Overblown ‘Quadrophenia’ shows its age

By George Kanzler

STAR-LEDGER STAFF

We may all be getting older; so is The Who. They didn’t die before they got old, as they once hoped in song. And they still haven’t come to terms with that.

“Quadrophenia,” the quasi-rock opera or song cycle, presented Tuesday night at the Continental Airlines Arena in the Meadowlands, is the group’s latest attempt at recycling the past and recapturing its youth. Fulsome, bloated and narcissistic to an extreme, “Quadrophenia” also lacks the melodic hooks and ironic flair that animate The Who’s best songs.

When the whole overblown thing was finally over, it was a distinct relief to hear just Pete Townshend and Roger Daltrey, alone on stage, do “Won’t Get Fooled Again,” a song with more resonance and staying power than anything in “Quadrophenia.” It’s too bad they didn’t simply take the advice of that song and jettison the whole “Quadrophenia” project into the sea so prominently displayed in the accompanying film clips.

“Quadrophenia” is no match for “Tommy,” Townshend’s rock opera. “Tommy” deserves its label; it has a truly fabulist plot, with grand melodramatic elements including adultery, betrayal, murder and child molestation, not to mention a deaf, dumb and blind boy as a hero-savior redolent of messiah imagery. On the other hand, “Quadrophenia” has an everyman hero, a loutish one at that, and a plot that turns on our sharing an abiding, overarching interest with Townshend in a minor British socio-cultural phenomenon of the early 1960s, the clash of teen groups with rival fashions and styles: The Mods and The Rockers.

Nobody cared much about Mods and Rockers in 1973, when the album “Quadrophenia” was released. And by 1979, when a film came out, they could care less. It’s now more than 30 years since Mods and Rockers battled on the streets and beaches of Brighton, so why should we care now, Pete?

Besides, aren’t you getting a little old to rehash the petulant angst and clashing need to belong and be an individual that fuels the anxious quest of Jimmy, “Quadrophenia’s” every-teen hero?

Doing “Quadrophenia” now, with this cast of characters and singers, is like doing “Romeo and Juliet” with Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn in the title roles. Like that Shakespearean play, it’s about youth and demands youthful actors. Casting Gary Glitter as the quintessential rocker, Godfather, is a joke. Glitter resembles the late campy film star Divine more than any rocker except, maybe, the terminal Elvis.

Only Billy Idol, as the prancing, preening Mod leader Ace Face, brings a certain youthful dash to his role. And of The Who members, only Daltrey, with his buff bod, twirled microphone and boyish grin, defies the onset of middle-age so evident in bassist John Entwistle and Townshend, who further muddles images by playing an acoustic guitar most of the time.

You almost had to cheer when he finally picked up a red, solid-body electric model and windmilled a few power chords. That image prompted memories of another, drummer Keith Moon (who did die before he got old, in 1978) tossing sticks in the air and out at the audience. Moon always encapsulated the manic energy, the “maximum R’n’B” approach of The Who, and the group hasn’t been the same since his demise. Present drummer Zak Starkey (Ringo Starr’s son) is grim by comparison, and never twirls a stick, much less tosses it. He’s too busy reading from a music stand, not the ideal way to capture Moon’s antic spontaneity.

When The Who did “Tommy” at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York close to 30 years ago, they did it as a quartet. “Quadrophenia” employs extra guitarists, percussionists, singers, two keyboard players and a five-piece brass section. All to add fanfares, preludes and the grandeur of mass to three-chord rock, as if to say the story and songs aren’t enough. With “Tommy” they are, and therein lies the difference.

PHOTO BY WILLIAM PERLMAN Peter Townshend leads The Who through his rock opera ‘Quadrophenia’ Tuesday night at the Continental Airlines Arena.

PHOTO BY WILLIAM PERLMAN Roger Daltrey swings his microphone during The Who’s performance Tuesday.