By the second song, Roger Daltrey was swinging his microphone into dangerous arcs and loops, his white shirt wide open to display his still-amazing, Adonis-like physique. Pete Townshend executed little rabbit leaps into the air, thrashing and windmilling his arms across the strings of his electric guitar. John Entwistle, of course, stood completely still.

Is there anything more beautiful than The Who in concert?

For more than two hours Sunday night at MARS Music Amphitheatre, the guys who created some of the most iconic moments in rock history picked up their guitars and played — just like yesterday. Billed as a “greatest hits” revue, it ended up being much, much more.

After years of performing with big orchestras, The Who are finally back to being The Who —

Concert review

that snarling, punkish band with plenty of youthful attitude and British cheek. The group is a tight five pieces — with keyboards by longtime compatriot John “Rabbit” Bundrick and powerful, shades-of-Keith Moon drums by Zak Starkey (yep, Ringo’s son. He even has a cute ‘60s moptop haircut.)

And despite the well-documented flare-ups between Daltrey and Townshend over the years, they seemed to be having a great time, telling silly one-liners and feeding off the energy of a wildly appreciative audience. The show’s club-like set created a surprisingly intimate nature, with the band members close enough that Townshend had to occasionally duck when Daltrey would toss his mike.

But what made the evening more than a heady nostalgia trip was the band’s searing intensity. It’s hard to talk about highlights, because there simply wasn’t a low moment in the 20-song set. Early songs like I Can’t Explain, Substitute and Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere have such a primal, three-chord feel that they never grow old, and The Who jammed with unbelievable squall and fury.

They even threw in some less than greatest hits for the faithful — Townshend’s riveting acoustic solo strumming on Drowned from Quadrophenia, the B-side Naked Eye and a Who’s Next reject, Relay.

In fact, the band performed most of its classic Who’s Next — with incendiary versions of Won’t Get Fooled Again, Getting in Tune and Baba O’Riley. Daltrey and Entwistle’s dual harmony singing on My Wife was perfection. And Bargain came with quite a bargain — a nice intro by Townshend about how the song, originally written with most of the Who’s Next material as a sci-fi opera, warned about the limits of technology and the importance of human connection.

Throughout the thundering evening, Townshend worked hard to make those human connections. Before playing 5:15 (which featured a mind-bending bass solo by Entwistle), Townshend said the song reminded him of a young friend who recently “messed up his mind” with too much drugs. And on the coda of The Kids Are Alright, Townshend seemed to acknowledge his and the band’s long journey through excesses to enlightenment when he sang new lyrics:

“Most of us got here. . . Now we got kids. What can ever be wrong with kids?”

It was Townshend’s ability to blend the wisdom of age with the passion of youth that made it a night to remember. Even with some tickets topping off at $140, I call that a bargain — one of the best I’ve ever had.

> larry_aydlette@pbpost.com