Bee photograph/Anne Chadwick Williams The Who's Pete Townshend, with Roger Daltrey in the background, shows off his legendary guitar work during Tuesday's concert.

Still rocking hard: The Who loud, fast and good in concert

By Chris Macias

Bee Pop Music Writer

Windmill strums and twirling microphone cords were in full effect Tuesday night, but the evening was hardly the Who by numbers. The classic British band rocked for more than 2½ hours at the Sacramento Valley Amphitheatre, kicking out the jams with echoes of the group's legendary concerts. The show may not have been "Live at Leeds," but there was no mistake: The Who is still alive and kicking behinds.

CONCERT REVIEW

Many music fans aren't convinced the Who can still burn, which may explain the moderate turnout of 9,600 fans Tuesday. After all, the band's 1989 reunion tour was a bloated beast of a show, with backup singers and musicians cramming the stage. Worse, Pete Townshend had to focus on acoustic guitar and perform behind a Plexiglas wall to cushion his thrashed eardrums.

But tinnitus be damned, Townshend's electric guitar roared with stunning ferocity Tuesday. An extended solo on "Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere" may have lacked the drenched feedback from days of yore, but it burst with wild tremolo picking, whammy-bar yanks and howling bends. A blistering version of "Who Are You" featured machine-gun riffage and lickety-split runs over the fretboard.

Townshend's trademark windmill guitar strums were also in full force, but beyond guitar heroics perhaps it was a strategy to shoo away the bugs that swarmed the stage. His humor was good-natured, whether kvetching about his sex life or making reference to the amphitheater's rural surroundings being "out here in the fields." Still, Townshend seemed a bit grumpy from equipment problems throughout the set, though any frustrations were channeled into blissful guitar workouts.

But Townshend's introspective side was equally powerful. His solo rendition of the "Quadrophenia" staple "I'm One" was accompanied with just his electric-acoustic guitar, but soared

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