Iy HAT" IAIAS
Press Staff Writer

EAST RUTHERFORD — The
kids were out in numbers for the Who
last night Milling around Giants Sta-
dium you could spot recent Pink Floyd
and Grateful Dead T-shirts, even a
Live Aid shirt. All the big-time sta-
dium tours seemed to have constitu-
ents here.

And this was a big—time stadium
event to match any of them: The Who,
one of rock’s greatest bands, reuniting
for the first time in seven years to
celebrate its 25th anniversary, with
three of four original members and a
dozen backup musicians.

What usually happens in these
kinds of events is a big-time classic
rock band plays all the big-time hits
you’ve been hearing on the radio for
the past couple decades, the band does
a perfectly competent job of it, and
everyone goes home happy.

There’s no reason to believe they
didn’t go home happy last night, or
that they won’t after the Who’s reman-
ing shows here tonight, Sunday and
Monday. In the 3'/2-hour show, the
band played 4| songs — more than
any band in recent memory has
jammed into a concert — including a
big chunk of a rock opera, hits, obscu-
rities, solo songs and covers.

But there was little compelling
about any of it. Some songs — “Baba
O’Riley" and “Won’t Get Fooled

ings, they came off more like La Bam-
ba’s Big Band playing rock ’n’ roll hits
than like rock legends strutting their

And the three members of the
band — Pete Townshend, Roger Dal-
trey and John Entwistle — interacted
so rarely it was almost like watching
three solo musicians sharing a stage.
Each took the spotlight for long peri-
ods, and only a couple tunes came
aerossasbonafidebandpimltwas
my to believe the old stories about
friction in this band.

The best moments of the show
came when the Who tried something
radically different, like when the ex-
young-punks tried to be warm, for
example. Townshend, who played
acoustic guitar most of the night be-
cause of a hearing disorder but still did
windmills with his right arm, led a
beautiful acoustic guitar and saxo-
phone rendition of the English Heat’s
“Save it for later,” and he and Daltrey
sang together on the Who obscurity,
“Mary Anne With the Shaky Hands.”

There were too few of those mo-
ments, and too many cliches. The
band members didn’t smash all their
instruments like they used to, but
Daltrey did a job on a tambourine

Again,” among them — have been so early on, for no apparent reason.