Then the main act cranked it! Other than a few technical glitches which slowed things down between tunes and Todd's vocal chords understandably straining occasionally the band was tight & spot on.
Todd was in rare form interacting with the crowd cracking jokes about the Fillmore, which is in the Jackie Gleason Theatre and sharing stories about his father being a huge Gleason fan. He also shared that he & his wife just bought a new house in which she fell down some steps that same day and broke her leg in 3 places. Poor thing. This all as he stalled to buy time as Jesse scrambled on 3 occasions to get his guitar effect-peddles in working order. (I don't recall hearing 'Hate My Freaking ISP' and believe that we missed it because of all the time lost trying to get the tech stuff worked out. Unless I zoned ....) Throughout the show Prairie Prince & Kasim had water spitting/spraying battles going on.... pretty funny.
When they played though they rocked out. I brought my 27 yr old son, his 27 yr old girlfriend who knew virtually nothing about TR. Another couple also joined us. The husband was a Todd fan from way back but did not keep up over the years. His wife was there because it was basically a night out with her hubby. She knew a few of Todd's hits but was not prepared anything like this! Now ALL of them are converts. My son loves TR.
The sounds that these 4 men generated was at times simply unbelievable. Wall of Sound comes to mind. But also their ability to compensate for the lack of keyboards was at times uncanny. Thanks in large part to Jesse's cosmic guitar work. Truly other worldly. While Todd simply shredded Foamy all night long with blistering riffs mostly done at the very edge of the stage.
My only negative was the crowd. Subdued to the point of brain dead. No energy in the seats. Old farts to a large degree. Chatting constantly while the guys performed. Typical Miami. Very few musical acts come into Dade County that are not '00's radio mainstream, Latin or Urban. They simply do not book locales this far South anymore. I virtually always have to drive up to Ft. Lauderdale or West Palm Beach to see acts that appeal to me. I realize this was Todd Rundgren's first time playing in Miami in decades but sadly my guess is that this was also the last time. The place was half empty.
Thanks Todd for the truly great musical pleasures that you've given me for most of my life. Please keep it coming brother!
PS - bumped into Kasim in the parking lot before the show. Class act.
