From Page 1C

to Pete Townshend’s recent solo material.

The trio was augmented by a band modeled on the large group Townshend used for his “Deep End” project — Simon Phillips on drums, Steve Bolton on second guitar, Jodi Linscott on percussion, a five-man horn section and three singers.

A short set of the group’s earliest singles, including “I Can’t Explain” kept things moving until the first set ended with “Who Are You.”

After intermission, the band came back strong with “Magic Bus,” “Baba O’Reilly” and a “My Generation” that included everything that made the Who such a special band — Daltrey’s stuttering vocals and microphone cord acrobatics, Townshend’s windmill guitar thrashing and Entwhistle’s fleet-fingered bass lines.

Daltrey’s voice was a bit frayed and Townshend, perhaps due to his tinnitus, played more acoustic guitar than electric, but, for the most part, the evening showed the Who has aged well.

By the full-tilt encore, the Who seemed less like the “Hope I die before I get old” band and more like the group that sings: “I pick up my guitar and play, just like yesterday…” in “Won’t Get Fooled Again.”

And, for the new generation of Who fans, you don’t have to be young to express the feelings of the young.

“What they did in the early ’70s will live on forever,” Steve Heile said. “Kids throughout history will be able to identify with the songs they wrote. Everybody goes through that, and they always will.”