The madmen of rock, The Who in 1972 (from left): Pete Townshend, Keith Moon, John Entwistle, Roger Daltrey.

The Who is back in town and they are a hot ticket

More than a decade before the punk movement took hold, The Who became famous for smashing instruments and each other to bits at the end of concerts.

Pre-dating hard core and heavy metal, the members of The Who were part of the “British Invasion” of the 1960s and were the original bad boys of rock ’n’ roll. Twenty-five years later, the band is celebrating its anniversary with the 25-city The Kids Are Alright tour.

The tour hits Buffalo’s Rich Stadium tonight at 8 p.m. Tickets are still available through Ticketrpn and Teletron, for $25.

The legendary rock band — Roger Daltrey, Pete Townshend and John Entwistle — are joined by drummer Simon Phillips. Steve Bolton plays electric guitar since Townshend has developed tinnitus, a ringing in his ears, and sticks with an acoustic guitar. The band has added a horn and percussion section as well as three backup singers.

The tour will take The Who throughout North America and Canada and got underway last month in Glens Falls. So far the tour has received favorable reviews and the group has played shows more than 3 hours long full of favorites, including songs from the rock opera Tommy, My Generation, Who Are You and other classics.

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Lead singer Roger Daltrey struts his stuff in Syracuse during one of the final concerts of the group’s farewell tour in 1982.

They’re talkin’ about another generation

Twenty-five years after the legendary rock band The Who formed in London, it is back on tour and playing to a whole new generation of fans.

“It’s incredible that I could ever see this band,” said Jared Barbin, 18, of Westfield, N.J. “I was into the ’60s, especially the music. It’s amazing to me that I can watch them. I’m looking forward to this so much.”

“The whole thing with The Who right now has been a new awakening from the youngest kids up to people in their 30s,” said Kevin Kopec, a New Jersey music store owner. “Any time a group comes back like that, they start to sell all of their old catalog stuff. We’ve started to get more requests for posters, T-shirts and buttons, any Who memorabilia. The Who is a collectible-type group because of their history.”

You can bet the thirtysomething crowd isn’t sporting Who buttons on labels or hanging posters on bedroom walls. That sort of devotion can only be handled by teenagers, many of whom slept overnight in line to get tickets.

But The Who, whose members Pete Townshend, Roger Daltrey and John Entwistle are in their mid-40s, is the band of the previous generation, too. After all, Townshend wrote My Generation in 1965, with the lyrics “I hope I die before I get old.”

As the baby boomers grew up and produced babies of their own, Townshend and The Who attempted to find out what it meant to grow old with rock ’n’ roll. In 1978, the album Who Are You went platinum, and the title single reached No. 14 on the U.S. charts.

The last Who album, It’s Hard, was released in 1982. Its title summed up the band members’ feelings on life as rock ’n’ roll elders as they made their way around the country in what was billed as their farewell tour.

Now, along with the Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin and the Beach Boys — other bands that have withstood the test of time — The Who can attract whole families to its concerts.