Todd Rundgren is a man of constant reinvention and his latest volte face has seen him eschew rock almost completely in favour of electronica. Rundgren has been a long term exponent of multimedia technology and his fascination with it can be traced as far back to his 1993 pop meets electronic meets rap misadventure,“No World Order”. His influence in the current day remains omniscient and new acts including the likes of Tame Impala (Rungren remixed the bands mammoth psych rock track ‘Elephant’ into a thumping house banger) and rapper Tyler the Creator (“Whoa, I Just Listened To This Dude Named Todd Rundgren Or Something, And Fucking Got Damn. This Is Amazing. Reminds Me Of NERD. Wow.”) have voiced their on-going appreciation. State, Rundgren’s latest album, however, feels less of an experimental artistic foray and more of an intentionally constructed, balls out attempt at cracking this apparently new-fangled thing called "EDM". Rundgren has said that he “researched” acts as disparate as Frank Ocean and Skrillex prior to recording.
Rundgren bounces onto stage in skinny jeans and trainers while sporting bug eye glasses that can only be described as Phil Oakey-esque. In fact, if you marry his appearance to the stage set up –it is drowning in digital equipment and lights – you’d be forgiven for thinking you’d wandered into a New Wave show. Opening with “Imagination”, State’s 8 minute opening track and the most guitar prominent, he ponders “every day is the same old song over and over, no imagination” in a vocal that is bulked by heavy lashings of delay. Opening with this track is indicative of the angst still felt by Rundgren - the restless innovator - and an insight into the justification for this 'phase'. As the setlist progresses, with an unrelenting performance of ‘Time’ a particular highlight, Rundgren gets looser and looser in his dancing and at one point resembles a sort of slightly more rigid Hail to the Thief era Thom Yorke (it would all be so ridiculous if it wasn't for the fact he is 65 years old). With the dancing, bright lights and swamp of 50-somethings dancing carefree, you can’t help but get caught up in it all and this is perfectly surmised in the preposterous “angry bird”, a song which sees Rundgren bark the chorus of “she’s an angry bird!” while his guitarist points his headstock to the heavens and pretends to shoot at an imagined fowl.
The fun stops when Rundgren comes out for the encore alone. Lost in the mirth and oddity of the State material it’s easy to forget that this man is responsible for some of the most beautiful pieces of rock music ever written. Mounting the stage, he gives the classics “Can We Still Be Friends/I Saw The Light/Hello It’s Me” an electronic makeover which feels part karaoke, part the nearest imaginable thing to a Todd Rundgren/DJ Tieso collaboration. The whole medley feels bizarre and slightly ham-fisted, the tracks crow barred to sound this way not on merit but purely to acquiesce with the rest of the set. As an album “State” works and is one of his best post 2000, but as an overall live show it lacks gravitas and feels too novelty all too often. That these tracks are reprised this way at the expense of the classic formula is ashame, but going to a Todd Rundgren show and holding such a cavil is a bit like going to an Italian restaurant and being disappointed when they serve up pasta - you know this attempt at boundary pushing comes with the territory, however right or wrong it may be.
