"It's almost embarrassing," blushed Father John Smyth last July during rock icon Pete Townshend's third benefit show for the charity Smyth helms, Maryville Academy in Des Plaines.

Smyth's cheeks should be extra red today. On Friday, Townshend returned a fourth time, this time bringing with him singer Roger Daltrey and bassist John Entwistle, his surviving bandmates from the legendary The Who.

The band played the first of its two sold-out shows this weekend at the House of Blues in Chicago.

By year's end, Townshend's involvement with the charity will have raised $1 million.

Tickets for Friday's and Saturday's shows cost $300 apiece, and fans flew in everywhere from the Netherlands to North Carolina. A line started to form at 4 a.m. Friday to get in to the show.

Charlie, 30, a fan from Houston, came to Chicago with friends from all over the world he met over a Who Internet group.

"Have you ever had sex more than once with the same person. It's kind of like that," he said of his obsession with attending The Who concerts.

Lauren, 32, came from Boulder, Colo. "They're the best that every was," she said.

Townshend was introduced to the home for abused and neglected children by his friend and Maryville volunteer Mary Beth Nawa.

The first show, in 1997, was prompted by Townshend's desire to make peace with Chicago audiences after admittedly falling off the wagon here and ruining a 1994 show at the Arie Crown.

The legendary band The Who played the first of two sold-out shows Friday at the House of Blues to raise money for the Maryville Academy in Des Plaines.

Impressed by Smyth, he returned for two more benefit shows and also released "Pete Townshend Live" (Platinum), a two-disc set documenting the shows and again benefiting the charity.

That album includes duets with Pearl Jam leader Eddie Vedder, who accompanied Townshend on the second and third shows.

The charity returned the favor and recently named the Townshend Home, a residential home for 15 girls awaiting juvenile court, in his honor.

This weekend's shows are not only novel for Maryville, they're a rarity for The Who. Since their first farewell tour in the early '80s, The Who have been reuniting ever since, but have stuck to large outdoor arenas.

They last played here in July 1997 at the New World Music Theatre.

Although Townshend has been the most musically prolific as a solo artist, he has hinted the Chicago reunion might spark a new studio album.

A review of Friday's show will appear Sunday in the Daily Herald.