BUFFALO — It’s appropriate, somehow. The Who, on their farewell tour of North America, not only played a set Sunday night that will be a yardstick by which we’ll measure those who follow them, but in The Clash, they brought along their heirs apparent to begin the process immediately.

It’s ironic that such a passing of the crown could take place in a place such as Buffalo, with its horror-story parking lot and seemingly four-exit stadium, and the manifestations of good old American entrepreneurship at its finest (a drug dealer wearing a change pouch — “two for five, four for ten”; a man selling approved plastic containers for carrying booze into the stadium; the hundreds of shirtsellers and other hustlers; the list is endless.) Buffalo is the antithesis of everything The Who and The Clash have fought for. Teenage wasteland isn’t the half of it.

Despite the stockyard-like conditions, the show was a memorable one, and hardly the nostalgia that many thought it might be.

If anything, the most surprising Who numbers were the new ones. We’ve come to expect to be moved by Who standards such as Substitute, I Can’t Explain and Won’t Get Fooled Again, but it was the wallop packed by newer songs like Sister Disco, Quiet One, Cry If You Want and It’s Hard that really took the huge crowd by surprise.

It only took 30 seconds of Substitute to remind us how much The Who has given us and how much we owe them without realizing it.

Roger Daltrey’s caged-animal stance and his rough-and-tumble, angst-ridden vocals have been emulated by more than a few. Likewise, Pete Townshend, playing extremely hard, did his patented leaps and windmills. Bassist John Entwistle provided his usual steady, behind-the-scenes bass and Kenney Jones seems to have finally gotten the hang playing drums for The Who.

After watching so many imitators, it was great to see the original.

Though one has to respect them for their desire to step down while they’re on top, it’s hard to fathom The Who’s and particularly Pete Townshend’s obsession with growing old.

Perhaps because of his recovery from a long drinking bout, Townshend played with the energy of a man half his age, slashing away at his guitar and doing some of the most intricate playing of his career. If Pete felt old, he wasn’t letting on.

If any band has a chance to carry on the tradition of The Who, it’s The Clash. Their set was a vast improvement over the one they did just three weeks ago at CNE Stadium in Toronto — fast, hard, no-nonsense stuff. The playing was sharp, the approach direct and the end result was that they demanded and got the attention of a crowd that really wasn’t theirs.

It was sad, in a way, to realize that the magnificent 2½-hour shows like the one The Who put on at Rich Stadium here Sunday night are eventually going to come to an end.

But it was nice to have seen it, and nicer still to remember that on Oct. 9 in Toronto, they’re going to do it all again.