my review

The QUAD shows I attended at the Garden (Wed and Thurs) were 
a triumph in virtually every respect, comparable to PT's
1993 shows, which were easily the best concerts I've seen
out of almost 500 shows since 1974.  Pete's solo shows were 
better only because they were longer and in more intimite
venues.

The QUAD band was fantastic, playing QUADROPHENIA like I'd
wanted to hear it for 23 years.  The multimedia aspects,
including Phil Daniels' narration, Gary Glitter's rockers,
Billy Idol's mods, and the screen images,
were very reminiscent of the PSYCHODERELICT production, only 
better, since QUAD's story of the mods v. rockers subculture 
is more interesting than the pulp fiction of the
Ray-Ruth-Rastus triangle.

Joan Osborne's opening set of about 35 minutes, starting
before 8:00 and ending at 8:30, was quite good and received 
politely by the audience.  Of course, we would have
preferred a longer WHO-> set, but as long as there was an
opening act, she did quite well, and profusely thanked

Pete and the Who-> for inviting her.  She might have been
received even better if she had played a Who or Townshend
song as a surprise.

QUAD began at exactly 9:00, and lasted 95 minutes, including 
the extra narration and a few longer solos, especially JAE's 
bass thunder solo in "5:15."  Gary Glitter sang a little
flat Wednesday night. Billy Idol really hammed it up in
"Bell Boy."  The trading of vocals among Roger, Pete,
Glitter, and Idol was almost flawless.  It can hardly denied 
that Roger looks as good as he did 20 years
ago, and SINGS much better than he did when the band was
actually together.  Pete is also a better singer than ever
before, and as shown on "Drowned", a better guitar picker,
too.

Pete played exclusively acoustic, although he was almost
always audible, driving the rhythm along and clearly leading 
the band.  On Thursday, he switched from sandals to his Doc 
Martins, enabling him to bounce around the stage more
aggressively, and also playing more aggressively. Arguably, 
Pete should have played electric,
relegating Simon to acoustic.  Geoff Whitehorn handled the
leads expertly, a huge improvement over 1989's weak link
Steve Bolton.  Zak Starkey was great, with some lines
doubled by Jodi Linscott, although Linscott was a little low 
in the mix. The dual keyboards and the brass section played 
flawlessly.  However, I noticed during "I've Had Enough,"
that with 20 musicians and singers on stage, why was the
banjo part still being played from a tape? That minor
quibble aside, the rendition of The Who->'s finest work was 
awesome.

At each show, the band returned for four extra songs, but a 
bit too conservatively chosen: A good version of "Behind
Blue Eyes", an acoustic "WGFA" featuring just Pete and
Roger, "Magic Bus" Wed/Naked Eye (with Roger on guitar)
Thurs, and "Substitute" to close at 11:05.  Roger, Pete and 
John embraced, warmly.  At the end of these shows, we will
not have seen the last of them together.

                                           STU.