Who still kicking out the jams — sort of

By Jonathan Valania

FOR THE INQUIRER

Hope I die before I get old. Those immortal words from the Who’s proto-punk teen angst anthem “My Generation” have come back to haunt the band time and again during the no-really-this-is-the-last-one-we-promise final tours it has launched intermittently over the last two decades.

Luckily, the Who’s loyal audience has aged right along with it, the vaunted teenage wasteland of yore giving way to expanding middle-aged waistband.

So the question hanging in the air Friday night at Camden’s Waterfront Entertainment Centre was: Can the Who still kick out the jams?

Well, sort of.

It was no Live at Leeds, but the guys sounded at least as good as they did at JFK Stadium, the site of its first farewell concert, 18 years ago. Singer Roger Daltrey, his leathery 56-year-old visage airbrushed with makeup, looked and sounded as good as he ever did, and it wasn’t long before his shirt was opened to the last button, revealing the ripped physique of a ditch-digger.

Pete Townshend, back to playing electric guitar after swearing it off due to hearing damage, was positively feral at times, windmilling through those classic power chords, though it took a few songs for rock’s last true guitar hero to warm up. Midway through “Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere,” he went from cold and rusty to the hot, sterling metallica of his prime.

And John Entwistle, well, the last time the Who bassist was in town, he played solo at Upstairs at Nick’s, so this probably looked like a pretty good gig to him. He’s no longer the fearless explorer of the rumbling bottom end that he was back in the

KEN SETTLE Who’s Roger Daltrey (left) and Pete Townshend played — with bassist John Entwistle and drummer Zach Starkey — Friday at the E-Centre.

day. And drummer Zach Starkey, son of Ringo, was reliable and workmanlike, but he couldn’t quite replicate the human-cannonball style of the dearly departed Keith Moon.

The set list was heavy on classics, and though the band no longer has the power or stamina to give tunes such as “Baba O’Riley” and “Won’t Get Fooled Again” epic treatments, it didn’t stop it from trying. With an audience of 24,000 singing along like a classic rock hootenanny, the iconic songs took on the cast of folk music, which is what all dead musics eventually become.