Album review : TODD RUNDGREN – Live At The Ritz NYC 1989 (2CDs)

September 10th, 2026 by brianmc

Cherry Red [Release date : 25.09.26]

Todd Rundgren’s first promotional gig of his 12th studio album and first for 4 years, Nearly Human (1989), took place at the New York City Ritz on its release date.

Rundgren being Rundgren had taken a handpicked 10 piece band on the road with him. Perfect conditions.

The gig was recorded for FM radio consumption at the time, on a 24 track mobile studio. All these years later, sought after US studio engineer, Stephen Tayler, has mixed it down for this 2CD release.

That’s what we have here.

Rundgren’s setlist included cowrites with members of the Tubes, (a band known for its mix of topical satire and subversive postmodern routines), most notably ‘Feel It’, taken from Nearly Human.

There’s a few Motown covers too, a medley of Marvin Gaye’s ‘Whats Goin On’, ‘Mercy Mercy Me’ and ‘I Want You’ opens and closes with Rundgren’s ‘Lost Horizon’, a standout from his Acapella album (1985), and is itself often described as a tribute to Gaye.

On the infectious concert opener ‘Real Man’, he once again sounds so much like Daryl Hall that it’s just not true. The radio-friendly tones make it sound like he’s “Live At Daryl’s House”.

It’s also good to hear it survived the critical pounding the parent album, Initiation received from the music media (1975).

The album’s and therefore the set’s mixture of soul and R’n’B, is clearly strongly influenced by Rundgren’s youthful addiction to AM radio. And much of it, like ‘Parallel Lines’, ‘The Want Of a Nail’ and the hardhitting ‘Unloved Children’ take that reference as a starting point before heading out in a more polished, pop direction.

Live, he sounds great. The recorded sound has been teased in all the right directions. He’s in the room.
Rundgren : “you always wind up doing the material better later, and we did get the songs to sound better on the tour”.

Allmusic, Classic Rock and Rolling Stone all gave the album four stars from five. ****

Review by Brian McGowan

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