[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

[no subject]



The Who rocks on in Camden

By CHUCK DARROW
Courier-Post Staff
The question leading up to Saturday night's Tweeter
Center performance by The Who was: How significant is
the loss of John Entwhistle, the revered bassist who
died on the eve of the band's current U.S. tour at age
57? 

Not that significant, judging by Saturday's sold-out
concert. 

The absence of Entwhistle's hulking, stoic presence
was no doubt felt by many in the audience. After all,
The Who has been visiting the Delaware Valley since
Lyndon Johnson was president. But once the group's two
remaining charter members, Peter Townshend, 57, and
Roger Daltrey, 58, got it going, there was little,
sonically speaking, that was different from past Who
concerts. 

It took the two rock icons very little time to get
things cranked to an appropriately high level. With
them leading the way, the band's opening sequence -
traditional set-starter "I Can't Explain" followed by
fellow early-period signatures "Substitute" and
"Anyway, Anytime, Anywhere" - set the evening's
high-energy , high-decibel agenda. 

As always, the two icons supplied most of the musical
and visual focus. 

Daltrey's vocals have lost little through the decades.
His voice has aged nicely, and there's a richness of
tone that has come with maturity. He remains able to
summon an impressive amount of fury and power with his
still formidable pipes. His personal tour de force was
the gripping, near-operatic reading of "Love Reign
O'er Me," the lyrics of which seemed to emanate from
the greatest depths of his soul. 

And, of course, there was the scream-for-the-ages that
ignites the incendiary ending of "Won't Get Fooled
Again," the anthem that is arguably the greatest
set-closer in rock history. 

Neither has Daltrey's ability to command a stage
diminished with time. His defiant posturing, steely
blue-eyed gaze and trademark microphone cord twirling
were constant reminders that he was one of the people
for whom the phrase "rock star" was coined. 

Townshend, was likewise mesmerizing. His jittery
hard-rock guitar supplied a good deal of the
performance's ferocity and sheer voltage. As he did
during the band's last stop in Camden two summers ago,
Townshend provided several key moments with his
soloing. Foremost among these was his gloriously
frenetic and aggressive fret work at the end of
"Bargain." 

He also entertained with his bag of stage tricks,
including uncoordinated spins, jumps and bends, and
signature "windmill" style of playing chords. 

But as typically on point as Daltrey and Townshend
were, they couldn't have pulled it off without their
stellar supporting cast. 

One can only marvel at the jobs turned in by
Entwhistle's spur-of-the-moment replacement, the
melodically monickered Pino Palladino, and
drummer-since-the- '90s Zak Starkey. Both served well
their predecessors' legacies. 

Palladino, whose sure-handedness belied the fact he
had about 72 hours to learn the entire set, was
excellent as he sometimes recreated, sometimes merely
suggested, Entwhistle's rumbling, athletic bass parts
that provided the crucial bridge between between
Townshend and original drummer Keith Moon, who died in
1978. 

His defining moment Saturday came during the bass
breaks in the middle of "My Generation." To the
encouraging cheers of the crowd, Palladino scored with
a series of dead-on runs that served as a fine tribute
to the deceased rocker, as well as confirmation he is
up to the daunting task of filling in for a true
one-of-a-kind musician. 

Starkey, son of Ringo Starr, once again captured both
the sound and spirit of Moon's roiling, bashing style
with an almost supernatural degree of accuracy.
Keyboardist John "Rabbit" Bundrick and singer-rhythm
guitarist Simon Townshend (Pete's brother), ably
filled out the sound. 

Speculation is already rife this will be The Who's
final tour. If so, the band can retire from the road
knowing they left the Tweeter audience with memories
of a group whose greatness never faded. 

As if The Who's turn wasn't enough, there was opening
act - and fellow British rock god - Robert Plant. 

Plant, the lead singer of Led Zeppelin, thrilled the
crowd with a set that combined songs from his new CD,
"Dreamland" with Zeppelin classics. 

The former included a wonderful reinvention of the
'60s blues-rock classic, "Hey Joe," which was far more
meditative than Jimi Hendrix's benchmark
psychedelic-blues version, and an equally re-imagined
"Darkness, Darkness," a 1960s "FM" hit for the
Youngbloods. 

Among the latter tunes were a reading of Zep's
acoustic masterpiece, "Going to California," that
electrified the audience, an equally stunning "Babe,
I'm Gonna Leave You" and a bone-shaking "Four Sticks."


Like Daltrey, Plant seems to have figured out how to
keep the ravages of time from his vocal cords. His
strangled blues yelps and throat-shredding rock
workouts proved he is an artist who still has plenty
to offer beyond cheap nostalgia. 

Together, the two acts combined for as memorable a
night of classic rock the Tweeter Center has ever
seen. 



=====
-Brian in Atlanta
The Who This Month!
http://www.thewhothismonth.com
Yahoo! Health - Feel better, live better
http://health.yahoo.com