04/01/2026
On October 23rd, 1978 the prodigious Todd Rundgren and his band, Utopia, recorded a live album at the Electric Ballroom on Milwaukee’s Near West Side. Most known as a guitar hero with a vast vocal range, Rundgren’s influence flowed throughout the 70’s and 80’s. Further, as a producer, writer, and engineer, the Philadelphia wizard left his fingerprints on projects belonging to the New York Dolls, Janis Joplin, Meatloaf, Hall & Oates, Grand Funk Railroad, Patti Smith, and XTC.
The live album serves as an audible Time Machine, transporting listeners today to a specific night in Milwaukee, fully subject to Rundgren’s masterful authority. This utopic night blasts off with a synth chord progression bolstered by lush cymbals, immediately introducing a four-piece capable of transforming the halls of the 1978 Electric Ballroom into an experience brimming with sensation and sentiment. At Rundgren’s throes, the audience is pushed and pulled through soft rock ballads, prog rock instrumentals, and power pop melodies.
After the second song on the album, Rundgren provides an ode to the Electric Ballroom, concluding the tender “It Wouldn’t Have Made Any Difference” with an equally charming “Welcome to this hallowed place, this sacred sepulchre, this… Milwaukee.” In response, the 1978 Milwaukee audience cheers, and the gracious atmosphere is palpable. Like-minded listeners today, subject to the envious “I should’ve been there” grasshopper, can forever thank Rundgren for his generous deliverance into Milwaukee rock history, and most notably, one hell of an album.
The photo is from this night, October 23rd, 1978. Check out the album on our Palms & Electric Ballroom playlist: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/14wBKkVAZg8nPC9kshK4Zf?si=9694406581224308
