Who Are Still Special, and They Show It

By Jim Healey

Register Staff Writer

CEDAR FALLS, IA. — A lot of what makes The Who a special band was summed up in one of their more powerful numbers, “Won’t Get Fooled Again.” It began with the defiant title, swallowed whole by the 24,000 who crowded into the UNI-Dome here Friday night. It's the kind of tough-guy stand you might expect

CONCERT REVIEW

from a rock ’n’ roll outfit that’s been around since 1965 — longer if you count the High Numbers and the Detours, progenitors of The Who. The specialness was evident in the tune's fancy lighting, too. Brilliant white spotlights danced on either side of the stage, bathing both the throng and the hall. Disco-style glitter lights ringed the immense letters spelling out the band’s name that framed the stage.

Mostly, though, the peculiar magic was in the music. The compelling instrumentals pushed the piece rapidly on, keyboards crying for mercy, Pete Townshend’s guitar giving none. Roger Daltrey’s towering voice capped it all with words so timely nowadays, as politicians vie for our ears, votes and wallets: “The party on the left is now the party on the right,” he sang, declaring his stand: “I tip my hat to the new constitution, take a bow for the new revolution, pick up my guitar and play — just like yesterday — and I get on my knees and pray, we don’t get fooled again.”

In the stubbornness, the raging independence and the glint of resignation that give the song heart are fears and hopes of both youth and age. That sometimes complicated blend is a tool that lyricist Townshend uses to good advantage on other songs. The mix gives the band's music a flavor attractive to more than the zit-rockers who might b. swayed by its sheer power, or the a hippies who perhaps still find their own turmoils nicely articulated.

There seems to be a wisdom to the music. Not a somber, grim tone, but insouciance and insight at once that’s hard not to embrace. The simple line, vocal or instrumental, that demands a complex response within the listener marks Who music and has kept it fresher than its age ought to allow. There hasn’t been much change in how the band performs from stage, either, yet there seemed no staleness there, either. Townshend, now a professed practitioner of sobriety, seemed to have all the more energy for his born-again cleanliness. And Daltrey’s prancing and microphone swinging haven't abated. Nor, apparently, has his temper. After some particularly annoying feedback from the sound system, he skewered a vocal monitor with a mic stand. He then bashed it to pieces with the business end of the mic stand.

A Who concert begs for convoluted discussion of the musical texture and the irony of old guys playing young-sounding songs about seemingly youthful sentiments. But the really significant thing about the show here was that it was tremendously good, meaty rock ’n’ roll. Neither the music nor its purveyors seemed to have given ground to time. That is delightful.