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Atlanta review



I'll write this sort of backwards so you get to what you want to read first.

THE CONCERT
Okay.  I want this CRAP to stop about how Pete isn't that good a guitar
player.  Last night he was in the master class alongside Clapton and
Hendrix, Page and whomever.  Absolutely beautiful electric soloing.  Sure
there were a lot of his windmilling pyrotechnics but it wasn't to hide any
deficiencies in his guitar work.  He wailed like Hendrix on his best nights.
Expert use of feedback (after all he started it) mixed with deep, soulful
solos, passionate and yet precisely played.  This was Old School guitar
wizadry you don't hear anymore.  All you guitarists in new bands go run and
see Pete play.  Let it inspire you.

Of course, everyone else was marvelous, too; can't slight them.  I haven't
seen The Who since the House Of Blues last year and everyone has improved a
great deal since then.  Zak has lost a lot of the lingering "timekeeping"
drumming he had then and plays so well that I don't sit there listening and
thinking "hmm, something's missing here" like I do with the other Keith
replacements.  A great backbone of support to the entire music, driving it
along, filling when there's gaps.

John, well what can you say.  Fantastic as always but with a better bass
sound than Chicago last year.  Although I was all the way over on Pete's
side (more on Bobby Pridden's side, I was that far over) John came through
well mixed with the band.  In place of last year's "dirty" bass sound is a
more trebly, popping sound.  At one point in his as usual jaw-dropping solo
in "5:15" he sounded like he was playing lead guitar, it was that trebly.
John played the Buzzard It had a green guitar strap with a skeleton's hand
reaching down it.

Roger showed the most improvement from last year.  There were very few
cracked notes and some incredible phrasing including the best vocal
performance I've ever heard him give on "You Better You Bet."  I've always
thought he went a little far in all the other versions "acting" the song.
This time he got it just right.  Marvelous.  I'd love to get a copy of it
(Pete? mp3?).

Sorry, I didn't keep a set list (not with Shanon there, that's his job) but
it was a fairly standard line-up.  Seeing this show, however, it occurred to
me that what I always thought was going to happen with this tour did happen.
It's not a greatest hits show; it's the Lifehouse tour.  Most of the evening
was spent either playing or talking about it.  See, The Who slipped another
of their "opera" tours under everyone's noses!  The Lifehouse songs seemed
perfect for the band at this age.  They came across with a strange sort of
contemplative, almost melancholic air.  Tommy always seemed to come across
as a pop fantasy, Quadrophenia as a teenager's lament.  Lifehouse now seems
more fitting for middle-age people.  A sort of questing for something lost
comes through those beautiful songs that seems, dare I say it, mature.  You
could tell you were listening to meaningful music coming from both the heart
and the gut and not just a collection of disposable pop songs.

"The Kids Are Alright" was the standard version without additions, but "My
Generation" had a long improvised extension with some additional lyrics.
"Still talking about my generation!" and "It's not important what I say,
it's only important what I do" were some of the new lines.

Well, let's balance that out with the fun side and there was a lot of that.
John actually forgot some of the words to "My Wife"!  Roger was backing him
up and had to carry a line.  When John flubbed he turned to Roger and gave
him this look like "can you believe what an idiot I am to forget the words
to THAT song?"  Roger had an even more major flub forgetting one of the
verses of "Won't Get Fooled Again".  Pete sang it for him, then Roger came
around and sang it again before they got it back on track.  See what lying
around on the beach will do to your brain?  Roger and John were horsing
around all night even interrupting one of Pete's long "Quadrophenia" song
set-ups.  "There having a party over there!" said Pete.  At one point, Roger
tripped (didn't fall) over a loose board on the stage.  Pete said something
like "there's a hole there, boy!" in a Southern accent.  He then went off
into a fantasy where he had carved a hole in the stage, covering it with
twigs and brush and had a hornet's nest down there to sting Roger all over.
He then said, "guess who's been reading Jeffrey Deaver?" before giving this
utterly Grinch-like smile.  After John's "5:15" solo, Pete said "I've just
thought of something I can't say!"  Of course, we all told Pete just to say
it so he said "I'll just start it and let your imaginations finish it.  I
was just looking at John's rapidly-moving fingers and..."  He grinned
evilly, Roger doubled over laughing and John slowly looked down at his
fingers like something horrible had just splashed on them.

Being so ignorant about the technical side, all I can tell you is that Pete
played the gold guitar through the first half of the show with the white one
out on about two songs.  He then switched to the red one for the second half
of the show.  Does that make sense?  And the wrist thing.  Pete started
messing with his wrist early on in the show.  After about three songs he
started tearing something off his wrist with his teeth that took him some
time then turned and spit out something that looked cottony.  A wrist
restraint?  At the end of the show he mentioned his bicycle accident and
that his wrist was giving him pain.  You could never tell from his great
playing last night and I hope for all you folks in Cleveland and NYC that
everything gets better.  Ice it and elevate it Pete and no more long diary
entries!

PRE-SHOW
Max the Mod was gracious enough to have a preliminary pre-show at his house.
Joe McMichael (The Who Concert File) was there with the McMullins, Bruce
Kawakami, Alan McKendree and some other listers who made it over (sorry if I
left you out).  I tried to bring the long-time tourers up to date with all
the news about Pete's diaries and the Simpson drawings.  We all then took a
taxi down to Reggie's at CNN Center to meet Shanon Dell, Mark Leaman,
Virginia Cassidy of the Meher Baba Center and her lovely family, Brian in
Memphis (we meet at last!), Marc Starke and his twin brother, Carol
Zimmerman, Kathy and Deb and so many others (sorry again if I left you out!)
Ah, the pre-shows!  If you're going to a concert don't miss them.  It's so
wonderful to hang around like-obsessed fanatics.

Wishing ever one all the best for the upcoming shows,  I am...

        -Brian in Atlanta
         The Who This Month!
        http://members.home.net/cadyb/who.htm