DES MOINES – The British power rock phenomenon, The Who, will descend upon more than 23,500 eager fans at the UNI-Dome in Cedar Falls Friday night, as part of the group's reported "farewell" tour.

The members of the rock'n'roll legend – Pete Townshend, Roger Daltrey, John Entwistle and Kenny Jones – have hinted that this tour is their last, after 18 years of shooting high-energy, uncompromising music and lyrics straight from the hip at responsive audiences.

The Who have survived a changing music business as well as personal traumas, capturing the emotional fervor and anger felt by the youth of the 1960s and '70s in music both beautiful and destructive.

The U.S. tour began this Sept. 22 in Largo, Md., and is scheduled to end Oct. 31 in Tempe, Ariz. Stadiums along the road so far have reported sell-out or near sell-out shows hours after tickets became available.

The UNI-Dome show will feature 1,200 amps of thunderhead sound and 5,100 amps of dazzling lights – 14 semi trucks' worth of equipment requiring approximately 2,400 manhours to set up and at least another 600 to disassemble, said a spokesperson for the show's promoter, Contemporary Presentations, Inc.

Such musical extravaganzas arose from nitty-gritty beginnings. In 1964, during England's "mod" days, assistant movie directors Kit Lambert and Chris Stamp discovered four teens – Townshend, Daltrey, Entwistle and the maniacal drummer, Keith Moon – churning out tunes from Motown, rhythm and blues and the Fifties at the Railway Tavern in London. Impressed with the band’s intensity and musical advancement, Lambert and Stamp became managers and booked the group at the Marquee, a prominent club.

Here, Moon attacked the drums as if possessed; Daltrey roared the vocals, twirling his microphone like a whip; and Entwistle, motionless, delivered rumbling bass lines. Townshend cavorted and jumped with his guitar into such a frenzy that he thrust it through the Marquee's low ceiling and proceeded to smash it beyond repair on the stage.

Such guerrilla rock performances became the band's trademark, the trademark of a generation tired of authority, confused by peer pressure and probably in love on the side.

The Who sang about these emotions of adolescence, releasing "I Can't Explain" in 1965 and "My Generation" in 1966, an unexpected anthem of youth: "People try to put us d-down Just because we g-get around Things they do look awful c-cold Hope I die before I get old."

Following singles and Townshend's rock opera "Tommy," released in 1969, gave the band international fame; the 1971 album "Who's Next" and Townshend's next opera, "Quadrophenia," sent the group on its highly successful U.S. tours in 1974 and 1976. Meanwhile, the band members gleaned personal merit with solo albums or movie roles.

The overwhelming success also took tolls. By the end of 1973, Townshend and Daltrey were spatting openly in the press, and in September 1978 the seemingly inexhaustible Moon, stage clown and media favorite, was found dead in his London apartment from an overdose of a drug. Kenny Jones, formerly of the Small Faces, replaced Moon. The next tragedy struck about a year later at Cincinnati's Riverfront Coliseum, when 11 people died in a rush for seats.

Now, in 1982, The Who are back on the road and back on the record charts with a new album called "It's Hard." An Oct. 3 concert at the St. Paul Minnesota Civic Center showed The Who not smashing equipment but still cavorting, not blasting "Young Man's Blues" but still reaching the audience with ancient themes and frighteningly modern ones, such as the threat of nuclear war and trying to be macho. The group's razor-sharp social comment is still there, but the approach has changed.