WASHINGTON—I did what any other self-respecting Who fan would do. I had to see the opening show of The Who’s “final” American tour, so after walking for two hours across D.C. and only being able to get ahold of a lousy ticket, I gave into the scalper’s demands.

Oh well.

People wanted to see this show. For the first night of two sell-out crowds, scalpers were asking $300 for a pair of front-row center seats. The selling price for a single in the fifth row—“right in front of Townshend”—was $110.

The concert got off to luke-warm start with an opener by a Mick Jaeger impersonator in the form of David Johansen, who’s band kept looking up at the 25-foot video screens suspended above the floor.

The Who began with a song they’ve led off with for years, “Substitute,” followed by “Can’t Explain.” Their energy level was at a peak with Roger Daltrey, The Who’s lead singer, prancing about and twirling the microphone cord like a lariat. Guitarist Peter Townshend frantically careened about stage, recalling days of old.

Of course, they played “Baba O’Reilly” and “Won’t Get Fooled Again.” I mean really, what would a Who concert be without the old classics?

Sure there were some songs that were left out, “My Generation” being the most notable. “We dropped it because Roger keeps laughing, which I find embarrassing!” Townshend, 37, said in a Sept. 23 Washington Post article. But they did play tunes off Tommy and the 1973 release Quadrophenia, highlighted by a marvelous jam session with a 10-minute version of “Drowned.”

They also played four songs of their newest album, It’s Hard, (that Rolling Stone magazine rated a five star “classic” and “their most vital and coherent album since Who’s Next”) including the title cut, “A Man is A Man,” “Eminence Front,” and the youthful “Cry If You Want.”

Conspicuous in its absence was anything off the 1980 release Face Dances, except for “The Quiet One.” Daltrey commented during a Sept. 22 radio interview, “We just got bored with them. They’re very same-y.”

Townshend had all his old energy back as he lept, strummed, bounded and scissors-kicked his way across the stage. He seemed to be over his recent struggle with booze and

Daltrey and Townshend

drugs that had plagued The Who’s previous tour. When asked in a Sept. 30 Rolling Stone article if this farewell tour would be any different from the earlier tours, Daltrey quipped, “Yeah, Townshend’s gonna be sober.”

Stoned or sober, Townshend played like a man possessed. When the band quit, he began the final verse of the anythmn, “Long Live Rock.” He also blasted the same powerful rhythms with his trademark windmill-like guitar playing.

The other band members also lived up to their reputations. Bassist John Entwistle, standing as still as he used to when The Who first started 20 years ago, kept up a steady beat throughout. Occasionally he added his voice to the sound, singing lead on several like the old John Lennon number, “Twist-and-Shout.” (A song from the Who’s early days that closed the final encore.)

And drummer Kenny Jones, the band’s replacement for Keith Moon, proved he fits into the new Who with tight martial drum rolls.

The Who are planning a concert film for cable and possibly a live album from the tour “if,” Daltrey said in the Rolling Stone article, “Pete could come up with a few new songs that we’ve never played on record.

The Who is quitting when its ahead—still fresh in people’s minds, with more creative projects in the works. “I don’t want to just fizzle out,” Daltrey said in the Rolling Stone article. But Townshend, in a post-concert interview with the Washington Post, had a different feeling. “I feel like we’re climbing a mountain, instead of treading water. I feel a great sense of… relief.”

Still, if you believe—pray as most diehards do, this could be what Daltrey calls The Who’s “first farewell tour.” We can only hope.

“Basically, I see it as the end of my performing career,” Townshend said in the Post article. “But I’m looking forward to seeing what I can do next. It’s an aggressive winding up of a period of activity, an aggressive attempt to exhaust our resources. I really want to wring us out dry and know that we’ve got everything out of us that’s possible.”

They may just do that if the band maintains the energy level it showed during its first show of the tour.

The Who plays Chicago tonight and Wednesday night.

photos and text by Fred Beuttler