OAKLAND – A Very Large Band fronted by some Very Famous people played Oakland Coliseum Tuesday night.

Sometimes the Very Large Band looked like the Who. Sometimes the Very Large Band even sounded like the Who.

But it wasn't the Who.

Pete Townshend, Roger Daltrey and John Entwistle led a 15-piece band through 25 years of rock history Tuesday night. But the Who — the four-piece combo that knocked us dead and blew us away with songs like "My Generation" and "Won't Get Fooled Again" — was nowhere in sight.

In the first of two sold-out shows at the 60,000-seat Oakland Coliseum, a blaring set of studio musicians overshadowed the raw power that once was the Who.

It started with a condensed, 40-minute take on the Who's rock opera

MUSIC REVIEW

"Tommy." Townshend, nearly deaf from years of overloud playing, played the good-natured sideman, strumming acoustic guitar as Steve "Boltz" Bolton handled electric lead duties.

It's a fine compromise for Townshend, I suppose, but it left him looking silly, bouncing and shadowboxing around the stage as someone else played his parts. For all his enthusiasm, he looked lost, a little like Elvis Costello paying kazoo at a Metallica show.

Entwistle and Daltrey, however, played like they never left. Daltrey — in his always-stylish blue jeans and denim vest — spun his mike, ran in place and sang clearly and powerfully. Entwistle was his solid-as-a-rock self.

But even the Who of old couldn't

See WHO, page D3