Review by Mike B:
The sound was loud (and not-so-good, as expected from this venue) but the overall show was great. There was a good percentage of Todd fans – evident from those who recognized Black Maria, but the biggest part of the audience were Cars fans, with the Blondie-only contingent fairly small. The place looked to be about 80-90% sold-out – empty seats in front of us, including the whole right-side VIP section.

Blondie, on their farewell tour (we've heard that before, haven't we?) opened their set while people were still filing into the large tent structure from the torrential downpours that have plagued New England for weeks.

Debbie Harry's voice was a bit cold as the band opened with `Call Me' – understandable considering the weather – but she quickly warmed up and her voice sounded better throughout the night than on the downloadable CD that came with concert tickets that must have been recorded during last year's tour. Dressed in sequined dress, white-striped black workout pants, green shirt and scarf and cropped black jacket, she soon had much of the arriving audience up on their feet dancing to all the old 80's hits as well as a few more obscure songs from the back catalog and cover versions of Roxy Music's `More Than This' and the Rolling Stones `Paint It Black'.

From the number of empty seats it was obvious that more people had bought tickets for the New Cars than for Blondie, but the crowd still responded enthusiastically to the set.

After a break to change the stage set-up, the New Cars hit the stage with new frontman Todd Rundgren, wearing a gold jacket and his now-traditional "skunk" hairdo, launching into the hits `Hello Again', `Let's Go' and `Shake It Up' to a cheering and enthusiastic crowd.

The stage design, by drummer Prairie Prince, featured 6 round projection screens overhead which showed various slide shows or gobo-ed colors as well as a center ring of lights and 3 chrome-ringed stage risers for amps, drums and keyboards.

A few of Rundgren's personal hits were mixed into the set list of old Cars standards, and except for the widely-known `I Saw The Light' were greeted by unknowing looks and comments by a large percentage of the audience. You could tell the Todd fans during `Black Maria' – the ones dancing at their seats and enjoying the best lead guitar playing they have heard from Rundgren in many years as he wailed on his favorite `Foamy' guitar.

Some of the highlights of the 1-3/4 hour set included Rundgren and original Cars guitarist Elliot Easton's dueling leads on `I Saw the Light' and `She's A Lot Like You' as well as bassist Kasim Sulton's (substituting for the deceased Ben Orr, but not trying to replace or immitate him) melodic voice on `Drive' and `All Mixed Up', which also featured Cars original keyboardist Greg Hawkes on saxophone. The final song of the set was the newly-penned `Not Tonight' followed by a triple encore of `Just What I Needed', the Nazz's `Open My Eyes' and `Let the Good Times Roll'.

Musically, both bands were tight and crisp but the sound suffered from a venue-specific problem. The Pavilion's sound system has always been inadequate for the size of this open-air facility. For this show, the sound was typically distorted – the system pushed too hard to be too loud. The mix for the New Cars was often poor – guitars or voices buried and the bass guitar and bass drum were missing from the mix entirely most of the time.

Overall, a great show, compromised by a poor venue. If you get the chance to see these two bands some place other than a casino or outdoor event, go for it!

Side note: wear a "Todd" shirt to any concert featuring Todd and you will meet up with other Todd fans! Talked to a number of people, including a guy next to me who had been to many of the same shows as me, and another guy in front of me who leaned back during Black Maria and said – `the best guitar work I've heard from Todd in 6 years!'

Comments about this gig posted on messageboards and mailing lists include:

Other websites
The New Cars official website TheNewCars.com has some photos of the band at their concert last night in Boston, MA. Click here for the whole set (which is available for anyone to see). Unfortunately there is only one photo of Kasim Sulton (and no photos of this concert at all in the paid area of the website!) - the direct link to that photo is here.

One professional review of the concert is on BostonHerald.com titled "Old Blondie blows by New Cars". One nice quote in the review is "Newbie Kasim Sulton, a former bandmate of Rundgren’s from the Utopia days, did admirable justice to the late Benjamin Orr’s lead vocals for "All Mixed Up," and the monster ballad, "Drive."".

TheBostonGlobe.com also has a review of the concert but with a slightly less complimentary comment about Kasim - "Bassist-vocalist Kasim Sulton -- who, like mighty timekeeper Prairie Prince has worked with Rundgren in the past -- was less successful with the songs originally sung by the late bassist Ben Orr like "Drive," but it's hard to pinpoint why. He sounded just fine and hit the high notes on "All Mixed Up" but it felt discomfiting in a way that Rundgren didn't.".

Many thanks to Mike B for all the photos on this page.

The New Cars Road Rage Tour