who surprised and who disappointed

Martyki, no, not a case of Bizrro Universe. The concert I'm speaking of was late 73 or early 74, Keith Moon still with band. I suppose we could never make a peep as one song went right into the next, this show still stands as perhaps the best I ever attended.
Todd Rungren, yes, his band was terrible, Hill Auditorium, Ann Arbor mid 70's, perhaps half the crowd left prior to the end of the concert.

SNS: I guess today we learned that "Timing is everything in life"!

BTW Every time I see The Who (once in each of the lasr four decades) they are better than the last. The most recent show was last year at The Hollywood Bowl and I thought PT really upped his game on the leads.

FWIW Music choices aside, Rundgren is a fantastic player and usually surrounds himself with very capable accompaniment. It's unfortunate that you seem to have caught an exception to that rule.

06-19-06: Martykl
Every time I see The Who (once in each of the lasr four decades) they are better than the last. The most recent show was last year at The Hollywood Bowl and I thought PT really upped his game on the leads.

I was at that show, too. Also at the Greek Theater show several months later. At the Greek Theater show, Pete gave an absolute guitar clinic to all the wannabes in the audience. That's a performance I will always remember.

Big disappointment last night, even though I didn't have any major expectations going in. I won't say who the band was because they were local heroes from the 60's, with one album to their credit, who recently re-formed but with only 2 of 5 members from the original lineup intact. The most recognized among them -- the guitarist who went on to form a hard rock band on a major label which recorded extensively and toured internationally in the 70's, and the bassist who co-founded a very long-running and nationally-known blues/rock band -- both did not participate. Instead on lead guitar was a local hot-shot whose name I've been aware of for over 20 years, who has national recognition in guitar circles with many albums to his credit and is also a teacher and author/columnist, but who I'd never heard or seen before myself (except for one time on local radio). Anyway, I thought the entire show was awful in every respect, including and especially this guitar-god guy, plus the vocalist (one of the original members), so I got up and walked out after only several songs despite the $20 admission, 'cause I just couldn't stand listening another minute. Oh well, c'est la vie...