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Dallas Review- it's long but worth the read



Well, I made it there and back safely. Whew!!  Drove the 6.5 hours from Baton Rouge, LA to the Am Airlines Center, parked free by a meter 2 blocks away while others paid the ridiculous $9-15 for parking 1 block away.  Counting Crows were sans drummer, so they did an interesting acoustic set.  Not my cup-o-tea, but enjoyable.  Many empty seats, however.  Fuck Dallas, I say.  All the money in that town and they couldn't sell out for the greatest rock music ever made by the greatest performers ever born.  Ignorant Texans.  I drove all the way back, getting home around 6:15am.
As for the Who, they came off very human last night.  We got to see them inspired and working their asss off, but not perfect.  I was kind of a nice experience, to be truthful.  Seeing them handle negative situations and rise above gave me a small look into who they might really be.  Pete was very talkative, very comfortable.  Came to the mike prior to ICE and said, "And they said we wouldn't sell out.  Of course all those seats up there were given away, so for all you down here who paid, those people got in for free."  Best work on ICE of the 7 shows I have seen this year.  Pete nailed 15 or more windmills at one point.  Roger sounded real good at first.  4th song was WAY, which was great as always, but Roger was getting agitated, annoyed, and worried with his voice.  He first pointed to his mike during a Pete jam in AAA prior to WAY.  I could clearly see something was wrong during Bargain, as Roger contually figited with his right ear plug, then his voice cut out on him during the first high note, and he had the audience help with the last 2.  I must say I really nailed one of them for him.  I hope the people in my section appreciated it (chuckle).  He joked about the fact that "we hit the note quite well."  I don't think he was very amused, however, as he would keep walking over to the right to check with a technician about the sound, then continually looked left toward Bob Pridden and pointed to his throat and shook his head.  He was obviously drinking something for his throat out of a mug right near Zak.  He labored through Relay, ATD, and BOR before launching into the Quad medley.  I really felt for him, because he was obviously suffering.  Simon picked up a little slack by singing louder, as did Pete, and Pete's guitar work was possibly the best of all the shows I've seen.  I really watched Roger, closely and was becoming worried for him.  His voice was in and out all through Quad.  I also noticed some brand new lines added to SAS or 5.15 (can't remember which).  Maybe Alan McK recollects which it!
 was. He didn't sing some of the back and forth parts of 5.15 to gather his lungs for the next lines, and kept the LROM high notes to the level of the opening chorus, and left out the higher screams (he tried one of them but nothin came out).  He continued to look toward Pridden (or someone in his area) during instrumental breaks in the songs.  After LROM he came to the mike and apologized for his voice and made some comment about thinking his voice would be fine getting out of the thin, dry air of Denver, but he was wrong.  The rest of what he said was unintelligble.  Very garbled, for some reason.  I think at that point he said, "Well, fuck it.  If my voice dies, so be it, but I'm goin for it."  EF let him catch his breathe and get composed, play a little guitar and get back in a positive mood.  He then nailed YBYB, which was perfect because it's right in his vocal wheelhouse.  Momentum was turning.  Next thing you know Roger's voice was right the fuck on.  TKAA was awesome.  Roger's higher variations were right on the money.  BBE was probably the best I have heard on the tour, and MG was searing.  Pete's new Roger also nailed the higher variation on WGFA and he hit that scream with a vengeance.  He completely turned the tables.
The encore was the absolute BEST of the shows I have seen.  Truly powerful.  After the short break prior to the encore, Roger's voice was BETTER than prior shows.  He also obliterated a tamorine during Sparks.  The discs were flying and then it started splintering and finally collapsed entirelyin Roger's hand, who then threw the scraps aside and got a new one.  Pete also threw in the "Captain Walker didn't come home" vocals at the start of Sparks.  I LOVED IT. Hands down the defining version of SMFM for Roger this year.  He used some of the vocal adaptations from the movie version, which was damn ballsy after struggling the worst I have seen this tour an hour prior.  It was a special concert for me.  
Walked around the venue a while after, then went to the ramp where the band's cars would be exiting, and Roger pulled up around 11:30pm with maybe 8-10 people waiting and rolled down his window.  I think his first words were fuck you to this asshole dude who wanted his t-shirt signed.  This moron ran over to the car and had to be restrained by security, and was almost shoving his t-shirt at Roger through the window.  I'm glad he didn't give the autograph.  I even yelled from behind, leave him alone for christ's sake.  Selfish bastards only worrying about what they can get from a star.  It's like he didn't think Roger was a person.  Some guy's daughter ran up and touched roger.  Made me mad.  Another guy had taught his 3 yr old to windmill his arm and sing who are you in order to get Pete's attention if he came by.  UGH!!  I think that disrespects the Who, but maybe I'm just being emotional.  I simply stood about 10 ft away and applauded, then thanked him as he drove away and got a thumbs up.  Pino came out after and waved to us as well.  Pete had already jetted, unfortunately.
Funny moments:
1. After BOR, Pete seemed serious as he said he didn't want the songs they had performed at the 9/11 show to be asociated with such a horrible tragedy, so that he could "sell the songs for use in shampoo commercials."
2. septuaginarian Bob Pridden boogying in his little area as the Who rocked on.
3. Pete stumbling over Rog's mike stand
4. Roger nearly hitting Pete as he swung his mike stand to the side, i think during Relay.
5. Pete introducing Simon, by first lamenting John's tragic death, then saying that Simon was slated for the tour prior to that because "John's voice had tragically died long before John tragically died."
Observations:
Pino faked us out by skipping the 3rd MG bass solo.  Pete used a sort of a "freeze frame" thing during WGFA jam.  Pete is so awesome on guitar that it defies logic, but no one really knows it.  I also unfortunately never found Alan McKendry, but I hope he enjoyed it as much as I did.  The Who have been one of the greatest additions to my life.  Thank God they rock on.  Thank God this tour wasn't cancelled.  If it has meant a tenth as much to others as it has to me, then the others are blessed with a lifetime of beautiful memories of a band Who never cheats its fans.  The way they play, the going rate for tickets is a FUCKING BARGAIN!! They aren't tarnished a bit in my eyes.  They shine as brightly as ever. LONG LIVE ROCK!
mc