REVIEW

Who still rocks house

The Who MTS Centre

By Gerry Krochak

for the Leader-Post

WINNIPEG – No one is arguing as to who the (inhale) “World’s Greatest Rock and Roll Band” (exhale) has been for as long as anyone can remember, but Roger Daltry and Pete Townshend just might have a point or three to make.

A better-than-reasonable facsimile of The Who gave a concert for the ages at the MTS Centre in Winnipeg the other night, but oddly, it places third among the most important rock shows on the Prairies this week in light of the Rolling Stones Friday and Sunday in Regina.

After losing Keith Moon in 1978 and John Entwistle in 2002 – the guys who actually did die before they got old – music history has, perhaps, not been so kind to The Who. But, from the moment singer Daltry and guitarist Townshend, both of whom are 62, broke into the ironic adolescent angst of “I Can’t Explain,” all 10,000 classic rock fans in attendance became well aware that The Who are still a live force to be reckoned with.

The show was electrifying purely on a sonic plane, reliving past glories tastefully while adding enough twists and turns to keep 40-year-old songs sounding fresh as a healthy dose of new material from the group’s forthcoming Endless Wire album, due in stores Oct. 30.

The crowd roared its approval for “The Seeker,” “Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere,” “Baba O’Riley,” “Who Are You” and “You Better You Bet” while still staying interested in new and unreleased nuggets such as “Fragments,” “We Got A Hit” and a six-song mini opera entitled “Wire And Glass.”

Kurt Cobain never had a thing on Townshend’s guitar-smashing antics of the ‘60s, but the oldtimer seems more content in 2006 to windmill his guitar and throw tantrums aimed at someone who is surely now an out-of-work guitar tech, rather than stuffing a Stratocaster neck through an accompanying Fender amp.

Daltry can still sing like a day off (he was stunning on “Behind Blue Eyes”) but as one of the world’s premier rock guitarists (still) Townshend is at the very least co-frontman of The Who.

The crowd seemed a little dazed and lazy until the aging axe-slinger stepped to the lip of the stage and launched into “My Generation” just prior to a drop-dead interpretation of “Won’t Get Fooled Again,” which had the entire crowd on its feet.

The historical significance of those particular numbers seemed not lost in the building moments to Daltry’s hair raising scream midway through “Won’t Get Fooled Again,” one of rock-and-roll’s greatest arena anthems.

The minimal stage production and complete lack of the pomp and circumstance that will invade Mosaic Stadium this weekend provided what will surely be a different, yet no less interesting, angle to many of the greatest British rock songs ever recorded.

By the time The Who had blazed through “Pinball Wizard” and bowed to a long, loud, standing ovation, it occurred to many in attendance that the week was only going to get better.

We might get fooled again, but we’ll never be this good again.