'Mediocre' Concert Given By 'Who'

By Steve Sinovic

Journal Staff Writer

Judging from their rather mediocre concert presentation Wednesday night at the Memorial Coliseum, if The Who isn’t one of the world’s most overrated rock groups, then it must be nearly so.

Their spontaneity seems a bit off — undoubtedly the result of extensive touring, and the highly publicized internal squabbles among the band members.

Consequently, each Portland outing, the last one being less than six months ago, seems more an occasion to rekindle the tried and true stuff, than for presenting newer and fresher musical material.

The group went through about a dozen songs in less than two hours onstage.

All were well-planned and well-rehearsed, but a trifle too mechanical in execution.

Onstage chatter with each other, and the audience, was at a minimum.

Some of the material tended to monotony in selection, and a couple of the songs, particularly “Magic Bus,” seemed formless and went on too long.

Nevertheless, the group remains a phenomenal concert attraction hereabouts. The event drew a sellout crowd of 11,000 fans.

Inevitably, it was the familiar numbers in the final hour of the show that got the crowd going, and the group did manage a tolerable rendering of a “Tommy” medley.

Mothers Finest, opening the concert, were a disappointment. The musicianship was uninspired, the music unoriginal and the gimmicks too much.