The Who had a surprise for its 68,000 fans at Exhibition Stadium: 'See you soon. We'll be back,' Roger Daltrey promised as he waved goodbye.

The crowd knew Who it wanted

BY LIAM LACEY

Summertime Blues was an odd choice of song to close The Who's concert Saturday night at Exhibition Stadium. Half of the 68,000 people in the audience were shivering from the chilly October wind off Lake Ontario, although those sardined around the front were drawing so much body heat from each other that the stage crew had to hose them down with cold water. For those close enough to hear, singer Roger Daltrey offered a surprise before he walked off stage.

"See you soon. We'll be back," he promised as he waved goodbye to the crowd and walked off stage arm in arm with guitarist Pete Townshend. Apparently Toronto is still a candidate for the city where the band would like to shoot the film of its final concert. After the success of Saturday's show, chances are good that The Who will return to Maple Leaf Gardens this December.

Little of the crowd's warm feelings for The Who were wasted on opening-act Joe Jackson, though. The temperamental Jackson, who played a truncated version of the show he gave last Thursday at Massey Hall, was particularly ill-suited to win over a crowd primed for The Who's jet-engine blast of rock.

A few people in the crowd — being rock fans, and having been crammed into the area in front of the stage for about three hours while waiting for their idols to come on stage — began tossing garbage on to the stage. Jackson took it personally.

"My dears," he said. "If you really want us to retreat with our tails between our legs, you're going to have to do rather better than that."

Shortly afterward, someone obliged by bouncing a hot dog off the lank English singer's chest, and he left the stage in disgust.

They were at close quarters to see Roger Daltrey (right)

The Who, in contrast, came on like a street gang, bouncing out on stage with so little fanfare that the audience was caught napping, and suddenly found itself in the stammering, rollicking throes of My Generation. That song was followed in rapid succession by Substitute and I Can't Explain, and The Who was off and running.

The gut-level intensity never wavered through a string of hit singles and material from the new album — It's Hard, A Man's A Man, See Me, Feel Me and Pinball Wizard (with most of the crowd singing and clapping along) — as nearly every high point in The Who's history was touched.

The early Who — an onion skin of order over chaos — has been replaced by an athletic, powerful professionalism. Drummer Kenney Jones (whose most emphatic rolls were frequently drowned out in their own echoes from the back of the stadium) was competent, but not a vital personality in The Who sound, and his lack of flash was only matched by bassist John Entwistle's. The stolid duo were nothing more than an aggressive but unexcited rhythm section for the two flamboyant frontmen.

At first it was Daltrey's combination of athleticism and vocal prowess that kept the audience's attention: he spun his microphone around his body, lurched toward the audience as he swung his shoulders, and attacked each song with a throat-tearing growl. Townshend saved himself; he concentrated on intricate guitar rhythms, offering only an occasional windmill swing of his arm to bring down a power chord and elicit roars of approval from the fans.

But Townshend eventually exploded. With a series of his trademark scissor leaps and swings of his arm, he plunged into the closing song, Won't Get Fooled Again. He maintained the pace through the three songs of the encore — Athena, Magic Bus and Summertime Blues. Daltrey asked for a cheer for Kenney Jones, and the five (including keyboardist Tim Gorman) members said goodnight as they left the stage.

After almost three hours of solid rock, it still seemed the day was far too short.