Just for a second, try to picture Blondie without Debbie Harry. It's impossible, particularly for anyone who's seen the revered new-wave outfit in concert recently. Friday night at the Aladdin, Harry could have sashayed onstage at the head of a competent high-school four-piece and the outcome would have basically been the same: Her singing, dancing and commanding presence totally define the experience.
The same would seem to hold true for the Cars, who embodied synthed-up rock in the early 1980s the same way Blondie epitomized New York's rebellious CBGB's scene in the late '70s. Hear "Cars" and you think Ric Ocasek—the voice, the hair, the sunglasses—with the caveat that bassist Ben Orr sang a few of the band's best songs.
Neither of the Cars' drivers were present Friday. Orr succumbed to pancreatic cancer in 2000, and Ocasek opted out of this year's comeback tour, seemingly quashing the reunion before it happened. Ah, but never underestimate the lure of a big payday. We've had the Doors without Jim, the Dead Kennedys sans Jello, even Queen minus Freddie. So who needs Ric? If you're Cars keyboardist Greg Hawkes and guitarist Elliot Easton, why not call up old buddy Todd Rundgren, have him cop Ocasek's staccato vocal, slap a "New" on the project and refill those dwindling bank accounts?
Where an Ocasek-fronted band likely would have packed the 7,500-capacity Theatre for the Performing Arts, though, Friday's bogus approximation left around two-thirds of the room empty, particularly when Blondie's loyalists left after the opener's hour-long performance. Blondie really ought to have headlined, but the recent Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees weren't even listed on the ticket.
Regardless, the 60-year-old Harry proved herself the class of the operation, overcoming equipment problems and rare Aladdin sound issues—and, according to one fan-club member, illness—to construct a lively and at times memorable set. Big hits "Rapture" and "Heart of Glass" seduced the crowd to the foot of the stage, but the night's poignant moment actually proved to be a surprising cover of Roxy Music's "More Than This," an ideal match for Harry's vibrant lower range.
On paper, the New Cars' set list was also a winner, filled not just with obvious singles like "Good Times Roll," "Shake it Up" and "You Might Think," but also with such well-chosen album cuts as "Candy-O," "Bye Bye Love" and the classic "Moving in Stereo"/"All Mixed Up" pairing. But hearing Rundgren sing them, you couldn't help yearning for Ocasek and Orr and not what essentially amounted to a tight Cars cover band, and when the stand-in frontman sprinkled in "I Saw the Light," "Bang the Drum All Day" and some of his other solo material, it sounded as out of place as he did.