It can be tough for touring musicians to keep track of what city they’re in and what city they’re going to next.
So, it’s not unusual for musician Todd Rundgren to say something like this during a phone interview: “We’ve hit Buffalo, Albany and New York City. Tomorrow, Virginia Beach and the day after that, Pittsburgh, I think?”
But it’s unusual when you factor in that Rundgren isn’t physically going anywhere.
The 72-year-old musician and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame nominee is trying out a new touring model that has his band playing 25 dates at the same Chicago venue, but each show is geotargeted to specific cities.
Called the “Clearly Human Live Virtual Tour,” shows include video walls with call-outs to host towns. Rundgren and his band can virtually see some audience members, who keep a comment stream flowing with excited reactions. And even though he’s in Chicago, Rundgren says things like, “Buffalo, you’ve been so kind to us.”
The tour has a Denver date on Friday, when Rundgren imagines he and the band will get green chili to eat backstage.
While the model makes sense for the coronavirus pandemic, that’s not what inspired Rundgren’s idea.
“I actually started thinking about it a couple years ago,” he said.
The “I Saw The Light” singer decided to change the way he was touring in hopes of cutting down on traveling.
“I’m 72 years old at this point, and the traveling tends to eat into your sleep patterns,” he said. “That’s how I make sure I stay healthy. I want to continue to perform and I don’t want to expose myself to the possibility of getting sick.”
He set up tours so he’d only have to fly and not ride in a bus. But that proved challenging, too.
“With much more flying, there was a lot of waiting for delayed flights and canceled flights and frantic rerouting to get me to the gig,” he said, adding that changes happened because of bad weather or wildfires.
“A lot of this is because of the process of climate change,” Rundgren said. “I started thinking what happens when it gets so bad that you’re not able to travel at all?”
He started to devise a plan.
Over his 50 years in music, Rundgren isn’t just known for his catchy soft rock songs. He has become known for his tech-savvy innovations.
One example: He designed the first tablet for Apple in 1979.
Rundgren’s other “firsts” include the original interactive television concert in 1978, the initial cablecast of a rock concert in 1982, the first online direct artist subscription service in 1998, and the full-length concert shot with multiple Virtual Reality 360-degree cameras in 2016.
“I kind of can’t help myself,” Rundgren said of trying new things.
He’s always thinking about ways to surprise and delight his fans, he said. When he turned 70, for example, he had four birthday parties with fans.
“I personally believe it’s worth every moment you invest in your fans,” he said. “They convince other people to pay attention to what I’m doing.”
And his fans love what he’s doing.
Ahead of each show for the “Clearly Human” tour, they send packages full of specialties from their city. It helps get the band in the mood, even from afar.
After playing a few virtual shows with his 10-person backing band, Rundgren said the model could be seen more in the future.
“When it’s possible to tour again, this might be a way to do things and a necessary way to do things,” he said. “It’s a good option.”
This content was originally published here.
