I also struggled to make out the words which Todd was singing. Kasim sang a new song at his solo gig earlier and I could make out every word of that song but not Todd’s. I know there was more music when Todd was singing but he doesn’t enunciate very clearly. However there was one song that I heard very clearly. I don’t know its name but it started about unrequited love and had loads of words which Todd really rattled off but was very clever and easy to understand. I think he made a mistake in it at one point from the way he laughed (and the audience did too).

He obviously really messed up during his first song playing the piano. He made a few attempts at it but it still wasn’t perfect. I know that people nowadays almost expect flubs by Todd at the first gig of a tour but there was really no excuse when it’s just him playing a piano and he’s known about these concerts for about six months.

Most of the audience seemed to really enjoy the gig (although the person I was with loathed it even more than I did and I think would have been quite keen to have left during the interval) and there was a great atmosphere there. Before both the first and second acts people from the balcony started shouting and waving at the people in the stalls spontaneously and vice versa which was lovely to see. There was also some sheets of coloured paper on the backs of the seats with the instructions to hold them up to make a mosaic before the final encore. That was slightly misleading as there was only one encore but we duly did on cue and apparently they spelt out a message for Todd although we couldn’t see it from where we were sitting in the third row of the stalls.

The back-drop was a large screen with lights and there were some which were projected out into the theatre.

I thought the second half was better but that was mainly because I thought the choir-master was just brilliant. He was a middle-aged white guy but really got into all the music and was including the audience to clap and everything! His choir were 7 black girls and 3 black guys who really enhanced the songs. Unfortunately though a couple of the girls at the end were quite hefty so virtually blocked Kasim from my view!

For the first set the band all wore 70s style clothes (Kasim wore a blue outfit which had a pink jacket which he later took off) and in the second set they all wore salwar kameez type clothes (long tunics with trousers). Kasim was mainly on stage right but when it was just him, Jesse and Prairie for a couple of songs he moved to stage left. He mainly played bass but, especially in the second set, he played quite a few songs on the keyboards too.

Jesse (on stage right) played a surprising number of songs on an acoustic type guitar (Todd only played guitar for a few songs). Prairie was on a rolling drum kit so was often pushed on and off the stage. There was one funny part when he did some tap-dancing! (It was him dancing with someone else making the tapping sound.) Greg Hawkes and Bobby Strickland were on stage left. Bobby played an array of instruments and did a long sax solo at one point but unfortunately Greg (like Kasim to be honest) were virtually invisible and quite underused. All the band (and Todd) had those wireless microphones so they could move around the stage and still sing. Kasim wasn’t very well lit at all during this gig (at least not well lit enough for my camera to get any good photos of him).

The ending was quite understated as the curtain came down and they carried on playing for a few more second before the theatre lights came on and that was it!

I’m glad I went but I’m not really sorry that I wasn’t going to more of these gigs on the tour. It just proved to me that there’s a reason that bands generally don’t play every song from an album as some songs are just not worthy of being performed live.

Comments by fans posted to various messageboards and mailing lists include:
"IMHO, band was not tight and the sound people were not on top of things."

"I admit it's fun being at the first show but there are definitely some drawbacks."

"Highlights were many but Prairie tap dancing is a visual forever."

"There were few rough spots, but nothing show stopping."

"Although he DID butcher Don't You Ever Learn. But it was comical and nobody got bent out of shape over it. After the show I asked Bobby Strickland if Todd did that deliberately, as a joke. You know like... Don't you ever learn... your own song. As a pun or something. Bobby made it clear that it wasn't a joke and Todd played it worse at rehearsal."

"That's insane, my wife and I should hear a professional and well rehearsed show for $250. The premier of AWATS was a well oiled machine compared to last night."

"I was really looking forward to Heavy Metal Kids but appalled at the way it was performed. No "fast forward" sound effect to start and Todd forgetting the second verse...just horrible."

