The Who in full force at the Forum where they drew a packed house of 20,000 last night.

The Who, living rock legends, appeared at the Forum last night, and it was as packed as was London’s Hammersmith Odeon in the mid-60’s when the band was in its great formative years.

You have to be a little overwawed at first: after all, guitarist Peter Townshend was practically responsible himself for starting the heavy metal movement that p'ed musicians today, bringing the chorded guitar to rock as a lead instrument. And Who

This was the band’s first tour in two years, and as a large neon fallout-shelter sign came ablaze over the stage, the adrenalin level was indeed up there. A rush to the stage seemed a distinct possibility.

Townshend flew up in the air (he’s also one of the pioneers of today’s rock theatre marriage), and lead singer Roger Daltry threw his microphone 20 feet in front of him before the sturdy cable snapped it back.

SONG WITH IMPACT

Then the band flew into one of the very finest tunes, the stuttering My Generation, a song whose impact was one of the greatest in pop history. That and the earlier Who tunes (like Pictures of Lilly) were hot stuff here long before most kids in the States picked up on the band. The Who started to be big in the U.S. only after the appearance of the rock opera, Tommy, an oeuvre that still looms over the band today.

After all those years, all the smashed guitars, instruments (and, yes, hotel rooms), The Who don’t seem (on stage, at least) to have lost that initial energy they once unleashed on England, then the world.

But somehow, after watching them do all the old standards and then hearing them do their version of Jethro Tull’s lemon, Passion Play. (The Who’s is called Quadrophenia), you get the feeling that this band has perhaps ceased as a creative force and that they are in danger of becoming the Chuck Berrys of the 70’s.

Three of the group’s members have had solo albums out in the last year, and all have been less than exceptional, providing little in the way of new ideas.

The band still generates a lot of excitement, but their songs (the old ones) are sounding a little road-weary and perfunctory. They weren’t soaring songs like The Beach Boys’ oldies, but gut-level stuff that was meant to lower, not raise, your consciousness. While The Beatles were entering psychedelia and assuming higher minds, The

Who were still in there, blasting their audiences into aural netherworlds with explosive sounds.

Now other bands like Alice Cooper and Iggy Stooge are providing energy levels even The Who can’t reach, so the band needs to find itself a new niche, perhaps. Anyway, it’s good to see The Who back in action after being preoccupied with recording and, yes, Tommy, the past few years.

The first band on, Lynard Synard, generated a lot of excitement for a group that had to play before one of the heavies.

Synard is a southern blues-rock outfit that records on Al Kooper’s Sounds of The South label (Kooper produces them), and they were well-received, to be sure. They built momentum throughout the show, then launched into Free Bird, the best cut on their debut album.

Free Bird starts with five minutes of an anthem (a bit too long), then explodes into a gut-grabbing jam that was one of the pleasant surprises of the recording year. Three guitarists all with different riffs to work out, and the

thing really cooks. Last group I can remember with three guitars was The Astronauts, a surfing group from Boulder, Colorado (no kidding), of minor renown.

Lynard Synard—they deliver on stage what album promises. Don’t be surprised to see this band start getting the recognition it deserves.

20 arrested for drugs at rock concert

Montreal Urban Community police spokesmen said about 20 persons were arrested last night for possession of drugs during The Who rock concert at the Forum.

Arrests were made in the Atwater – St. Catherine St. area, but not in the Forum.

Police also took several persons to Montreal General Hospital to be treated for drug effects.