Todd Rundgren

Global Tour 2015

May 14, 2015
The Birchmere
Alexandria, VA
USA

Lostbrook 2.0 Volume 97

Source: CA-11(cards)>CA-9200>Sony M10(24/48)
Location: 18' from stage, DFC

Transfer: Sony M10>Micro SDHC>PC>Sound Forge 9.0(resample, dither, track)>
WAV 16/44.1>Trader's Little Helper>FLAC(level 8)

Taper/Transfer/Notes: Lostbrook
Covers/Review: ethiessen1

Disc 1:

01 DaM-FunK Intro (2:30)
02 I Wanna Thank You (For Steppin' Into My Life)* (4:23)
03 Evrybody (3:56)
04 Flesh And Blood (4:51)
05 Rise (3:50)
06 Truth (5:16)
07 Secret Society (4:26)
08 Ping Me (4:39)
09 Earth Mother (3:31)
10 Skyscraper (4:08)
11 Party Liquor (4:24)
12 Blind (4:41)
13 Smoke (5:48)
14 Holyland (4:04)

Disc 2:

15 Terra Firma (4:27)
16 Today (5:30)
17 This Island Earth (4:02)
18 One World (3:46)
19 Future (6:33)
20 Global Nation (3:45)
21 Soothe (3:53)
22 Can We Still Be Friends (3:44) >
23 I Saw the Light (2:48) >
24 Hello It's Me (2:10)
25 Worldwide Epiphany (7:41)

Encore:

26 International Feel (2:37) >
27 Just One Victory (5:09)

* DaM-FunK solo

Todd Rundgren - vocals, guitar
DaM-FunK - keyboards, vocals, backing vocals
Ashle Worrick - backing vocals
Grace Yoo - backing vocals

Lostbrook notes:

Having no knowledge of what Todd Rundgren has been
up to in recent years (decades, honestly), I thought it would
be smart to familiarize myself with Global after ethiessen1
offered me his extra ticket. At first, I was totally
shocked, and wondered what I had gotten myself into.
It took precisely 1.5 listens before I realized that this was
a brilliant, genre-bending piece of work. The live
presentation was so superb that I'm sure I would have
enjoyed it even if I had been unprepared. And though we've
been to a few shows together recently, we've never been at the same
table before. This is the first time I've sat shoulder-to-shoulder
with Eric. It was fun watching him take notes as we practiced our
individual crafts.

Ethiessen1's review:

For most of us, our first exposure to Todd Rundgren
was his plaintive Hello It's Me, where a timidly
shy young man is describing his insecurity about
their relationship, in fact wondering if they even
have one at all ("I take for granted that you just
don't care"), finally begging her to "think of me."

Since those carefree days of the late 1960s, his
career has varied from uber-record producer
(The Patti Smith Group's Wave, Grand Funk's We're
An American Band, Meatloaf's Bat Out Of Hell, Hall
& Oates' War Babies, The Tubes' Love Bomb and
Remote Control albums, Straight Up by Badfinger, The
Band's Stage Fright, and Skylarking by XTC among
others), to solo musical artist, to being a founding member
of the progressive fusion band Todd Rundgren's Utopia,
to being a music video pioneer, a computer programmer,
as well as being an excellent song writer, killer guitarist
and all around great musician. How is it that he's not in
the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame?

Within the past few years, Todd has released quite a few
older live concerts, as well as being a constant member
of Ringo Starr's last few All-Starr Bands. His new music
album releases have, until recently, been more guitar than
keyboard driven, including an album of blues legend's
Robert Johnson's songs. His 2013 album, State, featured
one cd of Thomas Dolbyesque new material, coupled with
a 2nd cd of the November 11, 2012 live show he performed
with the Metropole Orchestra at the Paradisio in Amsterdam.

On his current tour, he is featuring a series of songs that
includes much of his 25th and latest album, Global, along
with pertinent older songs (Truth and Future from 2004's
Liars, Secret Society from 1985's POV, Today from 2011's
Arena, One World from 1982's Swing to the Right) that
speak volumes about the environmental issues facing the
world today. This music demands attention. It physically
moves you with its EDM-oriented (Electronic Dance
Music) beats and it intellectually involves you with its
ideas. Performed live, there is only Todd on guitar and
vocals, joined by DJ and keyboard player DaM-FunK,
two backing singer/dancers (Ashle Worrick, Grace Yoo)
and a prominently displayed Apple laptop computer-yet
there is a very complete, at times overpowering, keyboard
and synth beat dominated sound coming from the stage.

Visually, imagine a rave up in an officer's club somewhere
in the late 1970s, except in this case the audience is a group
of 500 or so 50 and 60 year old yuppies. Some started out
dancing in their seats as the powerful rhythms were vibrating
the very seat cushions they were sitting on, but many eventually
ran out of energy or were perhaps beaten into passive submission
by the seemingly endless onslaught of loud, louder and
even louder still music emanating from the wildly lighted
stage.

DJ DaM-FunK came out first, introducing this as a progressive
and innovative experience, by a wizard, a true star, Mr Todd
Rundgren, and then introduced the crew and other pertinent
personnel.

After the DJ's mood setting "I Wanna Thank You," Todd and the
two singer/dancers come out to the flashing lights and throbbing
energy of Evrybody-a song that points out that material possessions
and/or a celebrity lifestyle means nothing-what's important is
that we're all together again. Todd's clear bodied Strat crunched
out the chords accompanied by the sound of a late 1960s Farfisa
organ-tying the music to the semi-psychedelic discoth�que look
of the stage. This slips quickly into Flesh & Blood, which lyrically
reinforces the common man concept: "We're (all made of the same)
flesh and blood."

The urgency of the problem is defined by the "time's ticking away"
lines of Rise, which warns "If we don't rise, then we will fall."

The setlist varies from the Global album with the next 3 songs,
played very quickly in the EDM style and lyrically fitting the
overall theme: Truth from 2004's Liars album, Secret Society
from 1985's POV, and the emotionally powerful vocals of Ping Me
from 2013's State. By this point, the 66 year old Rundgren was
visibly sweating and looking tired as he danced and sang, played
his clear plastic internally lighted Strat a bit, then danced and sang
some more. He didn't stop moving throughout the entire concert,
other than to gulp a beverage between songs. His guitar work, limited
as it was, was superb, especially on Secret Society, and was a welcome
touch in contrast with the incessant synthesizer chords and beats.

Now it was back to the Global album for Earth Mother, a paean to
ballsy women such as Rosa Parks and Malala Yousafzai and then
Skyscraper, followed by Party Liquor from State, Blind from the new
album, back to State for Smoke, and to Global again for Holyland
and Terra Firma. The synth work on Earth Mother, Skyscraper, Smoke,
and Holyland was, along with the vocal arrangements, superb.

Next were Arena's Today, Global's This Island Earth, and a nice
reworking of Future from the 1982 Swing to the Right album.
The song cycle concluded with Global Nation and the excellent
Soothe from the new album.

The rest of the evening featured quasi EDM reworked versions of old
favorites Can We Still Be Friends?, I Saw The Light, Hello It's Me,
and No World Order's World Wide Epiphany, concluding with a
rafter shaking International Feel that led into the anthemic Just One
Victory-the crowd standing and chanting along.





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