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Boston Globe Review
- Subject: Boston Globe Review
- From: whosnext@juno.com (S A M)
- Date: Sun, 3 Aug 1997 20:44:59 -0400
Here is the Gloge Review of the show on 7/31/97, enjoy.
MUSIC REVIEW
'Quadrophenia' reigns over Who fans
By Jim Sullivan, Globe Staff, 08/01/97
MANSFIELD - One of The Who T-shirts sold at Great Woods
Center for the Performing Arts last night sported the
phrase:
``Quadrophenia - A Way of Life.''
Well, yes, isn't it? Or, hasn't it become that?
The Who's 1973 conceptual double-album ``Quadrophenia''
took
on a live-in-concert life for a ``one-off'' show in
London in the spring
of '96; it turned into a week of shows at Madison
Square Garden
last summer; it swelled into an arena tour last fall,
which stopped at
the Worcester Centrum, and is back for one last (?)
go-round this
summer on the shed circuit. The Great Woods show was a
near-sellout, at 17,759.
Part of the kick, initially, was the rarity and the
improbability of it all:
That songwriter-guitarist-avatar Pete Townshend would
decide to
a) tour at all, and b) resurrect an ambitious, stunning
but somewhat
forgotten work that spawned not one hit single. (As
opposed to the
hit-fest that was ``Tommy.'') So, how does it fare as a
moving cash
cow, a roadshow that is the focus of whatever we can
call The
Who? (A dozen other players joined them last night.)
Bloody well great. As proven again, ``Quadrophenia'' is
no dead
horse of an opus, and The Who is no exhumed corpse of a
band,
even if founding drummer Keith Moon remains dead. Lithe
and
leonine singer Roger Daltrey, 52, looks much the way he
did a
quarter-century ago; bassist John Entwistle is just as
immobile
(and creative) as he was a quarter-century ago. And
Ringo Starr's
son, Zak Starkey, proved himself again, as, at least,
the equal of
Moon's (and probably surer on the downbeat).
The Who played ``Quadrophenia'' as one piece, about two
hours of
it, before breaking for an encore and a semi-acoustic
embrace of
hits like ``Magic Bus,'' ``Won't Get Fooled Again,''
``Behind Blue
Eyes,'' (moving electric now) ``Can't Explain'' and
``Substitute.''
Especially moving: A ``lend me your coat''
co-vocal/shoulder lean
from the oft-sparring Daltrey/Townshend team; a public
declaration
of love for us, the audience, from Townshend; and an
impassioned,
clamorous further bonding close of ``Who Are You.''
For the main show, Jimmy, Townshend's archetype of the
mid-'60s
pill-crazed, pop-crazed mod, lived again. Breathed
fire. Spat
cockeyed wisdom and nonsense. The piece retained its
punky
punch and epic sweep, its quick-hits and larger
statement about
youthful alienation, escape, and possible maturity. The
Who has
tightened up some of the narrative and the video
segments since
earlier shows.
Jimmy battles all sorts of dragons, both real and
imagined:
quadrophenia (schizophrenia doubled), a Who fixation, a
growing
sense of the world's hypocrisy, a sense of the ups and
downs of
drugs and drink. He fights with his folks, flirts with
the girls, has a
brush with suicide, finds (temporary?) redemption down
by the sea.
The Who took us through the slashing ``The Punk Vs. the
Godfather,' with old UK pop star P.J. Proby taking over
Gary
Glitter's leather-clad braggart role. ( Another chap
filled in Billy
Idol's Bell Boy/Ace Face role.) Entwistle unleashed a
brutal bass
lead during ``5:15.'' Townshend played far more
electric guitar than
he did last time, augmented capably, again, by his
younger brother
Simon. In ``Sea and Sand,'' Daltrey danced with
unintentional irony
during the ``I'm wet and I'm cold/But thank God I ain't
old'' line. ``The
Rock'' and ``Love Reign O'er Me'' combined to be the
ultimate
cathartic, cleansing tower of rock power. After the
degradation and
disintegration comes ... something more pure.
Which was what The Who gave us with the encores.
Relatively
pared-down faves, cut to the emotional bone. This was
classic
Who: music about youth, made as youths, made as adults,
played
now for us as adults who haven't totally grown up.
Drivin' N Cryin' Kevin Kinney's roots 'n' hard rocking
trio, opened
with a short (25-minute), but bracing set of
hammer-down rock.
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