By Mike McKenney, Rock At Night New England
Live Review: Daryl Hall with Special Guest Todd Rundgren and featuring Daryl Hall’s House Band-Orpheum Theatre, Boston, Massachusetts-Monday April 11, 2022
It’s not too often you can see two Hall of Fame artists in one show, especially two that complement each other so well. Todd Rundgren and Daryl Hall did just that on a rare Monday night concert.
With the personable Todd Rundgren taking the stage first to open the evening, backed by Hall’s incredible “Daryl Hall’s House Band”, featured on his long running “Live From Daryl’s House” show,
Rundgren choose the perfect opener with “Real Man”, from his 1975 Initiation album and the crowd rewarded him with a standing ovation. Continuing on with “Love of the Common Man”, “It Wouldn’t Have Made Any Difference” and fan favorites, “We Gotta Get You A Woman”, Todd meandered around some obstacles on the stage nearly falling more than once but the agile 73-year-old musician never wavered, never skipped a beat.
Personal favorites, “Hello It’s Me”, “Sometimes I Don’t Know What To Feel”, and “I Saw The Light” were interspersed with covers such as The Impressions, “I’m So Proud “ and Marvin Gaye’s “I Want You”. Between songs, Rundgren introduced his new electric guitar, “Pearly” and quickly put it to good use ripping off a solo during “Buffalo Grass”.
Todd ended his 60-minute set with an energetic “The Want of a Nail “, proving he still had a lot of energy left in the tank. During a brief intermission, the stage was changed over to reference the set of Daryl’s TV show, complete with neon “Daryl’s House” logo. Daryl took the stage and was warmly greeted as some in the audience were scrambling to get back to their seats.
Opening his set with “Dreamtime” from his 1986 album release Three Heart In The Happy Ending Machine, Daryl seemed to be having some issues with the stage set up and the positioning of his foot pedal. Always the perfectionist, Hall appeared to be getting visibly frustrated, motioning to the stage support to make adjustments throughout the first few songs. However, he had nothing to worry about as Daryl and his band sounded great.
Hall settled into his set with “It Uncanny”, and then spoke to the audience about his next song, “Problem with You (T-Bone’s Last Ride)”. As Hall tried to tell his story of the last song he and his long-time friend and bass player, Tom “T-Bone” Wolk worked on together, some moron in the crowd kept interrupting him. A clearly agitated Hall shot back, “Do you want to hear the story or not? What the fuck is wrong with you, the man died”. With that the crowd roared with approval and Hall went on to play a great set that included “Cab Driver, “Sacred Songs”, and of course “Sara Smile”.
Highlights of Hall’s set included a haunting cover of The Eurythmics, “Here Comes the Rain Again” accompanied by the amazing guitarist Shane Theriot’s solo.
In addition to Theriot, the Daryl Hall’s House Band, features guitarist Shane Theriot, bassist Klyde Jones, saxophonist Charlie DeChant, keyboardist Elliott Lewis, percussionist, Porter Carroll, and drummer Brian Dunne. A wickedly talented group of musicians, they perform on the Live at Daryl’s House television show.
Fans got what they came for when following Hall’s set, Todd Rundgren came back out and performed a three song encore with Daryl Hall. The two Philly blue-eyed soul singers converged together for a gut wrenching performance of Rundgren’s “Wait For Me”, and hallmark “Can We Still Be Friends”.
An upbeat cover of a seldom heard, The Soul Survivors cover “Expressway to Your Heart”, had everyone on their feet.
Todd Rundgren then left the stage to a standing ovation as did Daryl Hall when he finished the night off with his “You Make My Dreams Come True”. A great night of live music performed by two of rock’s legends that proved they can still entertain, it just doesn’t get any better than that.
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Mike McKenney is an award winning professional photographer and current New England Correspondent for Rock At Night magazine.
With his years of experience and passion for Concert Photography, Mike has photographed many of the famous acts in the world today.
Rock Icons such as Sting, Peter Gabriel, Dave Matthews, and Fleetwood Mac along with Country artist Blake Shelton, Kenny Chesney,and Jason Aldean have all appeared before Mike’s camera.
"My goal is always to present the experience truthfully so fans can feel the energy and emotions the Artists convey. It’s a tremendous honor and responsibility to be allowed to create art while blending my two passions, music and photography”
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