One of the most exciting moments in the history of Bay Area rock concerts happened last weekend when the Who and Grateful Dead played for six hours at the Oakland Coliseum.

Over 93,000 fans Saturday and Sunday saw one of the world's greatest rock groups (if not the greatest) and the Bay Area's old favs do their thing.

The Grateful Dead, one of the Bay Area's most popular bands for many years, led off with opening sets that lasted about three and a half hours each day. The Dead were a little hotter all the way around on the Sunday show.

The Dead jammed a little more on the first day, but they put out at all times.

Even the Dead freaks were amazed at how powerful the Who were as soon as they hit the stage.

It takes even Led Zeppelin a few numbers to catch on fire, but the Who didn't take any time at all. On Saturday the band's bassist, John Entwhistle, celebrated his 32nd birthday with one of the hottest sets of his career.

Roger Daltry has to be the most exciting vocalist in the history of rock music. He was dancing around the stage on their two-hour set firing his mike in the air and around his back while throwing his mike stand all over the stage.

Vocally he was outstanding and had the crowd stunned for the Who's whole performance.

Although the Who's drummer, Keith Moon, has slowed up somewhat and gained a little weight since the last time he was in town, he is still one of the premium talents at his trade.

Peter Townshend has it all and does it all on stage. A good portion of the band's material was penned by one of the wizards of the rock world.

He still jumps around the stage while playing incredible guitar licks. Pete is not known for his vocalizing, but over the weekend he was in fine form.

They changed little in the two sets this weekend but a major change was the encore of "Shaking All Over" that turned into "Johnny Be Goode" on Sunday. This was the band's first encore in a great while. In fact many of the folks taking the Who on tour can't remember when they did their last encore.

Many of the people that have caught all their concerts on this fall tour think that the two shows in Oakland compare to the Phoenix gig as some of the best music the band has put down in years. The only thing Oakland missed that the rest of the tour had was what is supposed to be an incredible light show. But being outside there was nothing they could do about it.

The Who will tour Canada until Oct. 22. Then they go back home to complete their next album, which will be out early next year.