Hello, it's Todd, coming to House of Blues

IT'S NOT ALL that unexpected for a rock star to be ensconced in a hotel room in North Carolina on an odd weekday in the middle of a tour, but in truth,

Todd Rundgren

was in Raleigh this week to scout the shortstop for the Carolina Mudcats of the Southern League, that minor league made famous in the Kevin Costner flick "Bull Durham."

"My son, Rex, is playing his last games in double-A before the Marlins move him up, and I'm here to see the games," said Rundgren. Then he chuckled about Rex's next team. "It's the Albuquerque Isotopes - Homer Simpson's favorite team. Guess that's appropriate."

Before he hits an Isotopes game, though, Rundgren has a rock tour to get through, and tomorrow it takes him to the House of Blues at the Showboat Atlantic City, a homecoming of sorts for the 59-year-old, who grew up in Upper Darby and whose brother and mother now live in Ocean City.

"I guess I've played in Atlantic City about a dozen times now in various band configurations - Ringo Starr's big band and Walk Down Abbey Road, which was another kind of all-star thing, and, like now, being here as me," he said.

Actually, Rundgren is on two somewhat simultaneous tours. He has become the lead singer and rhythm guitar player for the New Cars, a reformation of the 1970s-1980s band most famous for "Drive."

But his Atlantic City show and one next Friday at the TLA (debuting a new name, the Fillmore, and look that night) are more "slash-and-burn rock" shows, he said, with guitarist Jesse Gress and former Peter Gabriel band members Tony Levin on bass and Jerry Marotta on drums.

"Nearly every tour seems to have a casino component, but it depends on where they put you," said Rundgren. "In Connecticut, they have this place called the Wolf Trap Lounge, which is right in the middle of the casino. You get hit with the clang-clang-clang of the slots. Clearly, that is no place for acoustic music.

"But I wouldn't call the House of Blues a real casino place, though it is in the casino. It's a rock kind of place."

The fans at the House of Blues will hear tunes old and new, he said, but back when the baby boomers were just booming, Rundgren didn't much like playing the shore.

"I used to come to Wildwood with the Nazz," he said. That was his 1960s-'70s, Philadelphia-based band, whose biggest song was the 1969 hit "Hello, It's Me." Rundgren recorded the song four years later, reaching No. 5 on the Billboard chart.

"They didn't want you to play original material," Rundgren recalled from his days downashore. "They just wanted a cover of 'Louie, Louie.' They were teenagers on summer break wanting to get drunk. It's not the stuff of fond memories."

Rundgren's next venture, though, will be. He'll make a CD that is a tribute to 1970s arena-rock, a time he believes was a good one for rock-'n'-roll.

"It was the overlap between progressive rock and the stuff AC/DC or Yes might do," he said. "The Mahavishnu Orchestra was selling out arenas in those days. Mostly, it is a case of when I see something not being done, I feel I am more useful if I am filling that gap no one is covering."

He'll also start another tour, which will keep him away from Hawaii, where he has made his home with his wife, former Tubes member Michele Gray, for the last 12 years.

"At least when I am away, I know I'm still able to get jobs on the mainland," he said with a laugh.

He also gets a lot of play in sports arenas and stadiums. His early 1980s novelty song, "Bang the Drum All Day," which starts with the line "I don't want to work," is a favorite from the hometown Wachovia Center to Green Bay, Wis.'s, Lambeau Field - where it is played after every Packers touchdown - to, well, Carolina Mudcats games.

"I sort of like it. It's like 'Happy Birthday.' Everybody knows the song, even if they don't know who sings it," Rundgren said. "I guess I have penetrated the collective consciousness in a way few artists with even hit singles never have." *

House of Blues, 801 Boardwalk, Atlantic City, N.J., 9 p.m. tomorrow, $32-$57, 609-236-BLUE, www.hob.com. Also, TLA, 334 South St., 9 p.m. April 27, $35, 215-922-1011, www.livenation.com.