The best Tuesday ever in Detroit Rock City

["Anne Holcomb" <Aholcomb@albion.edu>]

hey hey!
Did I think I could love The WHO more? Sure.  But then I went to their concert and it really happened.  Now I can sit back and play the show over in my head as many times as possible.  
We got to the Palace at about 7:30 and missed UnAmerican to buy beer and to stand in line for the elusive brown "My Gen/ AAA" shirts which are the coolest ones there.  Buy 'em fast because we stood in line 3 times and watched the last one go to the guy in front of us.  Finally we made it to our seats.  The thing I regret about getting cheap seats is that mostly people were less enthusiastic up there.  We had quite an array of people next to us.  Counter to what some of the younger members of the list have been saying, I found that the people my age were jerks and the older members of the audience were really nice.  The two  40-something stoners next to us told us to put our doobie away and proceeded to smoke us down and involve us in conversation while the kids in front of us yelled, spilled beer, made out and got in fights.  None of it mattered once the show started though.  We had a great view of the stage even though we were far away, and the guys next to us also let us use their binoculars.  I'm pretty sure the set list was roughly the same as Chicago: some of my favorite moments were the perfect lighting effects for Pinball wizard and BO'R, and of course the songs themselves, The OX and his amazing spidery hands that flew faster than an aspiring bassist can comprehend, Roger and his white shirt that kept coming off as the night went on (OH yes those pecs! that mic swing! AMAZING) And the incredible kickass funkiness of "Magic Bus" and "THe Real Me".  MB was so amazing: they turned it into this slower sexy groove thing.  and the encores were amazing too: Did anyone else notice the new material that seemed to be creeping in during the MG and TKAA encore jams? Is that stuff new? I've never heard it before.  Perhaps you folks down the road might get a new song after all!
In all, it was everything that I expected which is shocking because I have insanely high expectations.  I must have used up just as much energy as they did jumping and dancing and grooving and singing along with Roger.  Pete TORE UP the electric guitar.  It was unbelievable: experiencing the windmill in real life!  I felt so comfortable there overall: during BO'R I felt like the whole arena was going to explode into "One note" everyone was singing along so loudly.  Maybe it's because I've started writing my own music lately, but I felt like I could sense their creative process as they jammed, like they could have just been sitting around with me, I felt as if I knew their music so well.  CRAZY!
YOu all have so much to look forward to.  I was so sad when it was over.
HAVE FUN!
ANNE