The Who revisited is redeemed

The Who may have been disappointing Wednesday at the St. Paul Civic Center. But the celebrated British rock band redeemed itself Friday night with a convincing and largely exciting performance.

If drummer Kenney Jones, who replaced the late, magnificent Keith Moon, was the goat Wednesday for playing like an ambivalent hired hand, he was a hero Friday for putting consistent kick and punch into the music. He was not the kind of colorful spark plug Moon was but he kept the fire burning during most of the two-hour performance.

Perhaps the day's rest before the concert helped The Who; Wednesday had been the band's third straight night of performing. In any event, The Who came out smoking Friday, whereas the group took about 45 minutes to get untracked in the previous concert. The band seemed tighter and more involved, though the performance suffered for a few songs in the middle of the set and ended with a thud—a soulless rendition of the rhythm-and-blues classic "Dancing in the Streets."

Guitarist Pete Townshend, the visual focal point with his frog leaps and windmill-style strumming, seemed intense and played ferociously from the very first song until the end. His foil, singer Roger Daltrey, was less hyperkinetic than he was Wednesday but his vocals were consistently strong and inspired this time.

He also complimented the sellout crowd of 17,500 for its deportment. Unlike Wednesday night, there was no stage rush or firecrackers and everyone did not stand for the entire show. Nevertheless, the crowd was just as enthusiastic as the previous one.

The fans heard essentially the same material except for two or three songs and the encore. And the encore—a thundering version of "Young Man's Blues" that evoked the psychedelia-cum-heavy-metal days of the late 1960s—was the high point of a satisfying concert by one of rock's biggest bands.