The Canyon Club

Spent about $350 tonight taking the family to see Todd Rundgren.  I love Todd forever, but this show sucked.  Club was what I expected, weak service and food, way overpriced, but hey, to see Todd?  Doors at six, show at eight our tix say.  We get in about 6:30 and order, then find out the show will start at NINE.  OK.  So it's fucking sweltering in there and the show finally goes off about 9:15, and totally sucks.  False start, and Todd is playing with tracks, which he is fiddling with continuously.  Drummer and guitarist playing with him are never introduced and it was just a disco mess.  Tepid applause for encore brings Todd back solo to do a medley of his hits, rave style.  As drunk patrons hop onstage, security is clueless what to do about it.  They stand back uncomfortably with arms folded watching backstage while drunken 50-something women make fools of themselves dancing around onstage.  What a mess.

The Canyon Club is a great venue, considering. The parking is easy and free, but the drinks are not. $8.50 for a plastic cup of domestic beer is ridiculous. The food is mediocre, at best, and the service is pretty bad. Getting a good seat by buying dinner is a waste of money.
But you come for the music.
The sound is usually pretty good, but varies greatly depending on the band, and the sound mixer. The size of the venue is just right, and the acoustics are pretty good. You can usually see really well because the place isn't that big.

The Todd Rundgren show (7/11/13) was pretty sad. Todd has gone techno! WTF!? He showed up with just a drummer and guitarist, and was playing to pre-recorded tracks. Is this a "live" show!? Todd hardly picked up his guitar at all, and spent most of the time singing (and rapping?) terribly, and waving his arms around ambiguously. It seemed like a really pathetic, desperate attempt to be current. It seemed like he went to a rave, and said: "I want to do THAT". - FAIL -
The only hint of his previously brilliant career as a songwriter came at the encore, when he stood alone on the stage and pushed "go" on his computer, and the audience was assaulted with a techno medley of his hit songs, with Todd, still wailing his arms around, and singing badly. Just embarrassing.

I went to see the ABC concert on June 15th. Great place to see a fantastic show! The performance was excellent! Martin Fry, the lead singer,  put on a superb show! Unfortunately, none of the others were the original band members, but they did an outstanding job. The backup singer, I believe her name is Lily Gonzalez, has a wonderful voice. Even though the drive from my house is over an hour away, the Canyon Club's show was well worth the drive. If I lived in the Valley, I'd love to come to a lot of the great bands that are offered at this venue with an intimate setting. Great view of the stage!  I recommend you to check out the schedule and attend some fabulous acts of the past. A rare treat!