COMMENTARY

BANDS Dallas can expect a strong show by a pared-down but still-powerful version of the Who.

By J. Taylor Rushing

Star-Telegram Staff Writer

They are still a band to be witnessed, not merely heard. What’s left of the Who has been stomping across America this summer and arrives at American Airlines Center in Dallas today, with just four more concerts left on their 2002 U.S. tour.

It is a testament to this band’s power that it can still make a convincing case as one of the greatest live acts in rock ’n’ roll, even with only two of its original four members. Last month, a string of vigorous concerts through the Midwest proved that while the new Who isn’t the same as the old Who, it can still get the job done.

As guitarist Pete Townshend wisecracked onstage in Detroit on Aug. 23, there is less and less of the Who every time they come out to tour. In June, bassist John Entwistle died of a cocaine-related heart attack on the eve of the tour, 24 years after drummer Keith Moon overdosed on alcohol and pills.

That has left just two surviving original members — Townshend,