The Who didn’t play the classic hit “My Generation” at its Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre concert Thursday night, but singer Roger Daltrey brought it up anyway, saying that people constantly throw the line “Hope I die before I get old” in his face.

“You didn’t (expletive) die!” They exclaim – or maybe complain – to Daltrey, 75, and guitarist and songwriter Pete Townshend, 74.

Meanwhile, Daltrey said, everybody overlooks “the best line ever written for our generation”: “I was born with a plastic spoon in my mouth.”

“What’s better than that?” he wondered.

Townshend shrugged it off. “I was drunk,” he said.

With that, the band tore into “Substitute,” which contains that line, and was one of two dozen songs performed during the two-and-a-quarter-hour concert, most of which found the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame band backed by a full symphony orchestra that packed the stage and gave the Who’s music the majestic sweep and occasional bombast it demands.

The show was divided into three segments: an opening suite featuring an orchestral take on the band’s pioneering rock opera “Tommy,” plus other hits; a handful of tunes played by the unaccompanied rock band; and the finale, with the orchestra returning for songs from “Quadrophenia.”

As it happened, Thursday was the 50th anniversary of the U.K. release of “Tommy,” which has gone through various recorded versions as well as film and Broadway permutations and was performed with an orchestra on tour last year by Daltrey.

The selection of songs from the piece was given depth and a decidedly epic feel by the orchestra, made up mostly of local musicians, under the baton of Keith Levenson, with arrangements by David Campbell.

But the aggregation didn’t leave the rock out of the rock opera, and the 30-minute suite contained plenty of excitement, especially during “Amazing Journey” and “Pinball Wizard,” which found Townshend performing his trademark windmill move and Daltrey whipping his microphone around as in days of old.

Daltrey, in terrific voice, then led the band and orchestra through “Who Are You.” Townshend was suffering from a bad throat, however, and before “Eminence Front” said: “I'm supposed to be singing now. I’ve got a bit of a sore throat. I don’t think it’ll matter much.”

But, oh my, it did. He could only croak and probably should have handed the vocal off to his brother Simon, who is once again a guitarist and vocalist in the band.

Oddly, Townshend was also sick the last time the Who played here, in 2016. He didn’t seem to hold it against us, however, calling St. Louis “a city of great rivers, but most of all great people.”

A Blues Stanley Cup playoffs logo flashed on the video boards, which earned a sustained cheer from the crowd. The band followed with “Join Together.”

Sorry, lads: The team already has a theme song.

Besides “Substitute,” the band-only segment included “The Seeker,” a lovely take on “Behind Blue Eyes” featuring touring violinist Katie Jacoby and cellist Audrey Snyder, and an acoustic “Won’t Get Fooled Again.”

Before “Tea & Theatre,” the one number played from the Who’s most recent studio album, 2006’s “Endless Wire,” Townshend announced that a new album was in the works.

The “Quadrophenia” suite contained some of the most kinetic rock performances of the night on “The Real Me,” “The Punk and the Godfather” and “5:15.” The combined wallop of the instrumental “The Rock,” meanwhile, was simply breathtaking. And Daltrey nailed the powerhouse vocal conclusion to “Love, Reign O’er Me.”

The show wrapped up with “Baba O’Riley,” violinist Jacoby playing a spirited solo, having slipped into a Blues sweater for the occasion. Pandering? Perhaps, but no one seemed to mind.