In late September 1982 I saw The Who in concert on their Its Hard tour. My parents let me skip school so I could go and purchase tickets at the Civic Arena box office. There were 17,200 tickets available and it would sell out quickly. In the days prior to Stubhub and Seatgeek, you had to stand in line and purchase a ticket. Ticketmaster was around and you could purchase tickets at various outlets including Giant Eagle supermarkets, but there was always a debate if these other outlets would have tickets when it came time to buy them. The only way to guarantee a ticket was to go to the box office and wait. I still have a vision of finally getting inside the building and looking at literally 200 people ahead of me trying to buy a ticket. By the time I got to purchase mine all that were left were limited view tickets from behind the stage. I was disappointed, but the reality was I was going to see my favorite band on what was billed as their farewell tour. The ticket cost me $15.
In the nearly 37 years since their farewell tour I have seen The Who three other times. I saw them at Three Rivers Stadium in 1989, at Star Lake Amphitheater in 2000 and then on May 30, 2019 at PPG Paints Arena.
I jumped on the Magic Bus of being a lifelong Who fan starting in 1979. My older brother attended their Pittsburgh concert on December 2 of that year (just a day prior the Cincinnati show) and then suddenly there were news stories everywhere about the tragedy in Ohio where 11 fans had been crushed to death. My brother related his story of how he could feel the crowds on the floor moving in unison and the intense performance of the band and I just had to check out what everyone was listening to. He only had Quadrophenia on album, but on his Pioneer stereo it sounded glorious and I devoured it. I played it over and over, memorizing every note, sound and nuance. I spent hour after hour sitting on his bed, thumbing through the booklet that came with the album as well as the book The Who In Their Own Words. I became obsessed. To this day Quadrophenia remains in my all-time top 5 albums and I see no reason why it will ever be jettisoned.
I can see how a non-fan would look at this so called “Heritage Act” (Pete Townshend even referred to themselves as such on stage during their May 30th performance) and say they have simply been milking their fans for the past 35 plus years with these “Farewell” tours. The reality is the 1982 tour, which was their first Farewell Tour, was in my opinion the end of the band as it was originally constructed. I recognize that someone even older than me who was fortunate enough to see the original lineup with Keith Moon could say the band officially ended with Moon’s death in 1978 at the age of 32. But for the Its Hard tour in 1982 the band was still playing new music and while the crowd certainly got extra jazzed up for the old standby’s, there was still interest in the new music. Six of their 24 songs from that amazing concert in 1982 were from the two albums that were recorded after Moon died. Probably the most notable song from this period is “Eminence Front” and it is still quite the fan favorite.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2VRSH1f3Irs
By the time The Who played Three Rivers Stadium in 1989 Pete Townshend had acknowledged he was nearly deaf. Twenty-five years of abusing your eardrums had taken an obvious toll and Townshend was forced to play while wearing headphones. With nearly a dozen musicians performing and with this odd sort of wall constructed on the stage with Townshend only emerging some of the time it was certainly atypical of a classic Who concert their fans had come to expect over the years.
It would be 11 years before I saw them again. In that time, I got married, became a homeowner and a father. I grew up. The music of the Who was with me off and on during my teenage years, through college and well into adulthood. It was a perfect night at Star Lake in 2000 complete with an amazing rainbow and when Pete Townshend bounded out on stage, I felt a jolt of energy. Had he somehow gotten younger in the interim? Along with Daltrey and John Entwistle the only other musicians were Zak Starkey on drums and John Bundrick on keyboards. Now this was a proper band! They blasted through their set and I loved every moment of the show. They closed with “My Generation.” I remember feeling truly satisfied after the performance.
So when I heard they were coming through Pittsburgh one more time I figured this certainly would be their farewell tour. While it was a concert I felt compelled to experience, I didn’t make purchasing the tickets a priority. Days passed and it seemed like it was just a 50:50 chance I’d make it to the show. Then, the night before I traded some texts with a buddy who had never seen them and suddenly it was a “Go.” Only instead of waiting in line for tickets I opened the StubHub app and clicked a few buttons. With fees, the cost was $14.50 per ticket, or slightly less than I paid to see them when I was in 10th grade.
5/30/2019 PPG Paints Arena Setlist
- Overture
- It’s a Boy
- 1921
- Amazing Journey
- Sparks
- Pinball Wizard
- We’re Not Gonna Take It
- Who Are You
- Eminence Front
- Imagine a Man
- You Better You Bet
- Substitute
- I Can See For Miles
- Behind Blue Eyes
- Wont Get Fooled Again (Acoustic)
- Tea & Theatre
- The Real Me
- I’m One
- The Punk and the Godfather
- 5:15
- Drowned
- The Rock
- Love Reign O’er Me
- Baba O’Reily
As with most concerts there were highs and lows. All comments should be measured next to the fact these guys are in their 70s.It’s probably safe to simply say they performed as I expected. The orchestra certainly brought the opening measures of “Tommy” to life. By the time they finished “We’re Not Gonna Take It” I was ready to put Roger Daltrey in a classification all of this own. He handled the song brilliantly. The slightly sad part was in watching him try to move around the stage as he has for the past 50 years. He has that move where he holds the microphone straight out from him and then he holds it above his head and then to the left and right all the while rocking back and forth with the beat of the song. Well he tried to do that a few different times and he simply couldn’t. This is pretty apparent in the below video. From the rafters where I was sitting you couldn’t tell how old they really looked.
But for me, the exceptionalism of the Who is all about Pete Townshend. Here is a man who has written many of the most powerful rock songs in history. To describe the man as complicated is an understatement indeed. I’ll never forget his 2003 arrest on the child pornography charges. I had idolized this man. I listened to his demos and devoured the liner notes. I could relate to his awkwardness and his self awareness. I thought many of the same things he described. I thought he was THE brilliant musician of my lifetime. Then I started thinking about some of the words to some of his songs and I wondered about giving a stranger that kind of access to my inner self and I questioned my own judgement. I’m not really sure how to describe how I feel about Pete Townshend the man. Pete Townshend the performer, the writer, the singer, the guitarist, the member of the Who… that is the man I still respect. I’ll leave it at that.
Probably my favorite part of the show was when the full orchestra performed “The Rock.” The video screens started with clips from the 1960s and rolled all of the up to the present day. Current events that became history. I dig that stuff and it is why I pay attention. As the orchestra performed, the images brought back a flood of memories – some happy and some sad. There was a healthy dose of pop culture and politics and everything in between. One thing I found that was missing was a short clip of Trump. Love him or hate him there is no denying we are living during an interesting time and I found the omission to be striking, especially since every other US president made the montage.
You aren’t ever going to improve on a mid 70s version of Won’t Get Fooled Again. So what do Pete and Roger do this time around? They go acoustic. And it was totally enjoyable.
So was it a great show? By certain standards it was simply sad and depressing. But by other standards it was an amazing tour de force. With most things in this world…it depends on your point of view.