Tuesday, August 13, 2002

Daryl Hall must be a pretty good guy. Though Hall & Oates has always seemed as one-sided, talent-wise, as any pairing in pop history, he never dumped John Oates nor renamed the act the Daryl Hall Duo. Hall played the good soldier some more during his and Oates's Sunday night show at Merriweather Post Pavilion: He not only heaped praise on his partner, but also made sure his ample fan base took note of fellow Philadelphian (and former Hall & Oates producer) Todd Rundgren. Rundgren seldom got the sales or radio play of Hall & Oates. His opening set at Merriweather hinted that this relative lack of success is a crime against humanity. Had Rundgren quit writing songs after crafting his only Top 10 single, "Hello, It's Me" (written in 1969), his pop genius would already have been proved. Hall & Oates, which never got the critical acclaim accorded Rundgren, threw most of their smash singles at the largely baby boomer and female audience. Hall's faithful reproductions of the pair's earliest blue-eyed soul hits during the closing set, most notably "She's Gone" and "Sara Smile," revealed strong similarities between those works and Rundgren's early-1970s product. The performances also left a strong impression that perhaps the duo deserved a better lot from the critics. Even later successes, including "Private Eyes," "I Can't Go for That" and "Kiss on My List," inspired pavilion-wide singalongs and made for supreme summer concert fare. Oates, who spent most of the night strumming chords as Hall did all the heavy lifting, did take center stage to croon "Color of Love," a rather nondescript but danceable ballad set for release later this year. For the encore, Hall reintroduced Rundgren and shared lead vocals with him on some vintage Rundgren material, including 1978's "Can We Still Be Friends" and 1972's "I Saw the Light." The tunes sounded simultaneously fabulous and like Hall & Oates. -- Dave McKenna