Fwd: Fw: MOJO - RAH Review - Transcribed

[thewho rocks <leb905@yahoo.com>]

Here's the MOJO article, courtesy of Kim + Lester:

> >  a brilliant of review of The Who @ RAH on 8/2/02! >>

> There's also a very good picture from the show - half page
> sized. The whole, (vaguely reluctant?), review covers a full A4 page.
> 
> Kim+Lester
> 
> Filter Live Shows
> 
> The Who
> London, Royal Albert Hall
> 
> Second night of the latest episode in on ongoing sporadic
> reformation saga. This years's excuse: a benefit for the
> Teenage Cancer Trust
> 
> As a gauge of how cataclysmically good this was,
> look no further than the moment when, towards
> the end of a cussed gambol through Mose
> Allison's Young Man Blues, Pete Townshend gets
> so carried away that he falls off the stage and into
> the lap of a startled front row punter. It isn't so
> long since Townshend would see out an entire
> Who gig playing acoustic guitars behind a
> perspex screen, spiritually and actually removed
> from the essence of the music he had created.
> Now, though, here he is, older and angrier and a
> whole lot louder, posing a physical threat to
> members of the public. This much we had not
> expected.
> 
> Six years ago, Townshend played an acoustic
> residency at the Supper Club in New York. His
> opening act for those shows was Bob Mould, an
> acknowledgement of the former Husker Du and
> Sugar man's respect for Townshend's art and
> dogged pursuit of his singular vision. But its only
> tonight, witnessing a fully amped up Townshend
> unleashed and scary, that the extent of Mould's
> debt becomes apparent. He windmills, he pogos
> and he thrashes, then for good. measure he does
> all three at once, with no regard for self
> preservation or any notions of cool he once so
> avidly represented. The instinct to dismiss the
> received wisdom of one's elders remains
> fundamental to rock'n'roll's ongoing vitality,
> but really, it's hard to imagine any of today's
> crop of guitar grapplers performing with such
> bullish vehemence.
> 
> And he's in good company.
> By his own admission Roger
> Daltrey - whose patronage of
> the Teenage Cancer Trust is the
> catalyst for this reconvention of
> of rock's longest-running soap operas - is
> knackered after the opening I Cant Explain, but
> his voice is in marvellous shape, almost as trim
> and carefully tended as his physique. The fact that he's
> two years shy of 60 is very tricky to square with the
> evidence of one's own eyes. In the midst of Pinball
> Wizard his ear-piece monitor fails out and he's too
> immersed with the moment to replace it, which by
> Daltrey's notoriously starched-shirt standards is
> the equivalent of walking down the street with your flies
> undone revealing a pair of Mickey Mouse Y-fronts.
> 
> But it's that kind of show, The Who in the raw,
> delivering everything anyone could reasonably
> want of a Who show in 2002, given the massive
> caveat that the unavailability of Keith Moon
> means this is never going to be more than an
> approximation of what made them matter in the
> first place. But there's no backing vocalists, plenty
> from Who's Next, the continued reassuring presence
>  of John 'Rabbit' Bundrick on keyboards, and
> a complete and utter lack of Boris The Spider. The
> Ox does get to paw the floor some during a fear
> fully anticipated five-minute bass solo in 5.15, but
> by that late stage of the game weve damn near
> wept through Behind Blue Eyes, felt the tremulous
> truth of Baba O'Riley and chuckled at
> Roger's tambourine abuse during I'm Free. We
> also strongly suspect that that Won't Get Fooled
> Again is just around the corner. It's hard to think
> of a more acutely realised anthem of disillusioned
> youth either before or since, and this punishing
> version is just one of many tunes to benefit from
> the attendance of Zak Starkey behind the kit.
> 
> As regards the legendary 'Oo inter-song
> badinage, everyone seems on their best
> behaviour, although Pete does call the audience
> 'a bunch of cunts'. Not so the previous evening,
> when Daltrey's inchoate ramble about the reason
> why we're all here is because the health service
> is in a bit of a pickle and, like, who needs
> governments blah blah had provoked an on-mike
> rebuke from Townshend to the effect that it was
> all a load of rubbish. One can see his point. Well
> intentioned gestures are one thing, tickets at 60
> quid a pop are another, but it's a little hard to
> swallow lectures on public indifference to the
> plight of those less fortunate than ourselves from
> the band that destroyed equipment for fun and
> have in their day pursued the mighty dollar with
> huge. (sic)
> 
> The saddest aspect of this affair, as with all
> charity rock events, is that most of those present
> will have departed with only a fleeting
> consideration of the issues. But this is as much
> down to the staggering performance of a
> rock'n'roll band beyond the point in their trajectory
> when such feats are to be taken for granted. The
> sight of Damon Albarn in the audience a-hollering
> to My Generation was quite poignant: does he
> wonder whether his desire to express himself in
> such righteous fashion will endure so vividly?
> Perhaps the moral of the tale is those young man
> blues only get darker with age.
> 
> Keith Cameron
> 
> Set List.. I Can't Explain Substitute / Anyway, Anyhow,
> Anywhere / I Don't Even Know Myself / Amazing Journey/
> Sparks / Pinball Wizard / I'm Free / My Wife / Who Are You /
> Getting In Tune / Behind Blue Eyes / I'm One / Drowned / Baba
> O'Riley / Relay / 5.15 / Won't Get Fooled Again / The Kids Are
> Alright / Summertime Blues / Youna Man Blues / My Generation
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
>  


=====
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