Friday, March 4, 2016

March 3rd, 2016, MSG, 10:44PM-10:45PM




You can quibble about the set list, if you want. I understand. I'd have traded "You Better You Bet" for just about anything, even "Squeeze Box." And Pino Palladino is no "Ox." But for Pete's sake, this band was on fire for almost two hours.

As one friend put it, "Zak Starkey has basically justified their existence since 1996." While I wouldn't go that far, I do have to give Zak a lot of credit. If you can't have Keith Moon, then I'll take Zak Starkey or no one.

I have seen Roger Daltrey as recently as two years ago, and he was struggling. This recent lay off must have done something miraculous because his voice sounded like it was 1975 again, nailing the higher register parts in just about every song, including both screams in "Love Reign O'er Me" and "Won't Get Fooled Again," respectively. (He's starting to resemble Pat Carroll, but we will save that for another post.) For every 12 Townshend windmills, maybe 2 actually hit the guitar. But that's okay, because he was animated and engaging and on top of it all, he never missed a backing vocal cue or harmony and sounded even better on guitar. And really, I could watch him windmill all night.

I will be gushing about this performance for weeks to come.

Song highlights:

"The Real Me," with Zak doing some killer "Baby, Don't You Do It" shit throughout.

"The Kids Are Alright," because that song does it to me every time. Real genius piece of work from the 21 year old author.

"Amazing Journey>Sparks>Pinball Wizard>See  Me, Feel Me>Listening To You."



10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hope you have a review coming as well.

Dr Wu said...

Still powerful!

whattawino said...

Roger that!

sclinchy said...

What Anonymous said! We need details!

Sal Nunziato said...

Updating with a few details now.

buzzbabyjesus said...

Glad to hear the 'OO still have it. Those are a sturdy batch of tunes.

Noam Sane said...

I saw them a few years ago (Pretenders opened) and yeah, it was everything I could hope for, never having seen them in their prime. There most definitely was an edge to it - in fact, Townshend got pissed off at his guitar tech and shoved him off the stage! Glad you enjoyed. Long live rock.

Bill said...

Going to the Newark show in 2 weeks. Can't wait!

Rob said...

I love the Who. Some years ago I found myself riding an elevator with Pete Townshend. So what do you say to one of the great men of rock music? The guy who wrote all those amazing songs that soundtracked your youth? I'm afraid I lapsed into fanboy gabbling and came out with something along the lines of 'Wow! I never imagined I'd be sharing an elevator with Pete Townshend.' Townshend looked at me for a second and replied: 'Well I never fucking imagined I'd be here with you either.'

Chris Collins said...

I've always loved "You Better, You Bet".

I don;t know what to say about that.