Todd Rundgren in Cleveland

The land of the Todd Rundgren faithful received a Todd Rundgren show for the faithful as the man brought his Still Me (Still We) trek to the Agora Theater and Ballroom. 

It was a Saturday night in Cleveland when Rundgren and his five-piece band – the one-time Utopians Kasim Sulton on bass and Gil Assayas on keys; former Tubes drummer Prairie Prince; guitarist Bruce McDaniel; and Bobby Strickland on keys, woodwinds, percussion and dance moves that made him something of a silent hype man – played 23 songs spanning 50 years from 1972’s “Hello It’s Me” (part of a hits medley that began the encore) to 2022’s jocular sea shanty, “Down with the Ship.” 

The latter began a late-show run that found Sulton, Rundgren and McDaniel a cappella around a single mic for a heartbreaking rendition of “Honest Work.” From here, the homestretch featured Rundgren exploring his inner-most feelings, as he celebrated a deeply personal relationship on Utopia’s dance track “Rock Love” – “Get thee behind me satan,” he screamed – and then turned to the spiritual. 

The 21st-century “God Said” cast the narrator as the titular, exasperated deity emphatically telling humanity, “Get over yourself.” The 1990s-era “Fascist Christ,” with its scratching and rapping, sounded more relevant than ever in 2025; “Hawking,” a soulful, goosebump-producing prayer casting god as “the world’s greatest lover,” was a profession of faith; and “Worldwide Epiphany” bookended its contemporary, the aforementioned “Christ.” 

At 77, Rundgren is of deeper voice these days but remains an intelligent, powerful vocalist who can still pull off  songs even 50 years old, such as “I Think You Know.” This moody, brooding ballad, which opened the two-hour show, set the tone with subtle lighting, tight playing and Rundgren demonstrating his lead-guitar playing skills have lost none of their impact over the decades. 

An extension of 2024’s Me/We tour, the ’25’s edition found the sextet even tighter, essentially perfect but not stale as they plumbed the variety of Rundgren’s songbook. Together, they celebrated the bond between artist and audience on Utopia’s post-disco “Secret Society;” explored moody blues on “Weakness;” expressed personal pain on the new-agey “Lost Horizon;” and pondered love after death on the deeply moving, rarely performed “Afterlife.” 

When he wasn’t soloing on his beloved sea-green guitar dubbed “Foamy,” the black-clad Rundgren paced the lip of the stage; pantomimed his lyrics with his free hands; acted the conductor on the faux symphonic “Kindness,” on which Strickland and Prince shone on soprano sax and with mallets, respectively; and left the absent social commentary – the oft-loquacious Rundgren didn’t speak to the crowd – to such songs as “Woman’s World,” a new addition to the set alongside “Wouldn’t You Like to Know.” 

Closing the book with the mournful “The Last Ride” and the  hopeful “A Dream Goes on Forever,” Rundgren left the faithful to hope the former remains far off and the latter remains true.