The Who were all right Sunday night at West Palm Beach's MARS Music Amphitheatre, and for the 16,284 in attendance this was good news.

CONCERT REVIEW

Few major concerts come with lower expectations than another Who reunion. Proving about as trustworthy as the average politician, The Who announced its retirement from the live arena in 1982. There have been numerous underwhelming reunions since. The band hasn't released an essential album since 1978's Who Are You, the last to feature late drummer Keith Moon. (Ringo Starr's son Zac Starkey did his best Moon for this tour and studied the parts well.)

And yet, in South Florida, The Who (lead guitarist Pete Townshend, happily back on electric guitar after recently touring with acoustic; singer Roger Daltrey and bassist John Entwistle) played with a sense of raw energy and skill few could muster. The set list, while offering plenty of expected favorites, also refreshingly concentrated on songs seldom performed live (Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere, The Kids Are Alright). Fears of a disaster handily banished, the only depressing feeling remaining after The Who's two-hour show was the knowledge that there really aren't any acts on the current rock horizon to replace this one when The Who says "retire" and means it.

Opening songs I Can't Explain and Substitute set the tone. Loud, crisply executed and as scrappy as a prizefighter, this was the sound and look (almost) of yesteryear Who: Townshend's arms windmilling chunky power chords, his defiant demeanor ("This is not a greatest hits show") stealing the show time and again; Daltrey's quintessential frontman posturing and macho time-deepened vocals; Entwistle's nimble-fingered bass runs laying support.

Starkey's Moon-like sound of an amplified drum kit falling down a flight of stairs exploded on numbers such as Quadrophenia's The Real Me. Starkey is, arguably, the most accomplished musician to be sired by any Beatle.

These kids are all right.