One aim in doing all that early material is to open ears and minds to the fact there was a Who before "Tommy." (A multi-disc retrospective covering its formative period is in the works.)

Most telling last night was the group's rendering of "Tattoo" from its brilliant 1967 "The Who Sell Out" album. It's a baroque trumpet-scored song of youthful rebellion that showed the way, setting it off on a grand, pop-operatic writing jag.

Daltrey last night expressed his special love of "I Can See for Miles," a psychedelic mind-blower also from the "Sell Out" LP. But the singer looked pained during his performance of the song. (Couldn't hear the monitors? Felt himself hit clunkers? Stop, you're both right!)

The group's second set, running about 100 minutes, hit the stage rumbling at 10 p.m. with "Magic Bus." I had some problems following the rambling Townshend discourse that went with the song, suggesting they couldn't scrape together "100 pounds" to buy a bus. Maybe it's a rap the group used to deliver way back when.

Its anthem "Baba O'Riley," better known as "Teen-Age Wasteland," got the minions yelling again — "Let's get together before we get much older" — followed by the Who's original rabble-rouser on the same theme, "My Generation."

In his solo turns, my main man Mr. Townshend refrained from doing his charming new single ("A Friend Is a Friend") — drat. He opted instead to hit the harder stuff like "Rough Boys," "Second Hand Love" and "Face The Face" from older solo albums, stuff that plays better to the upper decks.

Entwistle took his spotlight turns with (what else?) "Boris the Spider" and "My Wife."

Daltrey shone on his reading of Boudleaux and Felice Bryant's "Love Hurts" (which he dedicated to Roy Orbison), "Love Reign O'er Me," the kinda dated "Sister Disco" and "Join Together," which was dramatized with a giant Union Jack flapping behind the band.