GREENSBORO — The British rock band The Who demonstrated its showmanship Sunday night at Greensboro Coliseum, overcoming some weak moments, even using one of those moments to advantage.

The capacity audience’s fervor peaked midway with what is probably The Who’s most famous song, “Pinball Wizard.” Most members of the audience recognized it after only two notes. Then the band segued neatly into two other songs from their rock opera “Tommy.” When Roger Daltrey sang the line “Listening to you, I get the feeling,” lights were turned toward the audience and the crowd went wild, jumping, waving their arms and shouting “Who, who, who!”

The musicians knew they were finally in control. Bassist John Entwistle, nattily dressed in an orange suit, calmly sipped something from two water bottles clamped to his microphone stand. Daltrey rapidly paced a circle, as if to keep his energy level high.

Then they launched into a hard-driving version of “My Generation,” followed quickly by “I Can See for Miles.” That, however, degenerated into a long, slow jam that lost the attention of many audience members.

Bang! A flash pot went off, filling the stage with light and smoke, bringing the crowd to its feet as The Who sang, appropriately, “Fooled Again.”

Earlier low points were not so easily remedied. Things dragged out a bit when Pete Townshend sang “Down” from his solo album. “Who Are You” followed, however, picking up the pace quite a bit.

Most of the special effects involved lighting. Dozens of lighting instruments hung from a giant grid that resembled the prow of Darth Vader’s Star Destroyer. In general, The Who reserved its effects for the latter half of the show and usually for songs like “Who Are You,” which didn’t really need help. Not that the effects weren’t fun to watch, of course. In that particular case, lights supported on three carousel-like structures were set to spinning, flashing across the stage and into the audience.

When later the band emerged for an encore after 10 minutes of “whooting” and stomping from the audience, the lights spelled out W-H-O. For the actual encore, which included “The Real Me” from the band’s second rock opera, “Quadrophenia,” two mirror balls covered the ceiling with star-like points of light.

The musicians maintained a high standard, especially in guitar solos by Entwistle and Townshend. The quality was marred somewhat by bad sound balance, particularly during the first few songs. Many lyrics were almost impossible to hear, a situation not helped by the fact that the crowd cheered all the way through some of the early numbers.

Willie Nile, who on any other night would be headlining the show, provided a short but good rock ’n’ roll warm-up act. He apparently had to limit himself to 30 minutes, allowing The Who to play almost 2½ hours.

“Do you like to twist?” Nile said, introducing a number. “Here’s a song about the twist called ‘Champs-Elysees.’ That’s a street in Paris. And it’s dedicated to Chubby Checker and Jean Paul Sartre.”