A woman dancing on her chair wore a hand-printed T-shirt that spoke for the 14,000 Who fans around her: “The Who Cares.”

“It goes without saying, it’s good to be back,” singer Roger Daltrey reported enthusiastically during Friday’s show, the first local Who concert since 1976.

Fifteen years ago the English quartet burst onto the rock scene not because they had the Beatles’ musicality or the Rolling Stones’ bad boys approach, but because they best expressed what rock is about: a cathartic, physical acting out of adolescent frustration and alienation.

The Who is still in touch with that energy. The band long ago quit destroying its instruments on stage, but the music is as strong today as it ever was.

Daltrey stamped about, pranced and marched as he swung his microphone from its cord in ever-widening loops. A thousand Instamatic flashbulbs exploded every time guitarist Pete Townshend leaped into the air.

What the fans got for their money at the three long-ago sold out Oakland Coliseum arena shows

Friday through Sunday was two hours of the history of the world’s most powerful rock band.

When the house lights came on after “Won’t Get Fooled Again” Friday, no one believed the show was over. A spontaneous chant went up: “Who, Who, Who, Who,” before the band returned to play three encore numbers.

Gone were the often long-winded guitar and drum solos. Instead, most of the 21 songs the band played were tight ensemble numbers delivered with minimum of frills or elaboration. Keyboardist John Bundrick and a three-man horn section added coloration to the arrangements, but mostly went unnoticed while the Who dominated the stage.

And if the English rockers didn’t play with quite as much abandon as they did 15 years ago, none in the audience seemed to mind. After all, these guys are 35 now, but they haven’t lost touch with why they first got on stage.

With its first two songs, the oldies “Substitute” and “I Can’t Explain,” the band made it clear that it is as contemporary and important as any of today’s music.

See THE WHO, C-3, Col. 1

Roger Daltrey

Tribune photos by Bill Knowland

Peter Townshend