Continued from B1

"Turn that (music) up!!" someone directly behind me hollered. I turned halfway around, expecting to see some college-age kid with an eyebrow ring. Instead, I saw a guy that had probably uttered the same four words at a Who concert 30 years ago.

The crowds at the majority of concerts I've been to have been fairly homogeneous: sullen-looking teens giggling, swearing and screaming their lungs out.

And while that faction was well represented Monday, seeing their parents doing the same thing was, well, quite an experience.

The entire evening was a study in comparison and contrast. There was the royal blue Volkswagen bus, side door ajar, I saw on the way in. There were tie-dyed shirts on Who fans 15 and 50.

"Nice wingtips," a woman seated in front of me teased one of her friends, who capped off his ensemble with a dress shirt and khakis. The chain-smoking teenager in front of him opted for the no-shirt, no-hair look.

I glanced down onto the midway and saw another hairless man (though I'm guessing this guy didn't shave it off) wearing a British flag T-shirt walk right past two 20-somethings who could've been offensive linemen.

I saw my orthodontist, for crying out loud.

The crowd was diverse, yes, but by the time Plant had spasm-danced his way offstage and The Who launched into "Can't Explain," it was clear that everyone was there for the same reason: to enjoy some good music that now belongs to more than one generation.

Someone forgot to tell Roger Daltrey and Pete Townshend that they're pushing 60. The two original bandmates danced all over the stage in the wicked July heat, Daltrey wildly swinging his microphone and Townshend doing his trademark windmilling.

The youngsters in the audience seemed to know the hits as well as the older fans, and were just as enthusiastic about voicing their approval.

The best part of the evening, for me, came during the song "Baba O'Riley," when the crowd just exploded. When they sang along with Daltrey and Townshend: "it's onnn-lee teeeen-age waste-land," you could see the generational lines blurring.

And suddenly, it wasn't so hard to understand why people attended this concert with their fathers.