The electric British electronic quartet called The Who are not to be missed. Catch them during their remaining two nights at Fillmore West just to give yourself a fair basis of judgment toward everything else in the contemporary music field.

Not much more than a third of The Who’s output is of any special worth but one thing is certain: no group around these days (and their original personnel is still intact) goes as consistently into the wild outer limits of space sounds and manages to make sense out of it all in the process.

LOUD

The Who is awfully loud; too loud for any normal sensual response. And that is their point. On many of their renditions they blow all lyrics, all melody, and virtually all steady rhythm right out of one’s consciousness. The listener either sails along on electronic waves or is driven against the wall.

Guitarist Peter Townshend dominates The Who. He’s an outstanding traditional guitarist, but he is also a remarkable electronic engineer. He knows how to create more extreme effects (with athletic histrionics thrown in) on his electrified instrument than anyone I’ve observed.

Otherwise, Roger Daltrey the singer is primarily a rousing yell-leader, bassist John Entwistle provides such steadiness as The Who have in rhythm, and drummer Keith Moon is as much show-biz as anything else.

END POINT

But together The Who are an end point in contemporary popular music. Their short ballads and novelty numbers are well done, and relax the tension; their blues are powerful and competent and in their own realm they are incomparable.

Your ears will be buzzing and your head throbbing when they finish. Last night they went on for an hour and a quarter. You may hate it, but in retrospect it will have been a pretty wonderful journey they took you on.

Jimmy Cotton’s Blue Band, last night, was tedious and hardly limbered up, although Cotton’s harmonica is always a mellow reminder of the country blues. A young fellow called Magic Sam is also on the Fillmore show and seemed to have some pretty good country stuff himself.

But alongside The Who, of course, a simple old blues doesn’t stand much of a chance.