Beacon Journal photos by Marcy Nightwander

Screaming rock fans turned out to pack the Richfield Coliseum for the Who concert Thursday night

20,000 'orderly' fans see The Who

By Mark Faris

Beacon Journal staff writer

The kids are all right. The Who is all right, too.

They both made it through Thursday evening's session at the Richfield Coliseum in spectacular style and, in the process, gently laid to rest abundant apprehension that had been attached to the encounter.

The apprehension stemmed from the tragedy Monday night at Cincinnati's Riverfront Coliseum where 11 people were trampled to death during a frantic rush for general admission seats to a Who concert.

But no such chaos was even vaguely evident at Thursday's reserved-seats-only show in Richfield.

DESPITE THE capacity crowd of nearly 20,000 extremely avid Who fans, courtesy and organization prevailed.

So did rock 'n' roll.

In its five-year history, the Coliseum has seldom, if ever, seen a more dynamic 2 hours and 15 minutes of high-powered rock.

The legendary 15-year-old British band, which last appeared at the Coliseum on Dec. 9, 1975, was a study in superlatives throughout its 20-tune set.

Following the only questionable portion of the show 6 a nine-minute promotional film clip featuring mob violence scenes from the band's new movie Quadrophenia 6 the quartet and three backup musicians

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assembled on stage at precisely 8:33 p.m.

But from that point, they were everything you could expect from The Who 6 maybe more.

ROGER DALTREY, the compact little gentleman who does the singing, pranced and strutted like a show pony.

His microphone twirling was in fine fettle, too.

Guitarist-composer Pete Townshend, the brains of the outfit, hit the strings with swooping roundhouse rights that actually drew blood from his fingers.

He also hopped and jerked as if he was being manipulated by a puppeteer with a twitch.

Bassist John Entwistle and drummer Kenny Jones 6 the man who replaced the late Keith Moon 6 aren't as eyecatching, but their performances were flawless.

And the agenda of tunes, well, it was a what's what of furious, uninterrupted Who music.

In order, it included Substitute, Can't Explain, Baba O'Reilly, Punk, Boris The Spider, Sister Disco, Blue Eyes, Drowned, Who Are You, 5:15, Pinball Wizard, See Me, Feel Me, Long Live Rock, My Generation, I Can See For Miles, Sparks, Won't Get Fooled Again and Summertime Blues.