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I'm a huge Prince fan but I'm also a big The Who fan! I love the energy and spirit in their music and I had to see them live this time around!

The other night I went to see The Who Live at the Los Angeles Greek Theater, September 17th, with my girlfriend. We left the show in awe at how they have to be one of the awesomest bands still around!

It was a fantastic show, with The Who, Roger Daltrey and Pete Townshend rocking the place with all their classic hits!



Joined with them were what seemed to be a Rock legends family, literally! Playing drums with The Who is Zak Starky, son of Ringo Star and on backing vocals is Pete's baby brother Simon Townshend!

They have a new Bass player Pino Palladino to help out after the recent sudden loss of John Entwistle and he fit in like a glove. His playing was great and he actually fit into the band just right! And in someways, by chance, actually looked like a thinner version of the Ox, humble and smooth on the bass.

Onstage also was a background guitarist and a great keyboardist that jammed on the hammind organ and synths. They had visuals playing on the screens for songs like "Who Are You" and "Teenage Wasteland" which added to the magic of those songs. On the same screenss they showed sloceups of the band members as they were being filmed. They had multilple stage camera's. One on the stage, two on the front of the stage being held of course by cameramen and one directly in front at the sound board. It looked like they were filming it for a video or something, since it looked so professional and the camera switches were cool. It was great to see closeups of all the the band members.



Now, I've never really hard Pete Towneshend play live before and let me tell you that I was totally blown away by his guitar playing. I can honestly say that from my view, he's really one of the greats! Up there witth Santana! His playing moved me like Santana's, Prince's, Stevie Ray Vaughns playing does! Plus he would do all his arm swinging and jumping up with the guitar! He would climb up onto the front stage monitors and really just played his heart out! Plus he was funny telling stories with Roger and making the audience laugh at their escapades. Pete's dirty mouth added that punch to all his ramblings.



One interesting moment during the show was when security started to face the crowd at the edge of the stage. Roger during the song "Bargain" started to mess with the security guard patting him on the head, telling him stuff in his ear like messing with him. I didn't get it until the song ended and he basically got rid of him and told him "I wish you'd get out here, bloke. I'm not playing to someone's bloody back." When the guard sheepishly disappeared Roger said, "I mean, we've got civilized people here." And Pete shot back, "Almost." funny stuff.

Daltrey's vocals were also just as powerful as those classic hits, he commanded the stage and it really was great seeing him do all his microphone swinging tricks without dropping the mic once! He would swing it way up hig, around his waiste, twirl with it and grab it on que for the ending of a song or when he had to start singing!

Now, I must say Daltrey is aging incredibly well. I'm not gay or nothin', but toward the end of the show, he unbottoned his shirt and his body does not look any older than 35. Six pack and tanned. Now that for me as a guy is an inspiration...I'm hitting the gym! Pete's also not packing a gut, he's tall, slim and energetic still. I definetly came away thinking the music may be the fountain of youth!



It was a site really, to see living rock legends play live! The drummer really was fantastic! He kept up with Pete's extended jam impovisations and was smooth and slick. No crazy tricks, he had dynamics down! He played all over the place in the spirit of Keith Moon, but with his own style and in keeping with what the music of The Who demands. As a drummer I learned a lot from watching him and can't wait to upgrade my drum set!

The Who rocked so hard that made all these Nu-Metal/"Punk" bands look like tomorrows nothings!



At the end of the show, before the encore, Pete and Roger hugged each other and waved to the audience. Touching because you felt like now it was just them two the audience roared in appreciation. And then started to show on the big screens a slideshow of with touching photos of his career with the who and intimate pictures. The audience clapped in memory. Nice. I couldn't help thank him for the music.

The encore was a medley of Tommy songs, with Pete starting the set, yelling ""Have you calmed down a bit, now? We need you to be quiet now because we're going to do some fucking opera!...This is a fucking rock OPERA!" encouraging the audience to go crazy instead of politely clapping ripped into "Pinball Wizard".

Hopefully they will tour again or if their headed to your town, CHECK them out! The Who will definetly STILL give you a Who concert!


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[This message was edited Sun Sep 22 10:35:01 PDT 2002 by FlyingCloudPassenger]

PINO!

He's a kewl dude.

To anyone who finds this thread...thanks for reading. I really enjoyed that show and can't wait to get the live CD set for the show I attended!

"What?! Live CD of the show?!!"

Yes, read my other Who thread at:
http://www.prince.org/msg...&tid=22975

There you'll find out that The Who are offering everyshow from the sound board on 2 CD sets to fans in order to beat the bootleggers and use the proceeds for Who sponsored youth charaties!

"Coool. And I'm only getting three CD's from my NPG Music Club??? Wazzupwitdaaat?!"

The Who is a great band. They created some of rock's best anthems -- Won't Get Fooled Again has the best scream ever!

NikkiDarling said:

And Roger did it that night! Full blast...in fact, I thought he didn't do then they extended the part and the song built up again and "yyyEEEAAAHHH!!"!