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A Review of 7/22, or Why Pete Townshend Is Mean



Hi folks,

Well, I wanted to write my mini-review last night but by the time I got
home I was way too exhausted.  Hope everyone had fun at Molly Wee's after
the show. I didn't get a chance to make it...

I don't know if a review has been posted since the last digest, but here
goes:

Quad was, for the most part, pretty good.  Not the best it's been, though.
Roger was losing a bit on the high range.  However...Pete looked happier
last night than he ever had before, in my opinion.  More leaping, a few
windmills, a guitar in Billy Idol's crotch, etc...

Meg and I got there at around 8:45 (damn, missed the opening act again)
after hanging out with the great group at the bar.  Andy, thanks for the
fries. Really, I AM happy that you got that 10th row ticket for the 21st!

In any case, the band started 5 or 6 minutes late...which worried me, as I
thought we were going to lose out on encores.  Real Me sounded good
although Roger's mike didn't seem to be so strong.  The show went pretty
much without a hitch until "I've Had Enough," which was a MESS.  First
off, Gary's mike seemed to fail, and then his natural lack of talent took
over the rest.  Tell me something: why does he insist on stamping his feet
during the first verse?  It ALWAYS throws him off!  In any case, first he
messed that up, then Roger messed up, then...ahh, not even worth
describing.  Just a mess.  The most interesting part was when the backup
singers sang the "I've had enough of dance halls" part without the rest of
the band!  Then they stopped and went on a few measures later.

Drowned seemed a bit shorter, Roger lost some high notes in Dr. Jimmy, but
Pete was thoroughly enjoying himself.

Gary Glitter now began to piss me off, and Billy Idol was no longer the
Ace Face.  He was Billy Idol in a suit.  Really, really pissed me off last
night.

ENCORES:  We got BBE and WGFA, obviously.  Then we got Magic Bus, I
believe, during which I got up and walked over to Andy to repeat my now
famous "I fucking hate Magic Bus" line.  Andy said, "Hey, cheer up...maybe
they'll play 'Substitute!' "  Well, at least I got a laugh out of it.

They played a bit of "Country Line Special" at the end of Magic Bus, or so
Pete said...I wasn't exactly listening.  They did a fine version of Naked
Eye, which I had yet to see at the shows.  By this time, it was about
11:10 PM, and it was obvious that they had gone overtime.  Pete introduced
the band, and then said, "We're gonna take requests."

Well, of course, my heart started beating real hard and for a brief,
shining moment, I thought I was gonna hear something different.  Pete made
a comment about playing another song without John (jokingly) and then went
to Geoff and Simon to discuss something...

You can imagine my disappointment when they only did "Substitute."  Ah
well.  All in all, I suppose I shouldn't be complaining.  I mean, they DID
play all of Quad.

All in all, these shows have been the best I have ever been to.  The mood
was real nice, and suddenly, it doesn't seem like The Who is out of the
picture anymore.  Pete and Roger seem to have made amends- I can't even
describe how close they looked each time I saw WGFA.

So, here's my quick (HA!) rundown of highlights on the 17th, 21st and
22nd:

Best Overall Experience:  The 17th.  First Who show, nice seats.  I almost
cried.

Best Quad Performance: The 21st.  5:15 was stellar.

Best Encore: None of 'em :-)  However, each night that I saw it, WGFA had
something special:

	1) the 17th- Roger did a neat falsetto line that made me laugh.
	2) the 21st- Pete ended it with 5 leaps across the stage.
	3) the 22nd- Pete goes "Do ya?" to Roger, and it just seemed
so...warm, I don't know.  Warm, that's it.  Warm and Fuzzy.

Best Magic Bus: Don't make me laugh.

Best McKendree: Alan.

And last but not least, on a personal note, I noticed that I was often the
youngest one around at the bar, at 19 years old.  The first night of the
show, while in the bathroom, some asshole said to me, "hey, did your dad
bring you here??"  

I want to thank all of you for treating me just like you would treat
anyone else.  I'm sick of patronizing and condescending people because I'm
younger, assuming i don't know anything about The Who.  Everyone was
fantastic, and warm, and funny.  Thanks for making me feel so...welcome, I
guess.  I can't even start to thank all of you.

Stay tuned to this channel.  Stacey and I are discussing seeing everyone
again real soon.

Over and out,

Jay

                    *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
              Jason Hare  <hare@acsu.buffalo.edu>
	     "Rust Repairer and Full Time Survivor"- Keith Moon
		http://www.acsu.buffalo.edu/~hare
      		   "Time is fleeting" RHPS
        Funny how the pages turn and hold us in between.... - Brian May