THE WHO

In concert: Who else could talk to a New Generation?

By VAUGHN PALMER

NEW YORK

Yeeeeeaaaaah!

A singer's voice splits the night, guitarist windmills, bass and drums thunder and smash, smoke billows, lasers glitter and that all-releasing scream is echoed by 20,000 ecstatic fans.

It could only be The Who. And it was.

Friday night, in the second of five sold-out performances at Madison Square Gardens, the explosive British band stormed through a better than two-hour set that summed up what has been a year of renewal for The Who.

Twenty-two songs laid it on the line: If someone else wants to claim the title "Greatest Rock Band in the World" they're going to have to fight for it. The Who hasn't finished yet.

Best of all, Friday night was My Generation for a New Generation. The band has attracted a new young brash following to stand beside the stalwarts who have loved them since they first cut My Generation back in '65.

Things did not look nearly so rosy for The Who nearly a year ago. A new album titled Who Are You? didn't seem quite worth the three-year wait that it took to make it.

Worse, Pete Townshend, the archetypical rock guitarist and visionary composer who leads the band, was going deaf and threatening never to tour again. Then in the first week of September, Keith Moon, the band's lunatic drummer, died of an overdose of lifestyle. It looked like his obituary would turn out to be the band's obituary as well.

But somehow the survivors — Townshend, lead vocalist Roger Daltry, and bassist John Entwhistle — joined together in the band. They hired a new drummer, ex-Faces basher Kenny Jones, plus a semi-permanent addition in keyboard player John (Rabbit) Bundrick.

Meanwhile, two Who movies were scheduled for this year — The Kids Are Alright, a retrospective on the band's 15-year history, and Quadrophenia, a musical drama based on the band's 1973 concept album of the same name. Further directions are to be struck with a brand new album scheduled for production later this year.

And a tour to put it all together: the first show was in England May 2 and there are to be only seven in America, two in New Jersey earlier this week and then the five-day stand at the Gardens.

All too brief a taste (a fuller tour is planned for later) but nevertheless essential, for the band has always been at its most volatile in live performance.

Friday was no exception: that electric moment when the band bounds on stage for the first time. Daltry, his blond locks cropped in the old Mod style, thrashing the mike. Townshend, agile as ever, slicing notes in mid-air. Entwhistle, dressed as a greasy honky tonk star, rumbling the bass with detached flair.

The crowd was as "taken" as any I've ever been a part of. It stood (yes stood) for most of the show.

At the same time it must be admitted that Moon's death left a gap that no one drummer (or two or three) could hope to fill. Jones to his credit does not try.

But it is exciting that the band will carry on exploring new territory (as it was doing even before Moon died), while recasting songs to take advantage of Bundrick's synthesizers and even a three-man horn section.

Townshend is also exploiting a Quadrophenia film to reintroduce material from the sadly neglected 1973 double album.

That neglect may be understandable when you consider that the album was a serious, thoughtful, often critical examination of the wild and destructive period that gave the band its start.

But maybe the movie and the four songs included in the American show — Sea and Sand, Drowned, 5:15 and The Real Me — will prompt a rethinking of Quadrophenia.

In any event, the thicker arrangements Friday night most suited those songs plus three tracks from last year's surprisingly well wearing Who Are You?: Sister Disco (big cheer for the "goodbye disco" chorus), the Music Must Change and the rowing title song.

What the people came for, of course, was the dynamite and there was enough of that.

The show opened with Substitute, an early piece of Townshend wit (circa 1966): "I was born with a plastic spoon in my mouth..."

Can't Explain, the first single (Jan. 1965) followed, then Baba O'Riley, with its devastating line: "Don't cry, it's only teenage wasteland." Everyone knew the words.

Two more selections from the 1971 album Who's Next followed Baba: the crowd-pleasing Behind Blue Eyes (Daltry has blue eyes), and Won't Get Fooled Again which closed the show.

Yeah, it is so easy to take My Generation's taunt about dying before you get old and throw it back at Daltry, 35, Entwhistle, same, and especially the man who wrote it, Townshend, 34.

But then again Who Are You to tell them anything?

Friday night The Who also said: 'Rock is dead, long live Rock.'

The Kids Are Alright. So is The Who.