By Rob Goald
rsgoald@comcast.net
 

 Todd Rundgren Performs in the Railhead Club at Boulder Station

Todd Rundgren
The Railhead Club
Boulder Station Casino
Las Vegas, Nevada
September 14, 2007

After spending the summer singing lead vocals for the New Cars, the innovative 60’s renaissance man of rock and electronic arts, Todd Rundgren, brought his version of “retro- modern” music (as he described it to the audience) to the 600 seat theater inside the Boulder Station known as Railhead. Rundgren, who is entering his 40th year as a professional musician, looked remarkably well for a 59 year old man. His hair was dyed a jet black with lots of blonde locks reflecting a life that follows the beat of a different drummer. In fact, one of his most famous compositions 1983’s ‘Bang the Drum All Day” echoes the very sentiment. he lives by: “I don’t want to work, I just want to bang on my drums all day”.

Todd Rundgren
Photo courtesy of http://www.jackbruce.com

Rundgren’s career arc has spanned from the 60’s psychedelic rock band Nazz to a solo career marked by the brilliance of the 1973 master opus “A Wizard, A True Star” and forays into progressive rock and interactive music. Rundgren is also known as the common-law husband of groupie superstar Bebe Buell and the guy who raised movie actress Liv Tyler under the misassumption that he was her father.

At Railhead his target audience was boomers from 35-65 who he entertained with a 90 minute set of impressive wall-of-sound guitar rock. Incidentally, Todd was relaxed and at the top of his game with his vocals able to belt out the hard ones while having the control to hit the high range notes. Joining Rundgren for the Fall tour were Jesse Gress on rhythm guitar and supporting vocals, Kasim Sulton on bass and supporting vocals and Prairie Prince on drums. Song selection was from new material and Liars(2004) his most recent album. As Rundgren noted: "All of these songs are about a paucity of truth. At first they may seem to be about other things, but that is just a reflection of how much dishonesty we have accepted in our daily lives.".

Todd is still not afraid to take a shot at the religious right that runs our country with tunes like “Mammon” and “Fascist Christ”. He reached into his bag of oldies to do a wonderful rendition of “I Saw the Light”. Other songs in the set included “Buffalo Grass”, “Soul Brother”, “Black and White”, “Lunatic Fringe”, “Tiny Demons”, “Mystified/Broke Down”, “Slut”, and “Walls Came Down” (cover by “The Call”). The mostly full house at Railhead insisted on an encore from Rundgren and his band and he closed out the powerful and fulfilling set with “Hawking” and “One World”. Todd apologized for the brevity of the set insisting that the casino wants him to get “you back out on the floor”. From this reviewer’s vantage point simultaneous forces of change and consistency were in full evidence in Rundgren’s performance.