Utopi-ites), to the guitarists/musicians praying for one more night of ear bleed - it becomes an endless list (without even mentioning the score of female fans who react from differing levels of their romantic sides - the Todd-is-Bod folks).
It is easy to see how any one of these temperaments might be disappointed at what they find in a show limited to less than an hour by an artist with as diverse material and ways of appreciating it as TR. Now add economics into the mix. Surely the people who still arrange the booking and publicity for these kinds of non-label-supported tours are attempting to be able to pay everyone a decent wage at the end of the 2 or 3 months. Therefore they must inevitably mix-book the good sounding halls, the beer-soaked bars, the casinos and even the outdoor pavilions and zoo patios (those who have had to swallow a flying insect and keep singing, say amen), to make an itinerary worth embarking on. This means that the chance of someone feeling they had to pay too much for what they received grows exponentially.
Odds are, it's going to happen. Whether it's paying a bundle to see your favorite team lose, or driving X hours to pay X dollars to see a Todd Rundgren performance that doesn't mesh with your particular favorite flavor of his muse -- or perhaps he just had a really bad day -- or maybe he really did act the ass and rip you off ...
It all makes for a more interesting post-rock world (where the latest McCartney tour and Stones tour announcements make you wonder if they began with a "still get it up" bar bet between Old Sirs Mick and Paul). The fact that so many still care to post as many reviews as this tour has generated is fascinating in and of itself.
No matter your reaction/opinion/perspective, your thoughts and feelings are valid, and I'll continue to be glad to share the mutual-but-myriad perception of this still-intriguing-after-all-these-years Todd guy.
Peas and carrots (or was that peace and caveats),
Gio Bruno
