Todd Rundgren and his band rocked Madison’s Barrymore Theatre last night, and I do mean rock. Oh and for those of you counting, that’s two big concerts in three days for me (it’s been a good week).

The show began in a big way with “Love in Action” from his days in Utopia. When the band repeatedly sang the line before the title phrase, “You can’t stop, you can’t stop…” I thought, what you can’t stop is the energy emanating from the stage. They played with a garage-band-like ferociousness, pounding out the power chords.

Todd kept digging deep into his back catalog with “Black Mariah,” “Open My Eyes” and “I Saw The Light” all of which the crowd just ate up. The first part of the set also included a couple of covers: The Call’s “The Walls Came Down” and Red Rider’s “Lunatic Fringe.”

After the first part of the set, Todd said, “Now we come to the real reason you’re here. To get a bootleg copy of our new album, recorded on your cell phone.”

The band then played through the entire tracklist of Todd Rundgren’s new CD, Arena. Those songs held up very well next to the older stuff. Todd has certainly not lost his gift for songwriting. Even when he’s rocking out there are memorable melodic hooks and choruses. I liked the new songs so much I bought the new disc from the merch table at the show.

Todd certainly didn’t hold anything back when he sang the older songs, but I thought he sang the new stuff with renewed passion. Maybe it was simply because the songs are fairly new, but it made them sound that much better. Judging by the audience reaction, I wasn’t the only one that felt that way.

The new album is an homage to the sound of arena rock and the band definitely put out enough sound to fill a 10,000 seat venue. It’s also filled with political overtones, some subtle, some not. Before this part of the show, Todd even told us “the evening will now turn into a seminar in anger management.” I thought the band was managing their anger admirably, channeling it straight into rock ‘n roll.

During the show I was also reminded what a good guitarist Todd Rundgren is. He and his four band mates (including guitarist/keyboardist and fellow Utopia member, Kasim Sultan) all gave fantastic performances.

For the encore, the band played a raucous version of “Couldn’t I Just Tell You” and closed with “Just One Victory.” After the many sardonic comments Todd made about last night’s Presidential debate (my favorite was, “John McCain is going to change the dynamic of the election tonight, by making his head explode”), that song seemed a hopeful way to end the show:

If you don’t know what to do about a world of trouble,
You can pull it through if you need to and if,
You believe it’s true, it will surely happen,
Shining still, to give us the will,
Bright as the day, to show us the way,
Somehow, someday,
We need just one victory and were on our way,
Praying for it all day and fighting for it all night,
Give us just one victory, it will be all right.