"I think the costumes were perfect for this show - i.e not too many. Todd changes maybe two or three times. The lighting was very cool, a better blend than the AWATS show."

"I was in a minority based on crowd response but Healing didn't work for me. I didn't like four keyboards that seemingly were unmixed at times, I didn't care for the choir that was not always audible. I thought Todd worked much better but still the mistakes were there. I was very disappointed in Heavy Metal Kids. No "fast forward" sound effect to start and Todd forgetting the words turned what I was sure would be a highlight into a lowlight."

"I think people are giving Todd a free pass for just walking on the stage. I expect a little more for $125....like practice the songs beforehand. He had to start Don't You Ever Learn three times due to mistakes. "

"Sons Of 1984 was fun, Todd led the sing a long with half the theater being New York and half being San Fran."

"I guess to sum it up again, Todd album needs some work, Healing was off the charts and Todd's voice was excellent which is saying a lot for some of those more difficult to sing songs. Good crowd, looked sold out but was not. Overall, the majority of attendees seemed real happy about the show but of course there will be the others."

"Yes there were some mistakes but all in all I thought the band pulled it off fairly well. I though Heavy Metal Kids was a highlight in the first set as Todd's guitar playing was stellar! My biggest gripe was the sound from where I was sitting (front row balcony). Could hardly hear the choir and Todd's vocals were not loud enough. Needed to hear more vocals and less drums - and I'm a drummer! I sat in the exact same seats last year for AWATS and the sound was perfect."

"The balcony spelled Todd and the floor was a triangle with an eye in it."

"Prairie's tap dance got the loudest roar of the night that I heard. It was amazing. And everything was just SO SO beautiful. The lasers at the start were just freakin' unreal. In some ways it outdid AWATS. But flub wise, there were double the mistakes of what the most mistake filled AWATS was that I saw before...and I'd seen 8 shows."

"The band, overall, were unbelievable though. It seemed like there were some backing tracks or something electronic that was being used to fill sounds that seemed out of time at times. It was hard to distinguish for me, WHAT the problem was or where it was coming from. Todd often looked offstage for some of this stuff. It lead me to believe it might have been something tech that wasn't working right. Hard to know what it was. Wasn't something I really wanted to quiz the band about!"

"After having dinner before the show I was making my way back to my van to put our "take home box" in the cooler. I took a shortcut behind the theater and ran into Kasim taking a break. He was gracious enough, as usual, to allow me to take a photo!"

"I'm a fan and I had a good time and I'll go to the Faithful/Initiation show next year but I sure hope a little more effort is put on the front side."

Other websites:
TRConnection has reviews and photos of this gig here.

Chuck Stein has posted a photo of Kasim in his costume from the first set online here

Videos
MikeB has added some videos of this gig here.

The venue (taken from the KasimInfo.com Blog that day):

Tonight Kasim Sulton plays the first gig of the Todd Rundgren Todd/Healing Tour. The gig tonight is at the Akron Civic Theatre in Akron, Ohio.

Todd is currently booked to play six Todd/Healing gigs this month and follow on from the AWATS tour that they played in 2009 and early 2010. That tour also had two European dates but this tour is expected to remain with just the six gigs. Tracks from Todd's albums Todd and Healing will be played at these gigs.

The address of this venue is 182 South Main Street, Akron, OH 44308. Tickets for this gig vary in price from $25 to $175 (plus charges) and can be purchased from this link. A few days ago seats were available in the 26th row. Last year they played two gigs at this venue with the first one selling out.

This theater was built in 1929 and apparently is one of only five remaining theaters in the country where patrons experience a twinkling star-lit sky and intermittent clouds moving across the horizon while sitting inside the auditorium. In June 2001 the theater closed until November 2002 for a $19 million refurbishment. One unusual thing to note about this venue is that the lobby lights are flicked on and off to indicate when the next set is about to start.

Todd Rundgren's 2010 Gigs