Drummer Keith Moon has been dead for 30 years, and bassist John Entwistle succumbed after the coolest rock star death of them all (cocaine and prostitute induced heart attack at 58!). The other half of the Who have a combined age of 128. The writer (Pete Townshend, 63) continues to deliver backhanded compliments to the singer (Roger Daltrey, 65) along the lines of, "Roger is the best interpretor of my work," and outright put downs such as, "Keith Moon was a genius, John was a genius, I certainly approached genius, and Roger was just a singer." Pete and Roger put out a Who record back in 2006, Endless Wire, with cover art straight out of 1984, but with keyboard riffs and guitar motifs directly plagiarized from the own earlier work. ( And yes I've spent the last two and a half years trying to decide if I like it. I still don't know. Apparently David Fricke from Rolling Stone did. So did virtually every other rock journalist, even though Daltrey's voice sounds shot and Townshend's lyrics at times border on ridiculous. Some bands, you just can't criticize.)
In an earlier post you can read about my justification for spending a fair amount of coin on the 2009 version of The Who. I'd never seen them before, and there is something about being in the presence of true honest to goodness rock and royalty that gets me every time, making me willing to spend absurd amounts of money to see absurdly rich people play absurdly good music. Still, I had my doubts, especially about Daltrey's pipes and how anyone could stand in for the greatest bass player of the rock era; suffice it to say I had low-ish expectations.
I know now that having low expectations ahead of seeing The Who is like walking into the movie theatre thinking that The Godfather might suck, or holding your nose as you gingerly inch that filet mingon to your mouth, or putting off a trip to New Zealand because there are other mountains closer.
What the hell was I thinking? From the punk rock blue print that is the opening chords of I Can't Explain to Daltrey's scream at the end of Won't Get Fooled Again (he can still do it!) to the sheer beauty of an utterly stunning Behind Blue Eyes, Townshend and Daltrey (along with honorouble mention Zac Starkey for pounding the living shit out of his drums) brought the goods. And we loved it.
Was it perfect? From a technical standpoint, not at all. Although I'm sure he's played it approximately 7000 times by now, Townshend managed to forget where he was in I Can't Explain, going into the lead break after the first verse while the rest of the band fired up verse two. His amp shat itself during the 5:15/Love Reign O'er Me Quadrophenia nod. His riffage during the Tommy montage in the encore could have been tighter. Roger still tries to fling his mic around, but he pretty much stayed in one spot the whole show, and he still seems to uncomfortably defer to Pete (are these guys ever gonna just like each other?) in terms of most if not all stage banter.
A more important question - did it rock? Oh yes, my friends, it rocked, Townshend rocked, the crowd rocked, even the bus ride on the way out to the stadium rocked (courtesy of a very drunk Maori dude singing 50 Ways to Leave Your Lover over and over again - I'm not sure if he realizes that Paul Simon was not in The Who).
Townshend wound up his trademark windmill throughout, attacking his shiny red Fender Strat with gusto and force. Perhaps most importantly, he genuinely seemed to be enjoying himself. I've always wondered how much a performer like Pete Townshend can get up for yet another gig at a random stadium on the other side of the world from everything, but he appeared sincere when he thanked the crowd for coming out "in such difficult times" and if he is getting sick of playing Who Are You and Baba O'Riley, he certainly didn't let on.
And what of Daltrey's voice? His singing on the Endless Wire album sounded strained; on virtually the entire album he is just barely able to hit the notes he's reaching for. Apparently this was done on purpose, because with the exception of some minor vamping on Won't Get Fooled Again, Roger's voice sounded the way I imagine it did the last time The Who played New Zealand 41 years ago.
After an encore of a short Tommy medley, which concluded with the beautiful harmonies of Listening to You, the support players left the stage. Townshend finger-picked an acoustic while Daltrey sang Tea and Theatre, a fitting and touching tribute to Moon and Entwistle. The amazine journey was complete.
Setlist: I Can't Explain, The Seeker, Anyway Anyhow Anywhere, Fragments, Who Are You, Behind Blue Eyes, Sister Disco, Baba O'Riley, Eminence Front, 5.15, Love Reign O'er Me, You Better You Bet, My Generation, Won't Get Fooled Again, Pinball Wizard, Amazing Journey, Sparks, See Me Feel Me, Tea And Theatre
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