By the time Todd Rundgren toured Arena in 2008, he was playing clubs and theaters packed mostly with longtime fans who were game for anything.
So, Rundgren, being the iconoclast he is, played the brand-new thing front-to-back, offering the LP’s 13 one-word-title, arena-worthy rock ‘n’ roll songs alongside a smattering of tracks from Nazz (“Open My Eyes”), Utopia (“Love in Action”) and his solo career as with “Black Maria” and “I Saw the Light,” the single bone for hit-seeking concertgoers.
Seventeen years after the fact – and when most of the songs save for “Weakness” are long gone from the setlist – comes Arena Tour Live. And for those of us enamored with Rundgren’s 19th solo album, it’s a fantastical flashback to a vocal-cord-shredding, guitar-shredding, in-yer-face era when songs like “Mad,” “Gun” and “Mountaintop” provided some insight to the former Runt’s mindset during the aughts.
There are fades between several songs and the producers inexplicably flipped the encores so “Couldn’t I Just Tell You” follows “Just One Victory” – which did not happen. Minor annoyances aside, Arena Tour Live makes for a fresh listen to a generally under-appreciated gem from 21st-century Rundgren.
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