Who-vember

It just occurred to me that today is the last day of November, and that I have not logged a single post all month. I did start an entry about my reaction to the new Bond movie (and the series in general) but progress on that was lost to a busy couple of work weeks and my nervousness in revealing just how big a dork I actually am to the internets public (although at this point, I imagine the genie is out of that particular bottle). Also, it was a slow month for doings-on. But, hey, my brother Ken and I saw The Who the other night, so let me talk about that:

For my bro Ken, The Who is THE band. I consider myself a big fan, as does my brother Tom -- who picked up the tickets for the three of us to see the show (in honor of Ken’s recent birthday) in beautiful downtown Bridgeport, CT (quoting Jodie Foster: “The armpit of Connecticut”). Unfortunately, at the last minute, Tom was whisked away to California on business, but Ken and I soldiered on.

There is always the danger when seeing a “classic” act that their performance will not measure up the greatness of their reputation. You worry that decades of successes have bred complacency, and that aging rockers are just out there doing it for the easy paycheck. A more localized concern was whether or not we would REALLY be seeing The Who that night. Their drummer and bass player are both now dead, so the band was now at half-strength -- just Roger Daltrey on vocals and Pete Townshend on guitar. Could it still be The Who without the musical backbone of the Entwistle/Moon rhythm section?

Any concern I may have had was put to rest when the show started. Forgoing any fancy U2-like intro to the show, the lights went out and Roger and Pete just took to the stage with a “let’s get on with it” attitude. The set opened with “Can’t Explain” and just never stopped from there. Roger and Pete may be north of 60 these days, but they performed like they were still in their twenties. Everything you have heard about Townsend being one of the best guitar players of all time remains true. He was pitch-perfect all night, windmilling for the entirety. Baby-boomer dudes all around me couldn’t containment their excitement and air-guitared to their hearts content (this was more charming than it might read). The backing band (which included Pete’s younger brother on rhythm guitar and Ringo Starr’s son Zak on drums) was up to the challenge and damn it if it didn’t sound like The Who!

Roger was fantastic as well. If age has deteriorated his voice at all, I sure couldn’t tell, because he belted it out just a full-throated as he did on the records. When they played “Won’t Get Fooled Again” I was expecting him to omit that famous “Yeeeeeaaaaaaah” scream. First time I heard the song on the radio I figured it was a one-time studio thing that probably required throat surgery afterward. But Roger reproduced it exactly in all of its red-faced glory -- and this was BEFORE the encore.

They played a lot of hits, but they also made room for a lot of new stuff (the band put out a new record a few weeks back). And it was good! It all sound very Who-like, but not in a retread kind of way. I’ll admit that I mistook a few of the new tracks for earlier stuff I figured I had just not heard before. I chalk the sustained vitality up to the fact that Pete Townshend remains just as nuts now as he was when younger. His asides to the audience during the song breaks proved this. Although always funny and intelligent (his impersonation of a Welsh Mafioso was particularly good), you can tell that Pete’s though process is just not fuelled by the same stuff as the rest of us here on planet Earth. To be successful creatively you have to be a little nuts, and by that yardstick Pete is going to be successful for a very long time.

All in all I enjoyed the hell out of it. High points for me included "Can't Explain," my favorite Who song "Baba O'Reilly" (aka "Teenage Wasteland"), the aforementioned "Won't Get Fooled Again" (not a single thought of C.S.I entered my mind), the acoustic "Man in the Purple Dress" (new song!) and the encore -- a "Tommy" medley. If the band comes to your town, don't hesitate to get tickets.

That was November. I'll try to have more for December.