Eric Burdon’s song, “Monterey,” describes The Who exploding into fire at the Monterey Pop Festival. Friday night this group from England exploded the audience’s minds and eardrums in their performance at the Auditorium.

On hearing The Who for the first time, one comes to the conclusion that they are the loudest group in the world. Even earsplitting Johnny Winter does not come close to being that loud. But even though it is loud, The Who’s music is so exciting that the listener can still enjoy it.

Peter Townshend, the group’s guitarist and resident composer, is the one man chiefly responsible for its great success. As a performer, he is outstanding with his brand of showmanship. He punctuates his playing with numerous body movements, jumps and splits. His guitar playing is just average, however, with only an occasional burst of technical brilliance.

As a composer, Townshend has produced the best rock opera to date. The song “Tommy” is the story of a deaf, dumb and blind boy who beats everyone he plays at pinball. The music is well-written, with judicious use of sevenths, ninths and chordal sequences. Last night The Who played most of the opera nonstop. Its emotional theme, “See me, hear me, touch me, heal me,” was brought in effectively a number of times throughout the work.

In addition to Tommy, they played some of their most recent releases (“Shakin’ All Over”) as well as their past hits (“My Generation”). Equally effective on drums and bass are Keith Moon and John Entwhistle. Moon, the cut-up of the group, is a demon on the double bass drum, while Entwhistle, rarely showing any emotion, plucks his bass in sixteenth-note patterns, twice as fast as ordinary bassists do.

Lead singer Roger Daltray did not add a great deal to the performance. He danced quite a bit and sang pretty well, but went virtually unnoticed. The co-stars of the show were Townshend and The Who’s unbelievable volume. Both Townshend’s guitar and Entwhistle’s bass were turned up so high that they just barely had to touch the strings to play. It was evident in the performers’ facial expressions that they grooved on the raw power they held in their hands.

Thankfully, The Who’s music was worth the 90-minute wait the crowd put up with outside the Auditorium. Even after that delay, the management had only two turnstiles open, and that number was cut to one when a group of kids stampeded an usher.

The Who was preceded by the Mystics, one of the better local groups around. Their sound is basically the same as the old Mystics’ sound of years past: heavy rhythm-and-blues with a fine brass section. Unfortunately, they were only allowed to play for 30 minutes.

Dodd Lamberton is a music student at the University of Minnesota.