Amplifiers Scream Out Defiant Blast

By Mike Bolton

Vicious, crackling whangs of electricity, a naked demonstration against the generation gap, manifested in smouldering black amplifiers, smashed guitars and distorted thumps of a toppled drum set.

The medium was pop music, the message was defiance, the communicator was England's "Who" and the receivers were 2,500 young people.

The Agrodome's grim acoustics, designed for the moanings of cattle shows, became irrelevant in the face of the blasting amplifiers transmitting the electric sounds of Britain's Herman's Hermits, the Who and the U.S. Blues Magoos Monday night.

The violence of the Who, timed to climax the anger lashing from the lines of their former hit "It's My Generation," brought a flood of hot enthusiasm from the audience.

A sample: "People try to put us down … Just because we get around . . . I'm talking about my generation." And the bitter, stinging exhortation to depression-minded, Second World War-stigmatized parents: "Why don't you all … fade away!"

The 2½-hour show tripped to a close with the light, lyrical ballads of Herman's Hermits, who played their hits, Dandy, Henry VIII, and Mrs. Brown's Lovely Daughter.