WORCESTER — The Who has earned its reputation as a top-notch concert attraction, and Saturday night's show at the Worcester Centrum certainly didn't disappoint.

The capacity crowd got its share of Roger Daltry microphone twirling and Pete Townshend guitar gymnastics. And if anyone ever looked classy standing lifeless on a stage, it's bassist John Entwisle.

In short, The Who gave its audience pretty much what it expected. But the group is so darned good at it you have to tip your hat to them.

From the opening chords of "My Generation" to Entwisle's gutsy rendition of "Twist and Shout," Saturday's concert was a tour-de-force of Who history packaged in about 2½ hours of sheer electricity.

This concert was the toughest ticket in town. People on the streets were scalping them for $50 minimum, and one poor devil got so desperate outside the Centrum he actually jumped someone with a ticket.

It would take a tremendous concert to overcome such hype. This was a tremendous concert.

Even if you never liked the band, you had to be impressed by the energy and showmanship of both lead singer Daltry and Townshend.

The former's voice was as nimble as ever, and he was able to reach back and really belt out a few numbers, most notably "Love Reign O'er Me," from Quadrophenia, and the finale to "Tommy."

As for Townshend, he invented new dance steps while playing the guitar, but never let the choreography get in the way of some splendid licks. And his voice sounded unusually steady on his vocals, especially "Long Live Rock."

And he's still the world's biggest ham. Rumor has it he and Daltry — never the best of pals even when they're speaking — aren't exactly hitting it off on this tour, either.

A few items during the evening, he got Daltry's goat in a puckish sort of way. He prolonged several endings with crashing guitar chords, leaving an impatient Daltry to do nothing but watch. But everything the band touches has been turning to gold lately, and both Daltry and Townshend seem to be able to use whatever antagonism they feel toward each other to bring out the best in themselves.

With everything else going for it, the band added to the spectacular by using what had to be the best light show the Centrum has seen in its short history. Virtually every song was punctuated by lights — all done by computer — and "Who Are You?" was highlighted by roving stage lights darting out into the audience at random. It was great fun. Whoever designed them was a genius.

The Who mixed the old favorites with the newer material pretty freely — playing a set fairly representative of their 17-year career. From the early days came "My Generation," "I Can't Explain It," "Boris the Spider," and a sizzling encore version of "Magic Bus." Notably absent from the act was their latest hit-single "Athena," from the "It's Hard" album. The group did play several songs from the latest record, however.

Other highlights included "Baba O'Riley," "Won't Get Fooled Again," and "Sister Disco." In "Baba," the complete Moog Synthesizer drone was intact. But instead of the violin solo you hear on the record, Roger Daltry plays harmonica. In fact, Daltry proved to be a man of many talents — playing guitar on Entwisle's "The Quiet One," and harmonica in several numbers. He only slipped up once, dropping the microphone during "Baba O'Riley."

It's been said that if you took Britain's top 10 recording acts of all time, The Who wouldn't be among them.

Entwisle himself even admits that when it comes to recording, groups like The Bee Gees do better. There's a reason. It's difficult to capture the spirit and energy this group provides on a disc. Like the Doors, any reproduced sound from The Who does the group an injustice. It's a band that has to be seen live to be appreciated.