Three weeks after announcing a 2010 London date where he’ll perform his 1973 album "A Wizard, A True Star" in its entirety, Todd Rundgren expands the concept to the U.S.A.
Rundgren is planning about a week’s worth of September dates to bring A Wizard… to the stage. The album, which features virtually no dead space between tracks with each song beginning as soon as the previous tune ends, showcased Rundgren’s various musical muses and resulted in cover versions of “Cool Jerk,” “Ooh, Baby Baby,” “La La La Means I Love You,” and “I’m So Proud.” The album also included tracks that would become Rundgren standards, such as “Sometimes I Don’t Know How To Feel,” "Just Another Onionhead" and “Just One Victory.”
The September shows will also include two members of the Utopia lineup from the late 1970s: Kasim Sulton on vocals and bass and Roger Powell on keyboards and vocals.
Securing Powell’s appearance at the September gigs proved to be a little difficult mainly because he just started working for game designer Electronic Arts. In fact, the reason for Rundgren doing only a week’s worth of A Wizard … shows in September is because Powell has only a week off from work.
Right now, only the first date for the September run is nailed down – Sept. 6 at the Akron Civic Center in Akron, Ohio. The date is promoted by the two fans who run RundgrenRadio.com and has already sold more than 2,000 tickets.
Along with the U.S. gigs, Rundgren is also taking A Wizard, A True Star across the ocean in 2010 for a performance in London at the Apollo Hammersmith on Feb. 6, and a Feb. 8 show at the Paradiso in Amsterdam.
If Rundgren likes how the U.S. shows are received, he may go back to his extensive catalog and pull out another album for the start-to-finish treatment.
Which brings us to the comment thread below. Which album do you think Rundgren should perform in its entirety after he completes the A Wizard, A True Star shows? Yes, he does have a lot of albums to his credit, including several under the Utopia moniker. But we think you can probably slim that list down to a few excellent choices. How about it?