‘The Who’ Is Best Ever

BY LEW HARRIS

0 YEAR, they did “Tommy.”

All of it—or at least al-
most all.

And then the houselights
came up and The Who saw
its audience, on its feet. And
then they played for a good
half hour more—“Summer-
time Blues," “Shakin’ All
Over," “My Generation.” a
reprise of "See Me . . . ”
from “Tommy."

I’ll bet there wasn’t a per-
son in the Auditorium Theater
last night who won’t tell
you that this was probably
the best concert Chicago has

ever had. Even those that

have seen J anis and Cocker
and BS&T.

Peter Townshend was in
this white jumpsuit. Jump-
suit!!! On him, it’s a jump-
suit, kicksuit, gyrationsuit.
Everythingsuit. Standsuit. He
stands there, body rigid, his

right arm going round and '

round and round. And as the
arm rounds the turn, it
strikes a chord.

It pounds. And pounds. He
loses his pick—it goes flying
across the stage. He keeps
pounds, two tambourines
his bare hands.

And then he's up in a jump-
ing jack. As he comes down
he pcsmds a chord, a drum
p o u n d 5, two tamborines
smash together—all as he
hits the floor.

In “Tommy” alone there
were five, six, seven, maybe
eight standing ovations. One
for a song coming up, like

“Pinball Wizard." One for
something just finished, like

“Go-to-the-mirror-smash - the-
mirror.” And one every time
“See me, feel me, touch me,
heal me” came up.

Not to mention the ovation

Sound

Keith Moon got just for pan-

tomiming a drum solo in
the middle of a Townshend
guitar solo.

But you can’t keep pick-
ing little things out.

Musically. The Who is al-
most flawless. ’And it's un-
believable how much better
they sound live than on rec-
ord. “Tommy” is done all
electric, the most of the stu-
dio version was acoustic gui-
tar—and things like “Uncle
Ernie” that I never thought

worked very well DO work
very well.

Visually, they are beauti-

A Hot Night for

BY PETER GORNER

0 AN AMBITIOUS program
of Bach, Haydn, Handel, and
Rossini lured the faithful to
Grant Park last night. But
the show was stolen by a
flashy Concerto Grosso for
six solo trumpets by a for-
gotten baroque composer,
Gottfried Heinrich Stoelzel.

The orchestra responded
gamely to Brian Priestman’s
competent leadership, a n d
even a harpsichord which re-
fused to stay in tune and
Handel’s tired “Water Mu-
sic" couldn’t wilt the pro-
ceedings. Air onstage was at
a premium, and flutist Jean
Hoogheem ran out of it in
the Bach Second Suite. Aft-
erwards. tho. she regained
her seat as the orchestra’s
principal flutist, found her
second wind, and zipped thru
her solos in Rossini’s “L’ltal-

iana in Algeri” Overture with
ease.

In the mad scene from
Handel's “Hercules,” Ros-
‘sini's “Pensa alla Patria,”
and Haydn’s “Ah che Morrir
Vorrei” [which replaced the

Bach 35th Cantata at the
last moment,] English mez-
zo Maureen Lehane displayed
her mastery of the oratorio
style and all flavors of bra-
vura. Considering the condi-
tions, this was like a tight-
rope walker performing on
a greased wire.

The Stoelzel is an unusually
gay little work. Spurred bri-

»

Music

liantly by Chanes Geyer’s
undisputed possession of
clarino territory, the five
other trumpeters rang thru
with confidence and style.
They were Robert Rushford,
Paul Hilgeman, Rod Miller,
Brian Perry, and Luther Did-
erickson.

Ravinia action

Meanwhile, at Ravinia, Lin-
da Winer reports Frank
Zappa and the Mothers of
Invention held court with
some 7,000 frentic energetic
fans. As promised, there
have been some changes
made. Frank and Ian Un-

ful. But we’ve talked about
that already.

As for “audience rapport,"
something there isn’t too
much of anymore, there’s a
lot of it — from the patter
about writing songs in Town-
shend’s “GAIR-ige" [that‘s
“garage," lackey] to Moon’s
waving a Holiday Inn towel
around for all to see.

There’s another show Satur-
day night. The Fourth of July.

Lots of fireworks.

Singing

derwood. who plays sax and
keyboard, are the only two
original Mothers left. The
new people all have strong
musical personalities a n d
leave their mark on the group
in the form of a really fresh
spontaneity.

Two chameleon voiced ex-
Turtles, Mark Volman and
Howard Kaylan, have taken
the place of Zappa’s rubber
chicken and the stuffed
giraffe for gross comic relief.
A new organist, George Duke,
gives the already peculiarly
seamed music more of a jazz
orientation. Jeff Simmons,
guitar, and Aynsley Dunbar,
drums, appeared with the
Mothers here during their
concert in May.

Much of the Mothers con-
ceptual sense was lost in the
first half, because of terrible
vocal amplification. Things
got better, if not perfect. But
what the audience did hear
made them light-up — with
sparklers, that 18. Police were
searching people at the gate
to make sure that nothing
more euphoric in the way of
contraband got in.