Photos and review by: Diane Fleischman

It was a sold out show for Daryl Hall and the Daryl’s House Band with special guest Todd Rundgren Friday night at Wind Creek Event Center. This tour started last year and winds down in August.

It’s hard to imagine this pairing of legendary musicians as a surprise.  The relationship between Hall and Rundgren goes back clear into the 70’s in the Philadelphia music scene. And while neither grew up in Philadelphia proper, both lived outside the borderlines, Rundgren in Upper Darby, and Hall in Pottstown. But both were active musically in Philadelphia. Rundgren achieved great success with his musical career, even more so as a producer, which did include working on a Hall and Oates album.

And then there’s Daryl Hall, half of the successful duo, Hall & Oates, received international success as a musical group.  Coming up on the beginnings of MTV, which catapulted their careers into the stratosphere, their musical sound reflected the sound of Philadelphia, known as Philly Soul.

Todd Rundgren took the stage first, full of energy, moving from one end of the stage to the other. Opening with ‘Love of the Common Man’,  and mixing in ‘Buffalo Grass’, ‘Unwanted Children’ before reaching for two of his biggest hits, ‘We Got to Get You a Woman’ and the haunting, ‘Hello It’s Me’. Rundgren also threw in a few cover songs, ‘Ooo Baby, Baby’ (The Miracles), and ‘I Want You’ (Marvin Gaye).

After a brief intermission, Daryl Hall kicked off his set with his 1986 hit single, ‘Dreamtime’, from the album, ‘Three Hearts in the Happy Ending Machine’, a collaborative effort with Dave Stewart,  which brought the crowd to their feet.  Hall also followed up with a Eurythmic’s hit, ‘Here Comes The Rain Again’.  Even more surprising when he reached back to a previous collaborative album with Robert Fripp, ‘Sacred Songs’ and performed ‘Babs and Babs’. And while this reporter might be a bit biased, as I thought ‘Sacred Songs’ was so innovative for its time, it would have been equally as nice to hear the poignantly painful, ‘Why Was it so Easy’, well maybe next time.

It was a guessing game for the audience, anticipating which Hall & Oates songs will be played. Hall wasted no time with ‘Out of Touch’ as the second song. Then more Hall & Oates favorites followed,  ‘Say it Isn’t So’,  ‘Every Time You Go Away’,  ‘I Can’t Go For That (No Can Do)’,  and then there was ‘Sara Smile’.

Two more Hall & Oates hits were saved for the encore, ‘Wait For Me’, and ‘You Make My Dreams’. All in all, this was a great performance, and a step back into the seventies.