Todd Rundgren is currently on tour and came out to see us in Durham at the Carolina Theatre on Monday night. http://www.tr-i.com He had three other guys with him covering bass, guitar, and percussion. I thought the name of the show “An unpredictable evening with Todd Rundgren” was a great approach to the sometimes noisy requests from some of the concert crowds you experience from time to time. Todd in fact said up front ” I don’t do requests and in fact I may refrain from a song if it is requested.” I applauded when he said this and really enjoyed quiet of the listening room that followed that comment.
I am not going to launch into a history of Todd’s music during my commentary here. There is plenty of that out there for consumption if you want to ride the google search bar a while. I will say I enjoyed all of the various songs he went through. There was plenty of original material and lots of really cool cover tunes. The evening went by very quickly and I guess that was the sign it was a fine show for the Todd fan. There were plenty of other Todd fans there as it seemed I saw more artist tour shirts and things like ‘Got Todd?” shirts all over the place. I just smiled. This was an older crowd in general given the artist was born in 1948 but there were some young folks in the crowd who you could spot in between the blue, greying, and bald heads in the crowd. Todd looked great and quite younger than his years. His high parts were great on his vocals and I really enjoyed the whole show. A good backing band, a few stories, and a loose evening on stage it was…Todd even stopped once after starting to tune his guitar. I just laughed and took it all in. As he walked off stage after a solid two hour non-stop performance he folded his iPad and smiled as he waved. Very cool I thought. It was a good concert for an early Spring evening. The concert season is beginning and the ticket pile is deep. Life is good.
On another note, I am not a big fan of people shooting video at concerts. I think the artist should release the video for a profit or you should pay to go see the concert and support the artist or band. All that said I would like to help promote the tour so go see Todd on tour or even your other favorite artists out there. Meanwhile I am going to post a video link after saying all this. Here is a recent video of one of my favorite moments of this night. You should go see it live if you can.
On the bank of the river stood Running Bear, young Indian brave
On the other side of the river stood his lovely Indian maid
Little White Dove was her name, such a lovely sight to see
But their tribes fought with each other, so their love could never be
Running Bear loved Little White Dove
With a love big as the sky
Running Bear loved Little White Dove
With a love that couldn’t die
He couldn’t swim the raging river ’cause the river was too wide
He couldn’t reach the Little White Dove waiting on the other side
In the moonlight he could see her throwing kisses ‘cross the waves
Her little heart was beating faster waiting for her Indian brave
Running Bear loved Little White Dove
With a love big as the sky
Running Bear loved Little White Dove
With a love that couldn’t die
Running Bear dove in the water, Little White Dove did the same
And they swam out to each other through the swirling stream they came
As their hands touched and their lips met, the raging river pulled them down
Now they’ll always be together in their happy hunting ground
Running Bear loved Little White Dove
With a love big as the sky
Running Bear loved Little White Dove
With a love that couldn’t die