BUFFALO WILL GIVE the Who something to remember when they come Rich Stadium at 8 p.m. Tuesday — the smallest coliseum crowd on their entire 25th anniversary tour.

Sellouts are greeting the vintage British rockers at virtually every other stop on this 2 1/2-month trek across North America. But here they will play to less than half capacity. It's expected that between 30,000 and 35,000 fans will take reserved seats to witness Who founding members Pete Townshend, Roger Daltrey and John Entwistle with their 12-piece backup band.

That isn't exactly a non-event, but it's well below the 72,000 they drew on their last visit to the stadium during their "farewell tour" in 1982. More importantly, it's short of the 42,000 needed to break even.

Ironically, the Who should be at the top of their game by the time they get to Orchard Park. Before the tour started, bassist Entwistle remarked that the band never hits its stride until it has a dozen shows under its belt. Now in their fourth week on the road, they ought to be fully reacquainted with their songs, but not yet weary of them.

The lingering rustiness from their seven-year hiatus was apparent when they opened the tour in Toronto's CNE Stadium on June 23.

Daltrey wasn't reaching his high notes. Reserve guitarist Steve Bolton wasn't filling in all the empty spaces left by Townshend's shift to acoustic playing. Drummer Simon Phillips wasn't igniting the songs with percussion. The big backup band faltered when confronted with anything but straight-ahead rhythms.

Even so, they managed to sizzle on the best of

Roger Daltrey: still strutting like a Greek god.

their songs. Their 40-minute review of the rock opera "Tommy" exploded with a rip-roaring rendition of "Pinball Wizard." They recalled their youthful fury on a sequence of "Can't Explain," "Substitute" and "I Can See for Miles." And best of all, they reaffirmed the anthemic power of "Baba O'Reilly" and "My Generation."

Despite all their pre-tour disclaimers about advancing age and Townshend's hearing problems, they

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