With apologies to whomever coined the phrase “Grateful Dead concerts are like baseball games,” I gotta say being a Todd Rundgren fan is something like being a Dead Head. 

And sometimes, the two are intertwined, as was evident at Rundgren’s Aug. 21 gig at the Agora in Cleveland, where a smattering of Grateful Dead and Dead & Company T-shirts and hoodies were seen in the audience and I ran into a friend from St. Louis who I see only at Rundgren gigs. Furthurmore, let’s remember Tubes co-founder Vince Welnick was touring and recording with Rundgren when the Gratefuls came calling in 1990. 

I’d seen Welnick play with Rundgren several times – and with the Tubes on shared bills with Utopia – before catching his Dead debut in suburban Cleveland. And as I took in my 47th Rundgren solo gig, it struck me that I’ve seen Rundgren play far more unique song titles than I saw the Grateful Dead play in nearly twice as many shows. 

Now, you don’t tour with Rundgren – his setlists tend to be static and the only difference between this show and the July 5 performance in Columbus (previously covered by Jambands) was “Soul Brother” replacing “Born to Synthesize” during the acoustic set otherwise known as “the Cleveland Folk Festival.” But Rundgren mixes things up from year to year and tour to tour, which leaves fans with an unreal number of songs to have heard live. 

Some of this has to do with Rundgren’s propensity for full-album shows – he’s done tours that featured Todd; Healing; A Wizard, a True Star; Liars; Arena; State; and Nearly Human. He digs deep into his repertoire (this tour featured my first in-person encounter with “Sweeter Memories”) and, like the Dead, is prone to playing a wide array of covers. 

These come mostly – but by no means exclusively as Rundgren will play solo acoustic, with orchestras and with various bands who can reproduce everything from guitar-based rock to EDM – on his Unpredictable tours. These treks epitomize truth in advertising and are the tours that do feature differing setlists from night to night. 

This is when Rundgren swings from the ridiculous (Rebecca Black’s “Friday,” “Muskrat Love”) to the revered (the Beatles “I Want You (She’s So Heavy),” the Cars’ “Good Times Roll”). Songs by ? and the Mysterians, Melanie, Lorne Greene, Weezer, Jerry Lee Lewis and Cheap Trick – alas, no Grateful Dead – are as likely to appear at these shows as are songs by Nazz, Runt, Utopia and other Rundgren-adjacent artists. 

So while Grateful Dead are rightly celebrated for mixing things up, the ever-evolving Rundgren has been quietly building a humongous repertoire for nearly 60 years now. 

Though the setlists were nearly identical, Cleveland’s Damned if I Do tour stop was superior to Columbus’. The band was tighter; Rundgren’s voice was in excellent shape; and the musician seemed happy to be back in the city that’s supported him more than most and where Back to the Bars was recorded in the 1970s. 

Rundgren can be an acquired taste and he’s not for everyone. Some might even say he’s like licorice. 

But adventurous listeners like Dead Heads are sure to find something to love in his catalog and concerts. I’ve taken many uninitiated but big-eared friends to Rundgren gigs over the years and they’ve all left with stolen faces. 

“What kind of music was that?” one said after a gig in Kent, Ohio, about 15 years ago. 

“It’s Todd Rundgren music,” I said.

He nodded silently. He got it.