Clockwise from lower left: Roger Daltrey, solo at the mike; Peter Townshend leaps into the music; Daltrey and Townshend in duet.

GLOBE PHOTOS BY JOHN TLUMACKI

The Who: Farewell with feeling

THE WHO – In concert at the Centrum, Saturday.

By Steve Morse

Globe Staff

WORCESTER – In interviews this fall, The Who have repeatedly said they don't talk to each other very much off stage anymore. As their publicist even notes, "They're like four separate universes traveling from gig to gig."

It came as an electrifying jolt, then, to see how well the aging British Mods pulled together for their farewell New England concert on Saturday, played before a raving 13,500 fans while another 3500 circled outside, trying in vain to buy tickets.

To these ears, there was no mistaking this was the concert of the year. It was two-and-a-half hours of reeling, emotion-packed rock 'n' roll, spanning The Who's 18-year career and leaving no doubt the band still belongs in the historical Big Three with the Beatles and the Rolling Stones.

Although The Who have been blasted for becoming jaded and capitalistic – witness their $1 million tour sponsorship deal with Schlitz beer even though alcohol had killed their original drummer Keith Moon – they cut through all the negative headlines and put the hammer down in concert. There may still be moral questions about their Madison Avenue profit-making, but no questions as far as their stage act is concerned.

And while they may not hobnob off the stage anymore, they showed surprising harmony and mutual respect while on it, via eye glances, grins and supportive head nods after particularly striking solos.

Now pushing 40, they didn't jam like the old days but their energy was still awe-inspiring. The key was guitarist Pete Townshend, who was a dynamo in the wake of beating back his own alcohol problem earlier this year.

Punked out in greasy short hair, a sleeveless white shirt, baggy chinos and blue sneakers, Townshend set a marathoner's clip, running everywhere, jumping into lofty scissor-kicks and slamming guitar chords with his famed 360-degree windmill flourishes. Compared to his lazy, inert performances on the band's last tour – when he confessed he needed a drink just to get on stage – he was like a man reborn.

Townshend even eschewed his trusty Gibson Les Paul guitar, which he has often used before, and stuck with a Fender Telecaster, the trademark '50s rock guitar which had a sharper, more visceral sound in keeping with the night's blistering hard rock focus.

Townshend was in such a good mood that he even threw a tambourine into the crowd and later playfully stomped out a nonexistent spider on stage after bassist John Entwistle sang the enduring goofball song, "Boris the Spider."

But Townshend wasn't the only one who came to play. Drummer Kenney Jones handled his Charlie Watts timekeeping chores with aplomb; bassist Entwistle, although his stoical self and dressed in a pinstripe suit, boomed out a supersonic roar on bass; and singer Roger Daltrey put on his own workhorse display by twirling his mike and racing around with Townshend, plus proving just how powerful his voice still can be. He even went down on his knees like James Brown to wail blues phrases.

Unlike the overhyped Stones show in Hartford last year, which was a poor second to this Who concert in terms of energy, there was no slick stage set in use. Where the Stones had used a Hollywoodized white floor and candy-colored lighting (and a lot more of it), the Who had a basic, stripped-down stage that could have been out of a punk club in London where they began in 1964.

Moving from biting 60's anthems like "My Generation" and "I Can't Explain," The Who swept through two new, more polished songs ("It's Hard" and "Eminence Front"), before hitting stride with two cuts from their "Who's Next" LP – the tender song about mistreatment, "Behind Blue Eyes," and the epic "Baba O'Riley," in which synthesizer player Tim Gorman wove entrancing percolations. He was the only extra backup musician this time, since the horns from last trip were dropped in favor of a more straightahead electric rock stance. A wise move.

Later high points included a medley from the band's rock opera "Tommy" (featuring a radiant "Pinball Wizard" with gold lights bathing the stage), a blistering "Long Live Rock" (with Townshend doing the most agile duckwalk this side of George Thorogood), an angry "Won't Get Fooled Again" (about political hypocrisy) and Entwistle's uncharacteristically joyous vocal on the Isleys' "Twist and Shout," the final encore.

As Daltrey has said about The Who's farewell tour: "We may not socialize together but we can still play music together."

Amen.