Fresno Famous

I Went As Well

I went to the Who concert as well. I have to admit I enjoyed the classic Who songs more then the new stuff. The new stuff sounded good , but, it did not grab me as much as the old music. It was almost like hearin gsomeone do a song that sounds like the Who. I did like the new "Pretty Good-Looking Boy", about Elvis, and "The Man in the Purple Dress" which were slower ,so maybe easier to get into. My wife bought the new CD and had listened to it a lot, and she may have enjoyed hearing the other new songs more then I did because she knew them.
Pete Townsend made reference to the Who's only other appearance in Fresno in 1968 with the Quicksilver Messenger Service. He purposely pronounced Fresno wrong , with a "S" sound instead of a "Z" sound, saying if Americans can mispronounce Leicester, England wrong , then he can mispronounce American towns as well.
Most of the second deck was roped off so it was far from a sell out. I had wished to hear more of their classics such as "Substitute" or "Squeeze Box" especially during the encore which was filled up with some long jams between the band members.
I, too, was glad they dared to play alot of their new stuff, enjoyed the drummer (Ringo's son), even the video screen was mostly interesting. I would have only substituted the long jams for more songs either new or old. The crowd really enjoyed "Baba O'Reily" and "Better You Bet" which I liked a lot as well.
It was bittersweet and sad to see the old photos of the Who with Keith Moon and John Entwistle still alive and smiling. It did seem like the band was enjoying itself so it is good to see they are not too jaded. Townsend was the one who I watched the most on stage.
Disclosure: I did win the tickets. Thanks Fresno Famous!

...see

sometimes long stuff can be very informative, very heartfelt, and extremely accurate...

(congrats on your non-bias on this... seriously.)

-but they did NOTHING from Quadrophenia?

(...nothing?)

(---couldn't you have at least volunteered to throw one in for them? I'm sure some of the other trikes were in attendance...)

excellent review.

New Who Review

The Who was neither awesome nor pathetic.

What makes an old group pathetic? I'm thinking….
Mostly that they're doing something that was pretty pathetic
to begin with, but they were able to pull it off when their stomachs
were flatter and their hair more abundant.
If someone was doing something of quality 'back then' and then
came and delivered quality again…..you'd say it was good work.
Why am I taking what sounds like a casual or even flip question soooo
seriously (because I'm pathetic? Probably!).
I think the thing that draws me to Pete Townshend and the Who
is that they took a teenage diversion like RocknRoll and made it so
Important----not in the pretentious We're Lame But With The Help
Of Interesting Icons and Cool Sunglasses We Now Look Oh So Important.
No; he took a simple dance music and spilled his soul and passions into it.
And by doing so, he made people feel more real, less lonely and more empowered.
Hey, that's what good art does.

"Ok, but how was the concert?"

I'm still not sure what I think. Good songs. Even the new songs are very very good.
They aren't part of the body of songs that moved me as a youngster; they aren't
the songs that Classic Rock has ridden into the ground…but good work.
But the emotional-overwhelmingness wasn't there for me the way it was when I saw them as a kid. I'm older. I saw some
very gifted musicians playing. I paid homage to a songwriter who is a hero of mine. I even got to take my wife and kids with me and share that experience with them. But being older, I saw them as people and not as
'gods', and in some ways 'gods' are just more entertaining. My son is going to the wrestling show there tonight. He'll feel that excitement of the 'gods'. But see…
Bautista as age 60 trying to wrestle 'like the old day's would be…pathetic.

"Ok, but how was the CONCERT???!!!!???"

Roger Daltrey's voice isn't as long-lastingly athletic as it once was, but it is still wonderfully expressive.
Pete Townshend's was doing his windmilly thing but didn't kick and jump four hundred feet into the air all night long like he used to----if this was what The Who were about, then they would be ..pathetic.
Townshend's guitar playing was punkishly aggressive and sometimes faltered in it's physicalness---but that often helped convey the emotion of the moment.
The rest of the band was spot on perfect.
Zak Starkey (in my opinion), though he's not Keith Moon, really swung (swang?) hard and added great feel to the music in a way that (also just my opinion) that original replacement drummer Kenny Jones couldn't.
The nostalgia of the slide show and the red curtain-look background behind "I Can't Explain" "The Seeker" and "Anyway Anyhow Anywhere" was very exciting.
But (sniff) no songs from Quadrophenia.
The venue was great for a music presentation, but with it's very policed and very-safe-ness did not convey the seditious edginess that's often engrained in some of the most powerful rocknroll experiences. Nothing unexpected or dangerous was looming.
The Who DID maintain their edge by including lots of new music to keep it from becoming a Nostalgia Picnic. AND the fact that (2nd guitarist and brother of the 1st guitarist) Simon Townshend had to
step in and do a 5 song warm-up set since the opening band was stuck in the snow up in Reno added some spontaneity to the evening.

So, it wasn't pathetic. It wasn't awesome. It was good. Real good. I'm always up for good.

"Geez, I just asked how the concert was….I didn't expect a bloody Spanish Inquisition "

[disclosure: my tickets were not free]