CLARKSTON – When Pete Townshend and Roger Daltrey leaned into the microphone and sang the line “pick up my guitar and play just like yesterday” from their rock radio staple “Won’t Get Fooled Again,” there was a definite sense of nostalgia sweeping the audience at the Who’s performance Friday at Pine Knob.

Despite the fact that the night was devoted to their entire 1973 album “Quadrophenia” and a half-dozen Who classics, Friday’s show (and, indeed, the 20-city summer tour of which it is a part) is more concerned with getting things right today.

It’s obvious that the remaining members of the Who – singer-writer-guitarist Townshend, singer Daltrey and bassist John Entwistle – are having a ball. Last fall’s tour of “Quadrophenia” was one of the most surprising and fulfilling concert experiences of the year as these seminal British rockers fleshed out the 81-minute album’s confusing storyline and brought Townshend’s moody, explosive memoir of early ’60s British youth to vivid life.

Sounding dramatic and muscular backed by 10 additional musicians the band delivered essentially the same show last weekend, but with a decidedly livelier personality.

Townshend was particularly animated, swinging his right arm in that trademark windmill motion as he bounded around the stage. His explosive guitar work and impassioned vocals echoed Townshend’s and the Who’s glorious past, and was nothing short of remarkable considering his reluctance to trot out the band these last 15 years.

Townshend was on fire Friday night, ignited perhaps by the energized crowd in a city that long has had a strong bond with the Who. At times it seemed as if the scripted confines of “Quadrophenia” – the Who’s 1973 opus about a young British punk with a double case of split personality – wouldn’t be able to contain him. But the balding, blustery guitar great was appropriately restrained until the band bounded into songs like an explosive “5:15,” a crowd pleaser highlighted by the reserved Entwistle’s thunderous, fleet-fingered solo.

Townshend grew more animated as the 90-minute “Quadrophenia” progressed, complete with story-enhancing video clips projected on a jumbo screen behind the band (with actor Phil Daniels as the main character Jimmy, whom he played in the 1979 movie version).

Texas-born British cult star P.J. Proby replaced Gary Glitter as the Godfather, giving him a colorfully Elvis-like quality. Ben Walters played and sang the pugnacious Ace the Face, but lacked the snarling swagger Billy Idol gave the part last fall.

The story, set admist the rancorous rivalry of the young Mods and older rockers of the Who’s early ’60s British youth, played well in the controlled environment of the Palace last fall, and managed to keep a rowdier Pine Knob crowd attentive. Even if some didn’t or couldn’t follow the story, the richness of the music and the vibrance of the extended band’s performance (including Pete’s brother Simon on guitar and vocals and Ringo Starr’s son Zak Starkey’s forceful drumming).

The real treat was the six-song encore, which included a rambling, bluesier acoustic version of “Won’t Get Fooled Again,” a riveting “Behind Blue Eyes” and powerful renditions of early Who classics “Substitute” and “I Can’t Explain.” The last two in particular served as a reminder of just how far along the Who brought rock music in the 1960s and ’70s.

ANN ARBOR NEWS BUREAU PHOTOS • CARRIE PRATT

Bassist John Entwistle, singer Roger Daltrey and guitarist Pete Townshend rock out at Pine Knob Friday night.

Now it’s the ’90s and the Who is something its members roll out every once in a great while. Motivated by money on their 25th anniversary tour in 1989, the art suffered. This time the art is the prime motivation, and the Who have risen to the occasion.

“We’re having a lot of fun,” Townshend told the crowd near the 2 hour and 20-minute performance’s end. And that, more than anything else, could be the key to the band’s future.