Jake Williams
Equinox Staff
Hello it’s Todd Rundgren, two violins, a viola, and a cello!
What may first sound like part of a riddle or a joke is really the latest collaborative performance that ties in with this year’s theme of the Redfern Arts Center.
Veteran rocker Todd Rundgren, who has been creating, producing and innovating for close to half a century, joined forces with ETHEL to bring the sounds of the ‘70s to the Redfern Tuesday, Oct. 23.
The other half of the “Tell Me Something Good” tour is the eclectic New York City-based string quartet ETHEL, comprised of members Ralph Farris, Dorothy Lawson, Kip Jones and Tema Watstein.
Although this group is made up of instruments generally associated with classical repertoire, Shannon Mayers, director of the Redfern Arts Center, said ETHEL is really more like a band than a string quartet.
In the music program, Pitchfork.com describes ETHEL “as a necessary jet of cold water in the contemporary classical scene.”
This group showed their originality with adaptations of two very different songs in their set, Herbie Hancock’s “Watermelon Man” and Led Zeppelin’s “Kashmir.”
The latter song was an easier, more logical transition, being a song heavily dominated by orchestral strings.
However, “Watermelon Man” showcased the groups’ transposing ability as they created the whistle, bass, keyboard, and drum sounds all by using various techniques on their instruments.
According to Mayers, it was Rundgren’s fascination with how ETHEL played their instruments that spurred their collaboration back in 2005.
On the Monday night prior to the concert, Rundgren and the members of ETHEL held a music workshop in the Alumni Recital Hall. Here, they offered a window into the way rock songs could be recreated with string instruments.
Mayers said about 80 people showed up to this event, ranging from music majors, to “core” Todd fans, to community members.
“We did a lot of public promotion because we wanted everybody to take advantage, which is the theme of what we’re doing this year,” Mayers said.
“Creative Connections” is the Redfern’s theme for 2012-13, which stands to clearly communicate that events going on at the Redfern are not just for Keene State College students, but for anyone who is interested.
Marcus McCarroll, said he and his band attended the event hoping to learn more about transposing rock songs to strings.
“That was very cool,” McCarroll said, “They started out [by playing] ‘Eleanor Rigby.’ They didn’t have anybody singing but it felt like there was someone singing, you could hear the words.”
McCarroll said the groups broke down how they create these effects, demonstrating two songs they would play during the concert, “Watermelon Man” and Rundgren’s “Black Maria.”
Although ETHEL’s originality was certainly front and center in this event, organizers also shined light on Rundgren’s innovations.
In the event program, Todd is credited for 11 multimedia “firsts” including: the first nationally broadcast stereo radio concert, producing and directing the second music video to ever air on MTV, as well as the creation of the first color graphics tablet for Apple in 1980.
In an article in the Keene Sentinel, Rundgren explained how close he came to forgoing a musical career to be a computer programmer.
Rundgren is an accomplished musical engineer, having produced records for artists such as Meatloaf, Hall and Oates and Grand Funk Railroad. Concertgoer Greg Devlin compared Rundgren to rock innovators such as Frank Zappa, citing his chord structures and his overall uniqueness as justification.
Despite these accomplishments, Mayers said there was a feeling that the younger generation didn’t know much about the singer prior to this concert.
To mediate this fact, the event organizers set up in the Young Student Center, “Can you name that Todd tune?” was the name of the promotion they came up with.
“I don’t think anybody could name any tune from Todd,” Mayers said in between chuckles, “Although he has big hits that, I guess, my generation would know.”
After modifying the challenge to “Can you name that ‘70s tune?,” somebody finally won a free ticket to the show.
The crowd certainly represented Mayers’ assumption.
It was evident looking at the attendees that the show drew a large crowd of serious Rundgren fans– McCarroll even brought his seven Rundgren vinyls to be autographed.
Yet Mayers was adamant the show wasn’t just for those familiar with the group or for music majors.
“It’s more than just having that group of students come,” Mayers said, “ It’s just music, it’s fun music.”
Jake Williams can be contacted at
jwilliams@keene-equinox.com