Credit: Danny O’ConnorTodd Rundgren‘s old band Utopia has re-formed for its first tour in 32 years. The trek gets underway on April 18 in Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania, and is scheduled through a June 5 show in Riverside, California.
Utopia, which initially was known as Todd Rundgren’s Utopia, formed in 1973 as a prog-rock band, although it eventually moved toward a mainstream-rock sound. From 1976 to 1986, the group’s lineup was made up of Rundgren, drummer Willie Wilcox, bassist Kasim Sulton and keyboardist Roger Powell.
The current Utopia features Rundgren, Wilcox, Sulton and early keyboardist Ralph Schuckett. Sulton also has played bass with Rundgren’s solo group for many years.
In a video interview promoting the tour, Rundgren explains, “We are going to attempt to cover most all of the significant moments that people would complain about if we didn’t. So, we have a list of songs…that we’re pretty confident people would like to hear or expect to hear.”
Tickets go on sale to the general public this Friday, February 23, at 10 a.m. local time via Ticketmaster.com and LiveNation.com. A variety of pre-sale opportunities, including VIP packages, are available now.
In conjunction with the tour, a limited-edition CD box set called The Road to Utopia: The Complete Recordings (1974-1982) will be released on April 20. The collection features seven of the band’s classic albums: 1974’s Todd Rundgren’s Utopia, 1975’s Another Live, 1977’s Ra and Oops! Wrong Planet, 1979’s Adventures in Utopia, 1980’s Deface the Music and 1982’s Swing to the Right. It also includes 15 bonus tracks, plus new written commentary from Rundgren, Wilcox, Sultan and Powell.
You can pre-order The Road to Utopia now at Friday Music, Amazon and RecordStoreDay.com.
Here are all of Utopia’s confirmed tour dates:
4/18 — Jim Thorpe, PA, Penn’s Peak
4/20 — Englewood, NJ, Bergen Performing Arts Center
4/22 — Houston, TX, House of Blues
4/23 — Dallas, TX, Majestic Theater
4/25 — Broward, FL, Broward Center for the Performing Arts
4/27 — St. Petersburg, FL, Mahaffey Theater
4/28 — Atlanta, GA, Tabernacle
4/29 — Durham, NC, Carolina Theater
5/1 — Huntington, NY, Paramount Theater
5/2 — Washington, D.C., Warner Theater
5/3 — New York, NY, Town Hall
5/5 — Philadelphia, PA, Tower Theater
5/6 — Boston, MA, Orpheum Theater
5/7 — Ridgefield, CT, Ridgefield Playhouse
5/9 — St. Louis, MO, Peabody Opera House
5/10 — Cincinnati, OH, Taft Theater
5/12 — Milwaukee, WI, Pabst Theater
5/13 — Minneapolis, MN, State Theater
5/15 — Grand Rapids, MI, 20 Monroe Live
5/16 — Toronto, ON, Canada, Massey Hall
5/17 — Detroit, MI, The Fillmore
5/19 — Cleveland, OH, Hard Rock Live
5/22 — Chicago, IL, Chicago Theater
5/24 — Denver, CO, Paramount Theater
5/26 — Las Vegas, NV, The Joint at Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Las Vegas
5/27 — Phoenix, AZ, Comerica Theater
5/29 — Los Angeles, CA, The Wiltern
5/30 — San Francisco, CA, The Masonic
6/1 — Seattle, WA, Moore Theater
6/2 — Portland, OR, Revolution Theater
6/4 — Sacramento, CA, Crest Theatre
6/5 — Riverside, CA, Fox Performing Arts Center
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