Todd Rundgren’s Arena tour in on now, and being held in supper clubs. Is this intentional irony or bad managment? We saw him in a dinner theatre cum hoe-down hellhole called the Birchmere up in Alexandria. While the Arena record is slyly funny and boasts at least 3 memorable songs, the setting left us thinking….”HUH?”
Chris and I worked on our joint grant project for a few hours then hiked up to NOVA. He has a great pre-show routine and I did my best to stay out of the way until well into the blasting of the required Hot Cappucino song en route. He thought he’d been there before, but no–we walked into this place that looked like bad 80’s Dallas–faux cowboy and rodeo stuff everywhere, different “stations” to get bad food and drink, etc., and a lottery-type system for seating.
Luckily for us, we got there just in time, and got back of the room seats. Lucky because we were clearly the youngest in the house, and there were plenty of decrepit oldsters including “long haired hippie types” and lots of naturally grey haired women who’d clearly gone too many years braless in the 60s. There was no floor, and it was seated like the fake Hawaiian Luau at Disney World—everyone trapped into an 8 or 10 top table, with “dinner” service and bad drinks! So we wisely chose the furthest back table and the 2 seats on the escaping end, so that we could stand up even if nobody else did.
Here’s the sad part for Mr. Rundgren, who gave a solid performance and didn’t seem dismayed at all (probably his wicked humor saved him). NOBODY stood up except for me and Chris. Sigh. At the VERY end of the show, a few other folks way on either side stood up.
At least fewer people left than we feared, just in case they expected “Can We Still Be Friends”……He essentially played Arena straight through, with a few crowd pleaser hits thrown in. Clearly one of the more interesting shows I’ve seen this year…..
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