The Who 'Farewell Concert' at Astrodome: A Magic Ride into Rock 'n' Roll History

By Marty Racine

Chronicle Staff

Now in silence we begin to catch our breath. This was some of the most powerful rock 'n' roll, and it does take time for the nervous system to assimilate what it has heard and seen.

The Who on Friday night at the Astrodome were awesome. They could have been better, and we know that when they were young hooligans and desperate for this music there was no band, no show more intense. But on this, their "Farewell Tour" of the States, the Who gave us everything that remained after 20 years of slugging it out on the battlefield of youth culture.

Friday's show was not sold out, calculating to a loss of some $200,000 for ABC, parent network of local rock radio station KSRR, which bought all 60,000 tickets for a reported $970,000. Attendance peaked at about 45,000, due in part to a weak billing laden with an unknown band, Steel Breeze, and the disposable Billy Squier. When the Rolling Stones, for example, played the Dome last year they had sense to include regional favorites ZZ Top and the Fabulous Thunderbirds.

The Who came out to a sleek, simple stage wrapped in giant letters spelling their name. They lurched into their anthem My Generation, but the sound levels were not yet right on the vocals and the playing was tentative. They ran through Substitute and Sister Disco — and then, on a vocal by bassist John Entwistle, it started to happen. Guitarist Pete Townshend found what he was looking for and the band began to growl and dig in behind him as he pinwheeled and pummeled his instrument with thundering power chords. All of a sudden, this band was playing together. This band was going for whatever it had left.

We had to get close to this action, and so we made our way to the floor, drawn magnetically toward the stage. The momentum was building and the crowd was inched in tight, gaping at this sonic blast roaring out of history. Half these fans, some of whom were not even born when the Who formed in 1962 in the West End of London, were witnessing, for the first time, the fragile spontaneity of great rock 'n' roll. In the modern age of techno-rock we admire precision, but here's a band searching, prowling in futility until they hit the right note. What a struggle and what a triumph.

They were cooking now. A brilliant version of the group's new album title track It's Hard is followed by Eminence Front. Then, two older blasts, Behind Blues Eyes and Teenage Breakdown.

Lead singer Roger Daltrey is wearing a sleeveless gray sweatshirt and he is a rock star Adonis twirling his microphone and pausing for dramatic moments. Townshend is in a sleeveless shirt and slacks and his face is of all sadness and passion. He is a man of rock 'n' roll, a martyr who nearly died on drugs because that's what this life will do. John Entwistle is the retiring gentleman. He's wearing a tight red suit and high-kicking cowboy boots, most likely the ones he bought at Stelzig's in downtown Houston, which he visited Friday afternoon. This is the steady one. And we have drummer Kenney Jones, filling rock's hottest vacant seat once powered by Keith Moon, who was so good and wound-up he overdosed in 1978. If Moon was an erratic genius, Jones is the timekeeper, freeing the others from the beat. He kicked it out Friday night, filling it with drum rolls like vintage Who.

Townshend gets so tight he breaks a string along the way, and he throws the guitar down in a small gesture to the violence he has wrecked upon a lot these instruments. He would not sacrifice it this night, even though the Who, by announcing their final tour, have freed themselves to let history create the emotions without caricature. The Who could do anything this night because they never will do it again, and while they always have played to the moment, those moments in recent years have until this decision included a lot of self-doubts about their own motives and urgency.

The band does Who Are You and then Pinball Wizard and See Me, Feel Me. This is where they could have lit the heavens but chose not to. The latter two songs form part of their greatest live performances of My Generation, the night's debut. Had they rocked back into My Generation they would have completed, an hour into the show, some strange operatic circle that would have transcended into something as wicked as Live at Leeds.

Long journeys aside, the band relied on songs. 5.15 was shattering, stunning, and it left you howling. Daltrey cut loose gracefully on Love Reign Over Me, which was followed by a poignant Long Live Rock. The Who closed with the baddest version of I Won't Get Fooled Again, which was amplified by still photos of the band members on the overhead screen.

The Who are so powerful, so dramatic and so committed that their rock opera leaves the audience aghast. I have heard more excitable ovations for other bands, because the body can deal with raw energy, but to look up at that stage and see these guys flailing away on the tightrope just nails you. It's so good you don't know what's coming next, and you are hardly able to respond.

The Who finish and take their bows. The audience is in love. Only the Who know such drama in rock 'n' roll, and with them passes an era representing a time when rock meant so much. They leave the stage, and the cheering reaches a crescendo when they return for an encore of Squeeze Box and Twist and Shout. That was it. No Magic Bus. No Summertime Blues. The show lasted 20 years and yet it was over so quickly.

Photo by Ben DeSoto, Chronicle Staff

Guitarist Peter Townshend, his face all sadness and passion, pulled it all together for The Who as he found what he was looking for and the band dug in behind him while he pinwheeled and pummeled his instrument with thundering power chords.

Police say The Who concert comparatively trouble-free

Police and other officials Saturday reported that Friday night's concert by the rock group The Who was comparatively trouble-free despite a few arrests on drug charges and at least one beating.

The Houston Police Department's narcotics division reported seven arrests on drug charges. Those arrested ranged in age from teens to 30 and allegedly possessed marijuana and barbituates.

Graham Ambulance Service, which had contracted to work the concert, transported three people to Ben Taub Hospital. A spokesman for the firm said one of those was a woman going into labor.