Todd Rundgren ‘State’ Tour – O2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire 15th Jun 2013

I’ve been a fan of Todd Rundgren’s music since I first heard a track from ‘Initiation’ on Alan Freeman’s Saturday afternoon Radio 1 rock show way back when. Nevertheless I’ve never seen him play live, so when I heard he was going to play the UK in support of his new album ‘State’, I knew I had to get tickets.

Better still the London gig was to be at the Shepherd’s Bush Empire which has been a favourite venue of mine after seeing quite a few memorable gigs there over the years.  Best of all this was an opportunity to take my teenage sons to their first gig, even if the choice of artist was mine rather than theirs.  ‘State’ is an album of electronic, dance-music/DJ inspired songs, so it was probably the best way into Todd’s music for them.

There was no support act, at a little after 8pm Prairie Prince (drums) and Jesse Gress (guitar) took to the stage setting up the intro to Imagination the first track from ‘State’. Moments later Todd entered the stage, picked up his guitar to play the opening power chords and began singing the first verse.

The set ran through most of ‘State’ with selections from less well-known albums such as ‘Liars’, ‘No World Order’, POV (a Utopia album) and – less satisfyingly for me – ‘(Re) Productions’.

The full set list was:

Imagination (State)

Truth (Liars)

Smoke (State)

Collide-A-Scope (State)

Secret Society (POV)

Angry Bird (State)

Future (Liars)

Serious (State)

Ping Me (State)

Prime Time ((Re) Productions)

No World Order (No World Order)

Nothing To Lose ((Re) Productions)

Party Liquor (State)

Personality Crisis ((Re) Productions)

World Wide Epiphany (No World Order)

Sir Reality (State)

--Encore Break—

Medley of Can We Still Be Friends, I Saw The Light and Hello It’s Me

Though ‘State’ (and the whole set) was performed to a backing track, the melding of live vocals, guitars and electronic drums added a new dimension to the album. Of the tracks from ‘State’, Imagination, Smoke, Serious, Ping Me and Sir Reality were the standouts along with Secret Society, Truth, World Wide Epiphany and Nothing To Lose from the main set. Even Party Liquor sounded good live, though sadly the same could not be said for Angry Bird – still my least favourite song from the album.

Ending on Sir Reality (about 90 minutes after the start), Prairie, Jesse and Todd left the stage to huge applause. Continued cheering predictably brought Todd back to the stage alone for a final medley of disco-fied versions of old hits Can We Still Be Friends, I Saw The Light, and Hello It’s Me. Todd’s singing had been on great form all night, so what for what some fans might consider irreverent versions of the hits were good fun and closed the performance on a high. Apart from Todd’s soulful singing, his guitar playing – rare as it was on the night – was another joy of the evening.

Medley from Gateshead gig of the ‘State’ tour:

For Alex and Ronan it was a great first gig and a good way to see a great songwriter and musician at a new creative peak.  For me it was a real pleasure to see someone still making new music and prepare to take a chance on something that might alienate his older fans, rather than rely on replaying the hits like a Vegas supper-show has-been.