Todd Rundgren rolls into House of Blues Houston on Wednesday, June 17 as part of the Damned If I Do tour — 33 North American dates extending into a European leg, the whole thing framed as a catalog run through more than fifty years of material. At 77, Rundgren isn’t coasting. He’s bringing a full five-piece band, and if his own words are any guide — “It’s always a challenge for me because my audience is so diverse, I never know what they’re in the mood for. I want to make sure we have all the musical ammunition we need to satisfy the spectrum” — this show is going to range.
About Todd Rundgren
The thing about a Rundgren show is that he’s not one artist. He’s at least four. The cult Philly teenager who founded The Nazz in the late ’60s. The wunderkind who recorded Something/Anything? in 1972 entirely by himself — every instrument, every vocal, self-produced — and landed “Hello It’s Me” in the top five. The progressive rock architect who formed Utopia in 1974, spending the next decade building something that had more in common with a collective than a conventional band. And the producer behind landmark records for Patti Smith, Cheap Trick, Hall & Oates, XTC, Meat Loaf, and Grand Funk Railroad — a discography whose fingerprints are on a significant chunk of the rock canon.
All of those versions may show up on June 17. That’s the draw and the slight gamble. His most recent record is Space Force (2022), though this tour is billed around the catalog — fan-favorite classics across the full span of his work.
The band making this run: Gil Assayas on keys, Bruce McDaniel on guitar, Prairie Prince on drums, Bobby Strickland on horns, and Kasim Sulton on bass. Sulton is a former Utopia bandmate, which means at least one of the progressive chapter’s original architects is in place.
House of Blues Houston
The Houston date is the middle stop of a tight Texas three-city run — Dallas at the Majestic Theatre the night before, San Antonio at the HEB Performance Hall at Tobin Center two nights after. House of Blues Houston at 1,800 capacity on Caroline Street is the right scale for this: large enough to feel like an event, fitted well for an artist whose crowd skews longtime fan over curious passerby.
Tickets & Pricing
Showtime is 7:00 PM. Tickets are available through Ticketmaster. Browse the Houston concerts calendar for more area shows.