There have been hundreds of rock ’n’ roll bands take the Market Square Arena stage since the downtown dome opened six years ago, but only two acts — Bruce Springsteen and Bob Seger — have been able to come close to proving what the Who proved last night.

The Who, friends and lovers of rock, is the ultimate rock ’n’ roll band.

Before a crowd of 15,500, the English band displayed why rock ’n’ roll was created and for what it still stands. Anger. Volume. Rage. Energy. Power. The Who has somehow managed to hold onto all of those elements since the mid-60s.

Before the house lights ever went out, the crowd was on its feet cheering in anticipation of the group’s arrival, which doesn’t happen very often. It was the charismatic group’s first appearance in MSA and first in Indianapolis since the State Fair in 1967. It also could be the group’s last show here since the band has announced intentions to end touring.

Despite their 37-year-old minds and bodies, lead vocalist Roger Daltrey and lead guitarist Pete Townshend can still sing and play circles around most younger performers.

The solid-bodied Daltrey has to be in top condition to maintain the pace he did last night, rocking to and fro, pacing in circles like a caged tiger and “running in place” while singing “Who Are You.” He frequently twirled his heavily taped microphone by the chord some 15 feet into the air. He sang with power all night.

And although Townshend long ago stopped crashing his guitar on the stage floor as he did in the ’60s, he nearly destroys the instrument with his bare hands, thrashing away with his world-famous windmill strokes. Although he tried to conceal a six-inch rip underneath the right hip pocket of his faded blue jeans with a strip of electrician’s tape, the tape couldn’t withstand Townshend’s dozens of jumps and leaps and eventually fell off.

Then there was “The Ox” — John Entwistle, the “quiet one” of the group, who dresses like a proper Englishman and plays the bass with the cool and deftness of a bomb squad specialist.

Making their first Indianapolis appearances were keyboardist Tim Gorman, who is not an official member of the group, and drummer Kenny Jones, who was called on to fill the size 15 shoes of the ubiquitous Keith Moon, who died of an overdose of sleeping pills four years ago. Jones, who played a double-bass kit, is the unsung hero of the group with his remarkable playing as displayed, in particular, on “Drowned” and “Won’t Get Fooled Again.”

Not only was Jones’ performance on Townshend’s “Drowned” notably good, but the band as a whole displayed its skill on the tune — Daltrey wailing on harmonica, Entwistle lightly plucking the bass and Townshend splitting his talents on lead vocals and guitar, ending the whole number with a dozen of leaps.

On three occasions, Townshend requested “more level” from the on-stage sound man and once lost his cool and shouted over the stage mike during the performance of “Eminence Front.”

Following David Johansen’s half-hour opening set, the Who’s 2-hour, 15-minute performance opened with “Substitute” and “I Can’t Explain.” The songlist promptly jumped 17 years to “Dangerous,” one of five cuts the group did from its current album, “It’s Hard.”

Included in the new material was the band’s current single, “Athena,” a tune the group originally had not planned to play on this tour.

Although some of the old Who favorites like “My Generation,” “I Can See For Miles” and “Magic Bus,” were absent, a few of those uncommercial jewels such as “Sister Disco,” “Behind Blue Eyes” and “Love Rain On Me” made up for them.

The Who saved classics like “Pinball Wizard,” “See Me, Feel Me” and set-closer “Won’t Get Fooled Again” for the latter part of the show, flooding the hall with an astounding visual display of retina-scarring explosions, 288 high-intensity lamps and a dozen floor-mounted rolling searchlights.

A 5-minute roar and scattered chants of “Who! Who!” brought the band back on stage for an encore of “Naked Eye” and “Summertime Blues.” When the show was complete, Daltrey and Townshend embraced.

As Daltrey sang in “Long Live Rock,” one of the best tunes of the night: “Rock is dead they say. Be it dead or alive, long live rock.”

And long live the Who.