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Todd Rundgren at KEMBA Live!, Columbus, Ohio, July 5, 2026

Todd Rundgren had several surprises for fans who gathered July 5 at the Columbus, Ohio, stop on the Damned if I Do tour.

The first came 60 minutes in, when, after a joyful version of “Woman’s World” that found Rundgren turning windmills on the sea-green guitar he calls “Foamy,” the 78-year-old announced a short “pee break.”

When Rundgren and his band returned 10 minutes later, the KEMBA Live! stage was transformed for an acoustic set that opened with “Love of the Common Man.” Rundgren and Bruce McDaniel played six- and 12-string guitars, respectively; Kasim Sulton was on acoustic bass; keyboardist Gil Assayas remained plugged in; and drummer Prairie Prince, the only man standing, played a small kit with his hands.

Multi-instrumentalist Bobby Strickland (woodwinds, keys, percussion) meanwhile, added pipe while McDaniel played mandolin - an instrument Sound Bites has never seen at 50-plus Rundgren shows - on “Cliché;” Strickland’s saxophone took the place of feedbackjng electric guitar on “Tiny Demons.”

“I Don’t Want to Tie You Down” and “Born to Synthesize” followed. The latter was stretched out; swinging and jazzy while each musician took a solo at Rundgren’s direction. The playfulness was followed by the earnestness of “Honest Work,” delivered a cappella by Rundgren, Sulton and McDaniel through a single mic to a dead-silent house that gave a standing ovation when it, and the acoustic detour, ended.

The homestretch of the 80-minute back half plumbed the diversity of Rundgren’s songbook, from the novelty of “Bang the Drum All Day,” with an audience member on the titular instrument; to the guitar-based blues of “No. 1 Lowest Common Denominator;” to the classical-leaning “Kindness” with Rundgren conducting; through to the Motown medley of “I’m So Proud/Ooh Baby Baby/I Want You,” the latter in a bossa nova arrangement; to Utopia’s anthemic, pop-rock, sing- and clap-along “One World.”

Early on, Rundgren said he’d been playing Ohio’s capital “since days of yore,” thanked fans for buying tickets during a time of war-related inflation and apologized if their dogs are limited to a month of dry food as a result. The joke re-emerged before the final encore - another surprise in the form of the almost-never-played “Sweeter Memories,” which followed “Can We Still be Friends” and “Hello it’s Me,” hits Rundgren relegated to a medley on his last two tours.

Though he doesn’t sing or jump as high as he once did, Rundgren remains a remarkably powerful vocalist and his lead-guitar playing is as potent as ever, whether on the dance-floor groove of Utopia’s “Secret Society” or the fuzz-toned garage rock of Nazz’s “Open My Eyes.”

The only thing more amazing than Rundgren’s ongoing ability to surprise is that he still cares enough to do so after nearly 60 years of making music. To that end, he made the complex vocal arrangement of the ethereal “Lost Horizon” even more dense, remained as goofy as ever as he emoted and stalked the lip of the stage on 21st-century songs like “Stood Up” and “Down with the Ship” and gave McDaniel plenty of room to play what Frank Zappa would’ve termed “stunt guitar” on “Black and White.”

This show was so powerful, the first thing Mr. and Mrs. Sound Bites did upon returning home was to book tickets and a hotel for Rundgren’s August gig in Cleveland.

Grade card: Todd Rundgren at KEMBA Live! - 7/5/26 - A

See more photos on Sound Bites’ Facebook page.

The Tubes - The Tubes

Designers: Michael Cotten, Prairie Prince

Photographer: Ian Patrick

80's Fest Album of the day 2: Love Bomb by @TheTubesGroup featuring One Good Reason (1985) #thetubes #lovebomb #onegoodreason #80s #80sfest #durandurantulsas8thannual80sfest