Who Still Who

The Kids’ fresh, alive in 25th year

By Jacqueline Johnson

Of the Gazette Staff

Boulder, Colo. — The Who didn’t die before it got old. But leadmen Peter Townshend and Roger Daltrey are strong evidence that the British rock band has not faded away in its 25-year history.

At a concert last weekend in this granola city, I feared that the hype surrounding The Who concert would overshadow the music. I assured myself that the concert would be worth it even if The Who isn’t hot anymore because, as many people put it, “It’s an event, not just a concert.”

My fears were allayed, though, minutes into the concert (not the event) when the band struck up a tune I hadn’t heard in so long that I had almost forgotten about it. Daltrey broke into the “See Me, Feel Me” song, and I began to see what all the hype was really about — the music, the emotion, the rock’n’roll.

It didn’t matter that Townshend’s hair is thinning or that Daltrey’s face is lined and bassman John Entwistle’s beard is gray. They’ve still got the raw power of rock'n'roll in them.

Townshend defended the band near the end of the show when he admitted that The Who can’t carry on like it once did.

“We can’t do that anymore,” he told the crowd of 46,000, which was just short of a sellout. Many members of the audience giggled and winked knowingly at each other over the statement, assuming that Townshend was referring to the wild partying days and not the music.

But he said that, despite the criticism that the band isn’t the real Who anymore, members don’t know what else to call themselves “because that’s who we are — The Who.”

The staccato cry of the audience — “Who, Who, Who” — filled any pauses in the show and successfully lured The Who back for an encore after its 3½-hour show.

Perhaps they could call themselves The Who and Friends. The band’s new friends — led by new drummer Simon Phillips, a five-piece horn section, three backup singers, new lead guitarist Steve

“I pretty much had a religious experience. ‘Behind Blue Eyes’ was incredible — Roger Daltrey was crying by the end of that. I remember the whole crowd singing it.

—Chris Certo Billings

“Boltz” Bolton and a keyboardist — complement the old Who and deserve some recognition. Townshend introduced them all during the Boulder show.

The new drummer may not be able to replace wildman Keith Moon, but one man who saw The Who’s last show in Boulder in 1982 said Phillips is much better than previous drummer Kenney Jones who toured with The Who seven years ago.

Chris Webb, now 28, hitchhiked to the 1982 concert when he was a student at Rocky Mountain College. This time around, he drove to the show with two of the same friends he attended the 1982 show with.

“This was my second Who show,” he said. “In 1982, a friend of mine and I hitchhiked down there, which was quite a wild trip in itself because of going with my friend George Boyle; he’s a Who freak.”

Webb said the show held Sunday in Boulder was just as exciting as the 1982 show was, but there were fewer people out of control this time around.

When asked what the high-point of the latest show was, Webb replied, “They played more of the rock opera ‘Tommy,’ which I think in the beginning a lot of people didn’t realize exactly what it was.”

The Who opened the show with “Tommy” songs, including “It’s a Boy” and “Acid Queen.” The band also played “Pinball Wizard” from the opera and threw its only gimmick — a large inflated pinball balloon — into the audience to be tossed around during the song.

The Who played nearly every bit it had, including “Won’t Get Fooled Again,” “You Better You Bet,” “I Can See For Miles,” “My Generation,” “The Magic Bus” and “Baba O’Riley” (Teenage Wasteland), which prompted a 17-year-old girl in the audience to tell her boyfriend, “See, Woodstock still lives.”

For another Billings Who fan, Chris Certo, who met Webb at the 1982 concert and returned with him to Boulder’s Folsom Stadium for Sunday’s show, the highlight of the latest show was Daltrey’s “Behind Blue Eyes.”

“I pretty much had a religious experience,” he said of the show. “Behind Blue Eyes’ was incredible — Roger Daltrey was crying by the end of that. I remember the whole crowd singing it.”

Comparing the two shows, Certo said that they were both good and that “Daltrey at 45 was every bit as energetic as anybody on the road today and Townshend for 44 was leaping and windmilling everywhere.”

The Who ended the 1989 show with another blast from its past — a rendition of the Beatles hit — “Twist and Shout.” It’s the same song the band ended its 1982 show with.

[Photo caption] Roger Daltrey performs in The Who concert Wednesday in Tacoma, Wash.

No sellout

Boulder, Colo. (AP) — Despite thousands of unsold tickets that have left radio station KBCO stuck for lots of money, organizers are saying The Who concert at the University of Colorado’s Folsom stadium Sunday night was great.

“It was a learning experience,” said KBCO promotions director Dave Rahn.

The Boulder radio station bought 57,000 tickets, each with a face value of $22.50, to guarantee that The Who would perform in Colorado, Rahn said.

But, he estimated concert attendance at 46,500 which puts the retail value of unsold tickets at about $258,500.

[Photo caption] Chris Webb, George Boyle, Tim Goodridge and Chris Certo search for the beer garden at the concert last weekend at Folsom Field in Boulder.

Gazette photo by Jacqueline Johnson