When The New Cars come to play the Molson Amphitheatre on June 21, they will be sharing the stage with openers and fellow '70s act Blondie.
"I think we were just probably trying to come up with a very entertaining night of strong music," said Cars original guitarist Elliot Easton. "Blondie comes from a similiar era. We think it's a great night of songs and you'll know the words to every song."
Despite that strong matchup, the prospect of going out on the road after all this time -- The Cars split up in 1988 -- is slightly nervewracking.
"I'm looking forward to it," said original keyboardist Greg Hawkes. "But does it make me a little nervous? Yeah, it does."
Added newly recruited singer-guitarist Todd Rundgren: "My goals are always musical and if we achieve our musical goals, I always believe that the rest of it takes care of itself. If there truly is no interest for what we're doing, well then that's just the way it is, and there's no point in trying to fake ourselves into something else. I don't think we have that capacity.
"We want to leave people with the realization that there's a lot of ground that we have yet to cover. And hopefully it will not simply be, 'Let's go listen to the old songs and we don't care about any of the new stuff.' We want people to get back on board. Not simply admire the vehicle at the curb."
The New Cars' new single, Not Tonight, makes references to modern technology like Blackberrys and the current gas crisis; Rundgren says there was a conscious effort to bring the band into the 21st century.
"The connection with culture was always an important part of The Cars' image," he said.
When The Cars first came out, Rundgren said, "Greg's way of playing the synthesizer was new to a lot of people. So we figured we can't go wrong by following through on those basic kinds of touchstones. We'll be emphasizing aspects of fashion and hi-technology throughout."
