KLEINHANS HALL

Who Plays Physical Music? -The Who, That's Who

By JAMES BRENNAN

“Tommy” is the Who’s full-scale rock opera about a deaf, dumb, blind boy, who is a wizard at playing pinball machines. But when they performed a short fast version of it for a Buffalo audience it tilted.

The Who dropped some of the “Tommy” songs because they were recording a “live” album and wanted to try some of their new material on the receptive standing-room-only crowd at Kleinhans Music Hall Saturday.

Peter Townsend, the Who’s mentor and gymnastic lead guitarist, composed most of the songs in the opera score. Leaping high in the air with scissor kicks and splits, Townshend, appears to be a skydiving cheerleader in his white flight suit. His disciples are in a frenzy as he bears down meanly on his guitar, then sweeps it in a windmill-like motion.

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BUCKSKIN-FRINGED Roger Daltrey appears ready to fly away whirling the microphone and cord, vamping about stage screaming his vocals.

Pan-faced Keith Moon, gulping mouthfuls of air, shone in a silent pantomime drum solo behind one of Townshend’s featured guitar sprees.

Wearing a plain white tee-shirt, Moon’s drums, punky and tough, tossing a contrary, loose-fitting cymbal and its stand over his shoulder. Moon broke a number of drumsticks during his hard-hitting set and threw the shards to delighted listeners like bouquets to squealing bridesmaids.

Through it all, bassist John Entwhistle in his gray rebel suit strikes a pose opposite, almost anti-antical, to the other Who, quietly chewing his gum oblivious to — if not bored by — their physical theatrics. His cool bass keeps the bottom of the sound very tight to Townshend’s guitar lines.

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THE WHO did not produce the same quality in concert as their studio recording of “Tommy.” The vocals were sometimes unclear but the instrumental texture and spontaneity held the audience on a high emotional peak. Loud good vibrations, ear cells dying, and a strong sense of identification with the lyrics typify a Who concert.

Dedicating “My Generation” as a hymn to youth they hit home with youth’s pessimistic desires for juvenescence with lines such as “Hope I die before I get old.” And just as the audience empathizes with the performers, The Who feel for their people as reflected in one of the lines from “Tommy,” which says — “Listening to you I get the music.”