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Hello It's Me

While sitting at my computer last night, editing some more of When We Were the Kids, Darryl Smyers called and asked, "What are you doing right now?" Since editing can be done at any time, on any day, and clothing is always optional, I took up his offer to see Todd Rundgren play at the House of Blues.

The thing was, the show was due to start in thirty minutes.

Hauling ass down to the venue, I was there in ten minutes. There was no opening act, the place wasn't packed, and apparently the show was over two hours in length. Since I don't know Todd's stuff as well as Darryl does, I was happy he reviewed the show instead of me.

During the first two songs, I thought I was going to watch a two-hour train wreck. Todd was sick and his voice was shot. I already knew his voice wasn't the same from his classic records as a solo artist in the seventies. But I wasn't expecting it to be like Shane MacGowan's mixed with Robert Palmer's.

Probably thanks to medicine, water, and a willingness to perform, things eased up after a few more songs. Playing all kinds of stuff from his back catalog, he even threw in a Robert Johnson number and a few soul songs. He did what he wanted to, even if his immune system couldn't keep up.

Definitely a good show overall, but it could have been a disaster.

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