8 p.m. Saturday at Riverport

The Who isn't just a great rock band. It's a wily commercial enterprise as well. Pete Townshend, Roger Daltrey and John Entwistle could easily and quite profitably have followed the example of the Moody Blues, touring annually and delivering tired snippets from an illustrious career.

Instead, the band teases its public with occasional talk of retirement. And now that it has decided to tour again, The Who is risking that its core group of fans will be content with hearing the music from just one of its albums, and not the greatest one at that. At Riverport, The Who will perform — in its entirety — the music from the 1973 rock opera, "Quadrophenia," with an original accompanying film narrative that will be projected on a screen behind the band.

"Quadrophenia" and the 1979 film of the same name that it inspired are a bittersweet requiem for the band's early career and the heady English musical milieu of the early '60s. Songs like "5:15," "The Real Me," and "Love, Reign O'er Me" tell the story of Jimmy, an agonized teen who zips around London on a GS Scooter, immersing himself in drugs, alcohol and sex in a desperate effort to adapt and find love in a contentious environment of Mods vs. Rockers.

Fleshing out The Who's already massive attack will be a first-rate backing band of five horns, two keyboards, two vocalists, Pete's brother, Simon, on guitar, and drummer Zak Starkey (Ringo Starr's son).