British rock supergroup The Who came to a sold-out Memorial Coliseum March 24 and delivered a brilliant, hard-rocking show to their audience.

The right two-thirds of the stage burst into motion at 9:15 p.m. as singer Roger Daltrey and guitarist Pete Townshend began parading and dancing back and forth along the floor. They moved continuously throughout the concert, adding such antics as leaping splits and twists to the end of their songs.

Bassist John Entwistle presided over the left third of the stage. His appearance of being glued to the floor contrasted to the energy of his stage partners, but the brilliance of his musicianship was obvious.

The rear of their stage setup served as the pedestal for Keith Moon, their hard-hitting drummer, known better for his outrageous behavior than for his musical ability. Moon’s unusual actions have brought him suspensions from travel on many of the world airlines, as well as ejection from many hotels, but in this concert he stuck to business, skillfully handling the job of playing his unusually vast drum set.

Together, the four-man group blended into a powerful musical structure captained by Townshend and his frenzied guitar play.

The Who has reached the “supergroup” status, where their performances become a must for the bonafide rock and roll fan. That reputation certainly is evident in Portland-Vancouver; tickets for this event sold out a few hours after going on sale more than a month ago.

They’ve reached that status by accumulating a reputation of fame both inside music and out. Their musical achievements include a string of hot-selling singles that have filled the charts from “My Generation” in 1965 up to “Squeezebox” this year. Their numerous albums have always hit the charts hard, and many of them have topped the million-dollar sales mark.

The achievement that truly cemented The Who’s spot among the musical giants was Townshend’s creation of “Tommy,” the world’s first rock opera. Its success on stage and screen brought the group worldwide praise and fame.

A long medley of tunes from the show included “See Me, Feel Me/Listening To You” as the last of eight numbers. As they began the song’s first chords, an eerie ray of green light stretched from the darkened stage out to the American flag at the other end of the arena. Slowly, it was joined by two identical rays; then numerous pencil-thin rays of light fanned out over the crowd.

These lights were then joined by bright white lights that illuminated the crowd, showing an entire arena of wildly applauding people.

Strangely enough, they were still three songs away from their finale, “Won’t Get Fooled Again,” during which the green lights again emerged. That tune also saw Moon turn his activities to lofting drumsticks out toward the audience.

Due to the unusual length of the show (more than 20 songs), the group did not reappear for an encore. Still, they had come through with a first-class show.