The Who plays so loud you ask
‘what,’ but crowd is pleased

Eric Burdon’s song,
“Monterey,” describes The
Who exploding into fire at
the Monterey Pop Festi-
val. Friday night this
group from England ex-
ploded the audience’s
minds and eardrums in
their performance at the
Auditorium.

On hearing The Who for
the first time, one comes
to the conclusion that
they are the loudest group
in the world, Even ear-
splitting Johnny Winter
does not come close to
being that loud. But even
though it is“ loud, .The
Who music is so excttlng
that the listener can still
enjoy it. *

Peter Townshend, the
group’s guitarist and rest-
dent composer, is the one
man chiefly responsible
for its great success. As a
performer, he is outstand-
ing with his brand of
.showmanship. He punc-
tuates his playing with nu-
merous body movements,
jumps and splits. His gui-
tar playing is just average,
however. with only an oc-
casional burst of technical

brilliance.

As a composer, Town-
shend has produced the
best rock opera to date.
The song "Tommy” is the
story of a deaf. dumb and
blind boy who heats
everyone he plays at pin-
ball. The music is well-

Reviewed by
0000 LAMBERTON

written, with judicious use
of sevenths, ninths and
chordal sequences, Last

night The Who played
most of the opera nonstOp.
Its emotional theme, “See
me, hear me, touch me,
heal me,” was brought in
effectively a number of
times throughout the
work.

In addition to Tommy,
they played some of their
most r e c e n t releases
(“Shakin’ All Over”) as
well as their past hits
(“My Generation”). Equal-
ly effective on drums and
bass are Keith Moon and
John Entwhistle. Moon,
the cut-up of the group, is
a demon on the double
bass drum, while Entwhis-
tie, rarely showing any
emotion, plucks his bass
in sixteenth-note patterns.
twice as fast as ordinary
bassists do.

Lead singer Roger Dal-
tray did not add a great
deal to the performance.
He danced quite a hit and
sang pretty well, but went
virtually unnoticed. The
co-stars of the show were
Townshend and The
Who's unbelievable vol-
ume. Both Townshend's
g u i t a r and Entwhistle's
bass were turned up so
high that they just barely
had to touch the strings to
play. it was evident in the
performers' facial expres-
sions that they grooved on

(

~better,

the raw power they held
in their hands.

Thankfully, The Who’s
music was worth the 90-
minute wait the crowd put
up with outside the Audi-
torium. Even after that de-
lay, the management had
only two turnstiles open,
and. that number was cut
to one when a group of
kids stampeded an usher.

The Who was preceded
by the Mystics, one of the
local groups
around. Their sound is
basically the same as the
old Mystics’ sound of
years past: heavy
rhythm-and-blues with a
fine brass section. Unfor-
tunately, they were only
allowed to play for 30
minutes.

Dodd Lamberton is a music

student at the University of
Minnesota.

2 MOVIES BOOKED

The American Swedish
institute, 2600 Park Av..
will present “P o r t u g a 1
With Pleasure” and “Ski
Scene Scandinavia" at its
Sunday movie s e s s i o n.
starting at 3 pm.

THEATRE TALK SET

Michael Langham, the
new artistic director of
the Minnesota T h e a t r e
Company, will speak on
“Theatre Experiences" at
2:30 p.'m. Thursday in

Scott Hall at the Universi-
ty of Minnesota.‘

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