" ........... anyone read the reviews from phoenix ? "
http://www.azcentral.com/thingstodo/music/articles/20130206review-the-who-quadro..." Watching Roger Daltrey and Pete Townshend work their way through “Quadrophenia” 40 years after the fact, it was hard to imagine that this was the album the Who in their prime had so much trouble touring, enduring what Townshend refers to in his memoir, “Who I Am,” as “some of the most shameful performances in our career onstage.”
Advances in the visual production of a rock show have allowed this latest version of the Who to move the plot along without taking a break from presenting the music to explain what’s going on. And fleshing out the lineup to a 10-piece — including all manner of keyboards, horns and Townshend’s brother Simon on second guitar and vocals — allowed them to present a fairly faithful re-creation of the album’s richly textured sound.
The biggest challenge they faced in presenting the high-concept album at Jobing.com Arena in Glendale on Wednesday, Feb. 6, was the effect those 40 years have had on the surviving members’ singing voices. Drummer Keith Moon died at 32 just five years after “Quadrophenia” was issued while bassist John Entwistle died at 57 in 2002. But Daltrey, 68, and Townshend, 67, have both managed to get fairly old before they died. And getting fairly old can take its toll on one’s abilities to hit those notes that came so easy in their youth.
But here’s the thing. It worked.
Did Daltrey back down from a number of the album’s more heroic moments, choosing lower notes on more than one occasion? Yes, he did. He even handed off some vocals to auxiliary members. But he nailed the most important part, that screaming chorus toward the end of “Love Reign O’er Me.” And approaching an album as emotional as “Quadrophenia” with a voice that sounds like it’s been through its share of life experiences only heightens the sense of catharsis.
The same goes for Townshend, whose voice has aged into the weatherbeaten rasping of the grizzled bluesmen he admired in his youth. To hear that elder-statesman growl replace the tender, youthful yearning of “Why should I care if I have to cut my hair?” was one of several arguably unintended revelations.
And while most performers in the Who’s position would be loath to juxtapose that live performance with constant video reminders of what audiences would be seeing on that stage if this were 1967, the sense of nostalgia that permeates the album seemed more poignant when presented while the ghosts of who they used to be watched over who they are today. They even interacted with their former bandmates, Entwistle rocking the RotoSound strings on his bass via video during “5:15” and Moon, in the concert’s emotional highlight, reprising his vocal on “Bell Boy,” also through the magic of archival video footage. It was touching yet hilarious.
The visual tributes to their fallen comrades carried over into “Dr. Jimmy,” underscoring Daltrey’s vocal as he sang “The past is calling,” which it clearly was.
They only went so far into that past, though. After staging “Quadrophenia” in its entirely, they stayed on stage and treated fans to a handful of their most enduring contributions to classic-rock radio, not to mention “CSI.” “Who Are You” was followed by a bittersweet “Behind Blue Eyes,” then “Pinball Wizard,” “Baba O’Riley“ and “Won’t Get Fooled Again.” That’s nothing earlier than “Tommy,” which is kind of so sad about us — and by us, I mean people who understand that Townshend’s genius was already well established by the time he got to “Tommy.”
Maybe next time through, they’ll stage “The Who Sell Out” in its entirety.
For now, they did a classic album justice while revisiting a number of their greatest contributions to the history of live performance, Townshend executing windmill after windmill (with footage of actual windmills filling up the screen behind him on the encore) while Daltrey continued to twirl his mike like a lasso. There wasn’t much jumping. And no instruments were smashed. Nor were there scissor kicks. But it felt like a Who show.
And with only half the members standing and the 50th anniversary of “My Generation” just around the bend, that may be more any rock fan has a right to hope for in 2013. "
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