OVERNIGHT MUSIC

No geezer rock

Uh, Pete, you got the gig. You can relax now.

Apparently nobody told Pete Townshend of the Who that at this stage of his career he's supposed to be doing geezer rock, playing the oldies and collecting the T-shirt sales receipts. Cause when Townshend and his boys took the stage at Philips Arena Thursday night, he played like a punk possessed.

Several years into AARP qualifying range, Townshend attacked his guitar with the adrenalin-fueled ferocity of a 17-year-old kid torturing his first Stratocaster while his parents are out of town.

He took long pick-shredding solos, and when he went into his trademark windmill flails, the crowd reacted as if they were being goosed by cattle prods.

Sharing the stage with Townshend were the usual Who suspects: Roger Daltrey, shredding his lungs on lead vocals; stalwart John Entwhistle on bass, tour veteran John "Rabbit" Bundrick on keyboards, and one who really was a kid, and not just playing like one.

Zak Starkey, Ringo Starr's son, commanded the drum kit as if channeling the licks of the late Keith Moon.

Along with 35-year-old oldies like set-openers "I Can't Explain" and "Substitute," and a smattering from "Tommy" and "Quadrophenia," the Who focused much of their attention on their 1972 classic album "Who's Next."

When Daltrey got to the most famous line from "Baba O'Reilly" — "It's only teenage wasteland" — it was hard to tell to whom he was singing, since the crowd was almost entirely middle-aged, with only a smattering of teens.

Townshend played off the fact that the band hasn't had a radio hit since the Reagan administration. That would be "You Better, You Bet," before which he noted, "We were a pop band then. You would have had to pay serious money to see us." It was a joking acknowledgment of the $127 top ticket price for the show.