For more than a decade, they made some of the best rock ’n’ roll on the planet. It was angry, rebellious, fresh, irreverent, funny and always inventive.

On Thursday, they gathered their chips and cashed them in.

Before a sold-out crowd of 53,000 at Carter-Finley Stadium, The Who looked back to days and songs bygone and found them magical — as indeed they were. In this respect, the concert was a delight, a celebration of Who music by three of the four men who made it.

But as a band, The Who was not in attendance. Guitarist Pete Townshend got it right when he said that this was simply three guys doing Who songs.

And there were few surprises on Thursday from a band that once specialized in them. With its 15-piece backing band, songs were rendered remarkably true to their recordings, right down to the smallest melodic hooks.

And, of course, there were no new Who songs.

This is a reunion tour, a nostalgia trip, more an event than a concert, really. There was little spontaneity to the show. Even Mr. Townshend’s windmill guitar strums have lost some of their naive charm — this sort of predictability from a band that used to smash guitars, kick over amplifiers and stick pinholes in speakers to increase distortion.

For all the joy of seeing one of rock’s greatest bands plow through its repertoire one more time, there was no escaping the backward-looking nature of this concert.

The show opened at 7:30 p.m. with the overture from “Tommy.” For the next 30 minutes, the band played a medley from the rock opera, including “Gypsy Queen” and “Pinball Wizard” — featuring the electrifying, acoustic introduction to that song as only Mr. Townshend can play it. It was a magnificent opening, thoughtful and well-played.

After that, the band worked through several more recent songs, including two from Mr. Townshend’s solo work. Singer Roger Daltrey left the stage for these two numbers.

The Who wrapped up the first half of the concert at 8:45 p.m., with a punchy rendition of “Who Are You.” The band returned 20 minutes later with “Magic Bus,” “Baba O’Riley” and “My Generation.”

“My Generation” positively begged to be made current under the direction of the old-Townshend dark humor. With lines like “Hope I die before I get old,” some acknowledgement that the singer was not 21 anymore was mandatory. Yet, Mr. Daltrey sang it if it were still 1965.

Four songs later, the band served up the evening’s only surprise with a reworking of “Sister Disco” from the “Who Are You” LP. For the last verse, Mr. Townshend and Mr. Daltrey sat side-by-side on the drum stand, and sang both harmony lines without the melody. The quiet moment, with these two giants of rock ’n’ roll enjoying themselves with one of their minor songs, seemed the most genuine moment of the evening.

There needed to be more of them.

After that, Mr. Daltrey left the stage while Mr. Townshend sang his solo hit, “Rough Boys.” Mr. Daltrey returned, and the concert closed with “Behind Blue Eyes,” “Won’t Get Fooled Again,” and, at the end of the encore, “Summertime Blues.”

The 2¾-hour concert was a well-intentioned, well-performed tribute to one of the band’s that shaped rock ’n’ roll. It may have been a “cashing-in,” but I was glad I was there to see it.