Flashy Show Can't Rekindle Who Magic

By Gary Graff

Knight News Service

GLENS FALLS, N.Y. — Three hours before the start of its first U.S. tour since 1982, the Who — or most of it — was onstage at the Civic Center here, fiddling through a sound check and last-minute rehearsal of a few numbers. Things were loose and casual, the group calmly prepping itself for the task ahead.

Then singer Roger Daltrey, sunglassed and open-shirted, entered the hall, smiled at the power chords blaring from the speakers and strolled to his microphone in time to bellow "WHO ARE YOU?!"

A good question as the Who begins its 2½-month 25th anniversary tour. Who are these guys? What are these fortysomething rockers, trying to accomplish with this "Kids are Alright Tour," which makes a stop in Cleveland this summer?

On Wednesday, before a juiced-up crowd of 5,000, the Who didn't have the answers. The marathon show — 40 songs, more than three hours — was inconsistent and tentative, ranging from moments of musical brilliance to songs that just fell apart. Too often it seemed like Whomania! rather than a Who concert — a revue-like approximation of the real thing.

Ambitious but flawed

It's certainly the most ambitious show the group has ever staged. Though its concert reputation was built on a lean, spartan presentation of its powerful brand of rock 'n' roll, this year the Who's surviving members — Daltrey, Pete Townshend and John Entwistle — are going out with a long, elaborately staged and arranged "celebration."

The band has swelled to 15 musicians, including full horn and backup vocal sections; journeyman drummer Simon Phillips has the unenviable task of filling in for the late Keith Moon, while Steve Bolton is handling most of the guitar solos once played by hearing-impaired Townshend, who still played plenty of electric guitar, complete with his trademark windmill strokes.

The repertoire was culled from a Who fan's dreams. Greatest hits mingled with rarely played numbers, Townshend and Entwistle solo numbers, and surprising covers like "Hey Joe" and the Everly Brothers' "Love Hurts."

It was an evening of musical chance-taking, for which the Who is to be applauded, but many of the gambles didn't pay off. Kitchensink arrangements and fatigue hampered the last quarter of the show, including songs like "5:15," "Love Reign O'er Me," "Give Blood," "Join Together" and "Won't Get Fooled Again." "Sister Disco" fell apart completely, while the rudimentary "Twist and Shout" teetered on the edge of incompetence.

The blame is shared. Phillips' drumming was lacking all night, and second guitarist Bolton often seemed lost, tossed to the far end of the stage to play random solos.

The Who members, particularly Townshend and Daltrey, seemed truly befuddled by what was going on around them — and unable to rein control over the cacophony. Whenever something went wrong, they merely resorted to Who cliches — Townshend's leaps and windmills, Daltrey's microphone-twirling — to distract the audience and win easy applause.

But the opening — a 40-minute suite of songs from the rock opera Tommy — was moving. And most of the time-worn favorites ("Can't Explain," "My Generation," "Substitute," "Who Are You," "Baba O'Reilly") came off in typically powerful Who style.

So the potential for concert greatness dangles within reach. The Who were anxious to bill Wednesday's show in the tiny Civic Center as a dress rehearsal, which doesn't wash when you're charging $25 a head. But as the tour enters the giant stadiums of North America, the group will hopefully tighten up arrangements, pare down the repertoire and re-establish the legendary standards Who concerts enjoyed between 1964-82.