A short intermission that treated us to some swank lounge jazz during the set change, gave no indication as to what was to come.
The band enters their ten sphere multi media stage and gets right to it. By the second song, Shake It Up, I knew we were in for it as they put the pedal to the metal and just rocked this song home. It was the first of many instances where the spirit and power of rock and roll would manifest in this' Band' tonight. All the classic Cars hits were played in the here and now. Elliot Easton is simply a great rock guitarist. I enjoyed Greg Hawkes keyboards throughout the set. He should be acknowledged more for his innovative playing style. Kasim and Prairie Prince kept the heavy rhythms rock steady.
It has been a long time since Todd has been in big time rock star mode, but tonight more than made up for it. Center stage and glowing . Rocking out and having fun. The set just kept building until it got to Black Maria. This performance teleported the faithful to cosmic heights. Watching Todd close up through binoculars during the main lead solo I witnessed nothing less than super human lead guitar that reached well into the realms of Jimi Hendrix. In fact if you never saw Hendrix, this solo will be the closest you will ever experience. It is Todd Rundgren on the mountain top. Two days later my body still twitches when I re-live this solo.
Oh yeah, almost forgot I'm at the New Cars concert. Todd proceeds to introduce the band and then Kasim sings Drive. I have to admit from this point on I was just suspended in time and the effect of Black Maria guitar playing. There was a three song encore that included Open My Eyes, a more rock version than psychedelic that fit in with the New Cars style.
This was the spirit freeing energy of Rock and Roll, the power to transcend in sound. The New Cars kind of energy could make gasoline obsolete. What more could you ask for?
