This gig was held in conjunction with the radio station Mix 98.5FM and was to advertise The New Cars forthcoming concert in Boston on Wednesday 7th June at the Bank Of America Pavilion. Reports from fans vary about where this gig was played as someone said that it was at the State Room and someone else that it was First Act Guitar Studio on Boyleston Street. Both venues are reported to only hold a couple of hundred people.

Apparently there was a photo posted of the gig in today's printed version of The Boston Globe. The online edition has a review added here but as it contains some of those "your computer has a virus, check it here" pop-ups and as newspaper articles often disappear after a while, it's replicated below:

Rock show reunions are typically nostalgia-laden affairs.

Still, it’s hard to get too worked up over a reunion that’s missing the band’s chief songwriter, singer and most recognizable face. Now dubbed The New Cars, the Boston rock legends formerly known as The Cars made their Hub debut at First Act Guitar Studio in the Back Bay last night, minus the inimitable Ric Ocasek. Power-pop veteran Todd Rundgren took Ocasek’s spot in the band, which featured only two of the original Cars, guitarist Elliott Easton and keyboardist Greg Hawkes.

The unplugged private event, sponsored by Mix 98.5, was a preview of the band’s forthcoming release “It’s Alive,” a mostly live set of Cars classics mixed with a small sampling of new tunes. As expected, the crowd whooped it up for classic rock radio favorites like “Best Friend’s Girl” and “You Might Think,” and were typically muted for the new material. The new tunes proved to be a mixed bag, the band exposing their sappier tendencies on the horrifically insipid ballad “Warm,” but righting the ship with the rock ’n’ boogie throwback of “Not Tonight.”

Throughout the short set, Rundgren, sporting a strange skunk-inspired coif, gamely played the dreaded “guy who’s replacing the iconic frontman” role, fitting seamlessly into the rest of the band and providing his typically manic and verbose stage presence. Bassist Kasim Sulton and drummer Prairie Prince rounded out the new lineup.

The New Cars will be returning to play a Boston show with Blondie at the Bank of America Pavilion on June 7, but with only a few new tunes and without the strange but brilliant Ric Ocasek, you have to wonder whether their fans will remain loyal. Is just two-fifths of the original band enough? Tune in next month."

Back to Kasim Sulton's 2006 New Cars gigs