Who's Hits Hit Paydirt

Rock super group The Who pays an unexpected visit to the Santa Barbara Bowl

By Josef Woodard

News-Press Correspondent

Contrary to vivid reports of cathartic mayhem and instrument destruction the last time The Who played in Santa Barbara—at Earl Warren Showground in 1969—no equipment was harmed during the making of their eagerly anticipated show at the Santa Barbara Bowl on Thursday. They, being the key duo of guitarist/singer/songwriter extraordinaire Pete Townshend and singer Roger Daltry (plus a truly ace backup band) are older, wiser and mellower now, all these nearly five decades later.

But, as proven at the Bowl, they are not lacking in the requisite energy to get the old songbook kicking and cooking. The kids are still alright, in their seventysomething years.

Needless to say, the prospect of catching a rock band as genuinely iconic as The Who in the relatively intimate setting of the Bowl made for a "rock show of the year" dimensions here—and a very sold-out occasion. They are in the area thanks to the "Desert Trip" super group convergence at Coachella this weekend, along with The Rolling Stones, Paul McCartney, Neil Young and Roger Waters (The Who plays there tonight, and next weekend). The current tour is an extension of last year's tour with the doubly-intended title "The Who Hits 50" tour, and the Bowl concert was a gripping two-hour tour of their songbook, from the brisk opener "Can't Explain" to the suitably climactic closer of "Won't Get Fooled Again."

Opening the Bowl show was the young and multi-gifted Tal Wilkenfeld, whose dazzling musicality as a bassist won her a coveted spot in Jeff Beck's band and is now breaking out on her own as singer/bassist/front person. Her set projected an attractive brand of neo-progressive rock, with echoes of '80s-era King Crimson and occasionally, yes, The Who. Then again, their influence tends to pop up regularly on the rock scene over the last 50 years or so.

For two hours, The Who demonstrated just how their musical statement became so strong an entity in rock (as opposed to the fluffier stuff of "rock 'n' roll," as Mr. Daltry pointed out while introducing master rock musician/songwriter Mr. Townshend at concert's end).

In keeping with their ability to simultaneously uphold their legendary status while keeping self-effacing humor about the rock star life, the show teased the air of palpable excitement building up to the arrival of the icons onstage, with the screen beaming with the huge-text phrase "Keep calm. Here comes the Who."

Mr. Daltry still has that certain mixture of passion and detachment, giving the old microphone a well-placed toss or three during the night. With his tufts of curly hair and tinted glasses, he now resembles a Pentecostal televangelist, although his message in song, however, is often more about embracing sins than atoning for them. At one point, while roaming the stage during the song "You Better You Bet," he tripped over a mysterious microphone stand, and continued singing while lying on the stage floor, trooper that he is. After the song, he said, with a grin, "ah, the joys of old age."

Dressing down for the occasion in a t-shirt, Mr. Townshend was the resident wit onstage, warming up the place with his breezy between-song banter early in the show. Seeing some children in the crowd, he quipped "nice to see some families here. The old ones can tell the young ones 'look—this is how it used to be.' And then they took drugs and died. Fortunately, some of the others, didn't die, and will be at the Coachella thing this weekend."

For local color, he later recalled hanging out with former Santa Barbaran Joe Walsh years ago, a visit involving a large quantity of cocaine—"during the cocaine days—" and then golfing by the ocean the next day. That was then, this is a more sober and life-appreciative now.

Although not quite an "all the hits all the time" proposition, sevwise, fleshed out as it was with various asides and "deep cuts" from conceptual albums such as "Quadrophenia" and "Tommy," the Bowl shivered with regular jolts of recognition. The song list including "Who Are You??" "The Kids are Alright" (with some borrowed youthful nostalgia in the onscreen imagery of young motorcycle riders in freewheeling scenery), "I Can See for Miles," "Behind Blue Eyes," and "Pinball Wizard."

During Mr. Townshend's instrumental "The Rock," a history-sweeping montage on the screen roughly covered the life and times of the band, from the Vietnam War through the '70s, through the two Presidents Bush, Occupy Wall Street and the Paris terrorist attacks of recent vintage. Despite this half century swath of data, a message imparted in the course of the band's Bowl show was that the mastery and lingering importance of The Who was contained in a roughly 13-year period, from their 1965 album "My Generation" through 1978's "Who Are You." Soon after, the band went through various hiatuses and breakups, but are very much in fighting form all these years later.

Another salient point from The Who's sellout at the Bowl was that they probably painted their masterpiece in 1971, with the "Who's Next." After teasing us early on in the show with the fine tune "Bargain," they shrewdly packed a one-two finale-style punch by ending the concert with "Teenage Wasteland (Baba O'Riley)" and "Won't Get Fooled Again," in all their synth-sequence-riff flecked and dynamics-conscious glory onstage. With mythic, timeless songs like these, who needs to smash gear for dramatic, wasted teenager effect?

Legendary British rock band The Who, with Roger Daltry and Pete Townshend, captivated a sold-out Bowl crowd on Thursday night.

DON KATICH / NEWS-PRESS