ous three-hour show by Pete Townshend and company: Who mania ’89, a full seven years after the “farewell” tour by the group, is a little of both.

Fans got inspirational performances of songs that still matter and a stage show that suffered from often-cluttered arrangements and a lack of spontaneity.

Saturday’s show, which got started half an hour late and in the face of sweltering summer heat, opened with an altogether joyful 30-minute blast of material from “Tommy,” Townshend’s 20-year-old rock opera.

Roger Daltrey, shirtless and dressed in tight blue jeans and a black vest, was flanked on his left by Townshend and on his right by bassist John Entwistle.

The three, framed on either side of the stage by scrolling bannerscreens decorated with pop-art graphics, hit most of the memorable moments from “Tommy,” including the overture, “1921,” “Acid Queen,”

“We’re Not Gonna Take It” and a still spine-chilling “Pinball Wizard.”

A Townshend solo section – the light-as-air “A Friend Is a Friend” and “Face the Face” slowed things down a bit, as did a rather laborious Entwistle set that included the hard-rocking “Trick of the Light” and the mock-gloomy “Boris the Spider.”

Who hits (“Can’t Explain,” “Substitute,” “I Can See for Miles,” “Who Are You,” “Magic Bus,” “My Generation,” “Baba O’Riley” and “You Better You Bet” and “Won’t Be Fooled Again”), the best of which dispensed with the occasionally bulky horn section, did the most to back the validity of the current 25-city stadium trek.

Townshend, 44, thankfully tossed out a few windmill attacks, tasks that the hearing-impaired musician said he wouldn’t do this time out.

Daltrey, trim at 45, went the distance with his vocal work, and even managed to whip his microphone around, dropping it only once.

And Entwistle, 42, thundered and ripped and anchored the often impressive attack with the help of his arsenal of basses, including an eight-string and his “Buzzard” bass.

The down side, of course, is the fact that the Who hasn’t produced any new music – outside of a pair of tracks on Townshend’s “The Iron Man” – since 1982.

The group, if it plans to become musically relevant once again, needs to greet the ’90s with some new ideas.

“We feel alive and we feel we’ve got something new,” Townshend told WYNF’s Charlie Logan in a pre-show interview.

Show us, Pete.

We’re waiting, with more than a little bit of anticipation – stoked by the Who’s surprising ability to make its ’60s and ’70s music palatable for late-’80s stadium audiences.

Photograph by SELBYPIC

Traffic backed up on highways near Tampa Stadium prior to the start of Saturday night’s Who concert.

Townshend: Quote-Unquote

“The band has done nothing in years. There is no band. It’s wrong, really, to call it the Who, because it isn’t the Who. It’s a bunch of session musicians brought together to play Who material. It’s kind of authenticated because of our presence, but that’s all, really.” — Rolling Stone, 1989

* * *

“I don’t see the Who going on for very much longer. I think that with this next album and tour we’re really gonna throw ourselves into it 100 percent. And then we’re gonna stop. I’m pretty sure of that. It’s not because we want to stop, but because we’ve come to the point … where the tension is just too much … I think the Who will break up – not break up, but stop working – before the Stones do.” — Rolling Stone, 1982

Tribune photograph by BRUCE JOHNSON

Pete Townshend, contrary to his published statements, did produce some windmill effects during the show.

Who records

American release dates and record companies are indicated. The Who catalog is comprised largely of live recordings, greatest-hits collections, previously unreleased material and re-releases.

■ THE WHO SINGS MY GENERATION (1966) MCA ■ A QUICK ONE (HAPPY JACK) (1967) MCA ■ THE WHO SELL OUT (1967) MCA ■ MAGIC BUS – THE WHO ON TOUR (1968) MCA ■ TOMMY (1969) MCA ■ THE WHO LIVE AT LEEDS (1970) MCA ■ WHO’S NEXT (1971) MCA ■ MEATY, BEATY, BIG & BOUNCY (1971) MCA ■ QUADROPHENIA (1973) MCA ■ ODDS & SODS (1974) MCA ■ A QUICK ONE (HAPPY JACK)/THE WHO SELL OUT (1974) MCA ■ MAGIC BUS/MY GENERATION (1974) MCA ■ TOMMY (sound track) (1975) MCA ■ THE WHO BY NUMBERS (1975) MCA ■ THE STORY OF THE WHO (1976) MCA ■ WHO ARE YOU (1978) MCA ■ THE KIDS ARE ALRIGHT (sound track) (1979) MCA ■ QUADROPHENIA (sound track) (1979) MCA ■ MY GENERATION (re-issue) (1979) MCA ■ LIVE AT LEEDS/WHO ARE YOU (1980) MCA ■ FACE DANCES (1981) Warner Bros ■ HOOLIGANS (1981) MCA ■ IT’S HARD (1982) Warner Bros ■ WHO’S GREATEST HITS (1983) MCA ■ RARITIES (1983) MCA ■ ONE UPON A TIME (1983) MCA ■ WHO’S LAST (1984) MCA ■ WHO’S MISSING (1985) MCA ■ WHO’S BETTER, WHO’S BEST (1988) MCA

SAY WHAT?

Is it any wonder after 25 years that Pete Townshend has a hearing problem? A May 31, 1976, concert at London’s Charlton Athletic Football Ground earned the Who a place in the Guinness Book of World Records: The 76,000-watt sound system registered 120 decibels at 165 feet from the speakers.