Roger Daltrey of the rock band The Who plays the tambourine during Thursday night's concert at Carter Finley Stadium.

Nearly 25 years ago, British super group The Who was composing "The Kids Are Alright" — the song which provides the name for the band's super tour.

Ten years ago, The Who put out their foresighted super album of live material, also called "The Kids Are Alright."

And Thursday in the steamy, post-rain atmosphere of N.C. State's Carter Finley Stadium, the question in the air about The Who was "Are the kids alright?"

The members of The Who aren't kids anymore, but the group's members sure were all right musically and personally.

Launching into a half-hour version of "Tommy," the rock opera that made The Who stars in 1969, the band grabbed the near 60,000-member audience at once, shook them and satisfied them.

Highlights of the opera included the obligatory "Pinball Wizard," great except for a fuzzy jam session during which the horn section dominated. The emotional peak was achieved by the beautiful "See me, feel me, touch me, heal me" ending. Guitarist-songwriter Pete Townshend even smiled at the finale.

There's been a lot of concern about Townshend's ability to perform because of hearing problems caused by multitudinous high-volume concerts with the guitarist making his instrument shriek and thunder.

But he strapped on his electric guitar frequently and cranked it and the crowd up, windmilling his picking arm, sending waves of crashing chords to wash over the fans.

Townshend put out on the songs immediately after "Tommy," most of which he sang and soloed on. "Eminence Front," from the last Who album in 1982 got the audience of young and old, hippie and straight, dancing.

Vocalist Roger Daltrey came into his own — after shining on "Tommy," with the classic Muddy Waters blues song "I'm A Man."

After the intermission, The Who played a great set of favorites. They were all there: "The Magic Bus" jam, "Baba O'Reilly" with Townshend's Scottish jig; "My Generation," with bassist John Entwistle's monster solo; and the emotional jam "Love Reign O'er Me" — which brought tide upon tide of appreciative screams and applause.

So the members of The Who are all right. The music was played hard, fast and well. Townshend's unfortunate hearing difficulties seemed to have little effect on the performance. Hired guitar gun Steve Bolton filled in with verve. Bassist Entwistle held the groove, playing brilliantly as always, while drummer Simon Phillips (from Townshend's own "White City" band) pounded wildly, not unlike deceased original drummer Keith Moon. The band that claimed 25 years ago, "Hope I die before I get old" was committed to energy, to life, to the future. Definitely a super group. Definitely all right.