Freshman year of high school I cut three old lady’s lawns to get enough money to buy a song I had heard on the radio. I ran four miles to the nearest record store on a blazing hot summer day. Todd something - I didn’t get the last name. Thirty something years later, I still get crazy with anticipation at the mention of a new Todd album. Last year's Arena, Rundgren's 20th solo album, was a riff rockin', power chord fueled assault on the senses as the artist reclaimed his status as guitar god. Last night, in front of a packed house at the Iron Horse in North Hampton, Rundgren laced into one dazzling solo after the next with a fierceness and intensity that left no question he's still as vital as ever. After beginning the night with a fistful of 70's rockers from his vast and varied catalogue, Rundgren launched into Arena playing all 13 tracks in order and barely coming up for air.
In 1977, nearly every page of my trig book had some Rundgren lyric scrawled in a corner: "I'd rather live by a dream than live by a lie"; "Souls come so cheap some people give theirs away"; "Chapter 6 and verse 11, if you want to get to heaven you've got to ask the man who owns the property." And during his performance of Courage, track 5 on Arena, I found one more Rundgren lyric to hold onto..."And when push came to shove, I lost the thing I loved, when I lost the courage of my convictions.' And for three and a half minutes or so, everything seemed right with the world.
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