Talkin’ ’bout their generation

Just three songs into Sunday’s show on the Who’s new tour, Pete Townshend saved the entire endeavor from appearing to be just another cash-grab, entirely tied to the past.

Regarding “The Kids Are Alright,” Townshend said, “When I wrote this, none of us had kids. So, it was about us. When we had kids, it was about them. Then, it was about our grandkids. Now it’s about our great-grandkids. Meanings change.”

It’s a good thing they do. Otherwise, this tour — titled “The Who Hits 50!” — would be yet another feeding session at the Baby Boomer nostalgia trough by a band that hasn’t put out any peak new material since 1982.

Yet the performance at Wells Fargo Arena on Sunday — setting up five New York shows starting Wednesday at Nassau Coliseum — proved this tour isn’t just about milking memories for an easy buck. It’s about the function and perspective the Who’s classics have in the present.

There’s something in the songs themselves that refuses to die, or even to get (too) old. There’s a particular crispness to the three chords of “I Can’t Explain” that’s immune to sogginess. There’s a fluidity to the melody of “The Seeker” which remakes its message of searching in the moment.

“The Who Hits 50!” has been threading in a few uncommon numbers each night. Sunday featured the revival of the song cycle “A Quick One (While He’s Away),” which hasn’t been performed in its entirety since 1970. It also featured the rarity “Join Together,” as well as “Squeeze Box,” with live banjo work subbing for the usual taped version.

The video backdrop in the two-hour set played with iconic images of the past. New animation put fresh life in late bassist John Entwistle’s classic drawings of the band from the cover of the 1975 LP “The Who By Numbers.”

The contrast between the young and old Who might have proved punishing. But the perspective imbedded in Townshend’s songs have ways of closing the gap. His writing epitomizes teen rebellion, but it also ruminates on it.

That’s particularly true of “Tommy” and “Quadrophenia,” both heavily featured here. “Tommy” satirizes the role of rock as a new religion. The later epic looked back at the youth culture of the band’s origin with a sense of evaluation, at less than a decade’s remove.

When the Who delivers them now, they’re not competing with their young selves. They’re commenting on them, while also showing the fire that remains.

The band performed the songs with current verve. Two days short of his 70th birthday, Townshend wound his arm through his trademark windmill guitar moves with panache. In “My Generation” he offered a churning lead, fired by a bracing rhythmic extension.

The voice of 71-year-old Daltrey has picked up lots of rubble over the years. But he sounded more sure here than he has on the last few tours. He didn’t flinch from even the most operatic yowls in “Love, Reign o’er Me” or “Won’t Get Fooled Again.”

Six players supported the two surviving members, including a pair they’ve employed for years: Pino Palladino, who animated Entwistle’s spidery bass lines, and Zak Starkey, offering a more orderly, but no less muscular, sub for Keith Moon on drums.

By delivering the old songs in the present tense, the Who proved that aspects of adolescence never end.

Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, who open for the Who, have their own way of letting the past inform the present.

Their highly concentrated, 11-song set skimmed the hits, most of which also date back 30 or 40 years. Many were covers, including Tommy James & the Shondells’ “Crimson and Clover”; “Light of Day,” which Bruce Springsteen wrote for the movie that starred Jett in the 1980s; and the ultimate genre salute, the Arrows’ “I Love Rock ’n’ Roll.”

Jett’s absence from the current charts only enhances her outsider persona. She drew on that here, snarling her lyrics with a defiance that won’t die.

“The Who Hits 50!,” with Joan Jett, has area dates on Wednesday at Nassau Coliseum, Friday in Atlantic City, Sunday at Mohegan Sun, May 26 at Barclays Center and May 30 at the Forest Hills Stadium. For tickets, visit www.ticketmaster.com.

jfarber@nydailynews.com

The voice of 71-year-old Roger Daltrey sounded more sure than it has over the past few tours.

Daltrey and Townshend are the remaining members of the original foursome.

Joan Jett and the Blackhearts opened for the Who with a hit-filled set.