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Review of Saturday's show



			QUADROPHENIA

So there I am in New York City.  I've been there a few times before,
this is my first time by myself.  I'm feeling pretty good.  I
successfully navigated from New Jersey to Manhattan to a parking
garage a block from MSG with no problems.  Even managed to cut off
some taxis to let them know that Boston drivers aren't to be toyed
with.  I'm looking forward to Molly Wee's and finally meeting some of
these people.  And that afternoon, I had finally managed to unload my
two Tuesday tix at cover price.  I thought I was going to have to eat
them.  And of course, I'm going to see the Who.

Molly Wee's was fun.  It was great meeting "the gang", Mick, Bernd,
Stacy, slipkid, gary, Bruce, and of course Rich/Fang, who confirmed my
prediction he would be nothing like what I predicted.  I went out to
get some quick dinner, and incredibly left my tickets in the bar.
D'oh!  It was among fellow fans, but... I rushed back and grabbed
them, and they were never more than 6 inches from me the rest of the
night.  I got my food, wolfed it, came back to the bar, and realized I
just couldn't sit still.  Just too hyper with excitement.  Arrgh, if I
had to hear one more comment about midrange in the Polydor
release... I finally just left the bar, walked around the area a few
times, and sat out on the post office stairs.  People watching in New
York City is awfully interesting.  Yes, interesting.  As someone at
Molly Wees said, the rest of the cities are like New York City made
from concentrate.  I'm a big Boston booster, but I have to agree.

At 8:20, I got up and went inside.  Timed it perfectly as the opening
acts noise was just ending as I found my seat.  The bit I heard was
awful, but I wasn't listening very carefully.

MSG: The building itself is much more intimate than I expected.  I had
section 303 seats, and I could still see fine.  The video screen was
very well done, and my binoculars were great to watch the closeups of
Pete's guitar playing.

I was 3 other people.  Whoops, no, I'm not Jimmy.  I was -with- 3
other people, ha ha.  One was a highschool friend of mine who is a big
Who fan (flew to London to see the last show of Tommy in 89).  I was
also with my officimate Kim and her boyfriend, who knew the standard
hits and not much else.

The Show:
"				".  Words cannot express.  Absolutely
drop dead fantastic.  Much better than '89.  I'm too young to have
seen them in their prime, I think this is about as close I'm ever
going to get as "Who's Back"!  They weren't just going through the
motions or doing greatest hits, it was living material done by the
greatest band on earth.

The Real Me didn't kick of well, as the main electric seemed lost
somewhere, but after 3 songs, Kim turns to me and says, Holy shit
these guys are incredible.  To which, I can only reply, I know! I
know!

Each song kept getting a little better, and by the time they hit Is It
In My Head (a very underrated tune), everything was absolutely
terrific. By now, Kim and her boyfriend were in a complete daze.  It
was great having other people there with me who didn't know the
material.  Watching them, I could hear it again from a newbie's
perspective.  By then, they had hit their stride.  Sea and Sand,
Drowned, BellBoy, Dr. Jimmy, fantastic.  The Rock was a bit of a drag,
as it is on the album, but it was a welcome chance to rest for a
minute, as of course, Love Reign O'er Me competely failed to
dissapoint.  As the lights went down, I clapped ferociously until the
encore in an altered state of conciousness.

The production: Very well done.  I really enjoyed the video screen.  I
very much liked having "Jimmy" make explicit parts of the story I
hadn't quite gotten before.  Glitter & Idol were on enough to spice
things up without detracting from The Who.  The staging also helped
point out story bits, as you really see who/what personality was
singing what.

The players:
Jody: What the hell does she do?  Why don't they get rid of her and
get someone to play the banjo on Had Enough?  The papers here love her
because she's a Mass native, I don't see the thrill.  Especially
when--
Zak: Terrific.  He really does have the Moon style.  I wonder how much
better Moon could have done in the restricted format, i.e. having to
work with charts and so many other musicians.  I'm sure Zak had to
control himself more than he would have liked to.  Quite a drummer.
Phil Daniels: Very good dialogue he was given, and he did it very well
also.  I imagine he gets a bit bored during some of the songs, but sod
him.
Horn players/Backupsingers/Rabbit: I didn't particularly notice any of
them.  That's the best review to get.
The Lead Guitarist: I was not very impressed.  Most of the time he was
just copying Pete's licks, and not quite hitting them.  The rest of
the time he soloed, nothing inspired.  Standard rock guitarist.  He
was competent, but didn't stand out.
Simon: I dunno.  He seemed quite good, but it was hard to make out
which sounds were coming from him.  Lost in the mix.  It was funny to
see his hairloss mirroring Pete.
Billy Idol: Quite good.  Not much of a singer, but he played the part
dead on.  The man exuded cool.  I wanted to slap him one.  "Right
little bastard, he is!", and I mean that in a good way.

Ox: Incredible
Roger: Fantastic
Pete: Orgasmic.

The encores were terriffic also.  It was a joy to see Roger and Pete
sharing the mike and working with each other, rather than trying to
outdo each other.  I'm so glad that WGFA was acoustic, I'm incredibly
sick of the electric version.  It was nice having the songs be done
with just the two/three of them, it let them all stretch themselves
much more.  How much improv can you do with 15 other musicians?
Watching Pete... I'm a guitarist, and a pretty fair one.  I watch
Townshend, and I wonder why I'm even bothering.  What's the fucking
point, he's done it all, and done it all better than I could ever do.
Bloody hell.  Maybe I'll take up macrame.  At least Pete called me his
friend.

The lights coming up was a shock back to reality.  Kim was effusively
thanking me for making her go to this, we were trading back and forth
thank you, no thank *you*, no thank *YOU*, etc.  What a show.

What's with that radioactive symbol on the back of some of the shirts?
I've never seen that one before as a Who logo.  Why would they
suddenly try and foist a new logo on us?

Touring: I'd bet on further dates happening.  I don't know the money
side of things, but it certainly seems to be filling seats, and I
would imagine there are start-up and fixed costs that could be better
met if they were spread over more dates.  $27 for a freaking shirt
can't hurt the coffers either.  The stickler for touring is always
Pete.  From his point of view, he's having a good time (or at least
looks like it), he seems to be developing a better relationship with
the band, he's getting criticial success, he's seeing one of his
masterworks get the respect it deserves... why wouldn't he?  Money,
respect, fun, what else is there?

Managed to make out of the city safely, dragged myself into bed, and
drove my friend crazy when I refused to let him play any music around
me for the next 24 hours.  I got 6 hours sleep, played volleyball for
10 hours, wolfed some dinner, drove home in 4 hours, got 6 hours
sleep, and here I am at work typing this silly review to avoid looking
at the piles of work on my desk.

- -- 
- - Brad Goldman
 (Brad@jimmy.harvard.edu)