Beacon Journal photos by Marcv Nighswander
More than 20,000 screaming rock fans turned out for the Who concert Thursday night at the Coliseum
20,000 ‘orderly’ fans see The Who
The Who’s Roger Daltrey
By Mark Farts
Beacon Journal staff writer
The kids are all right. The Who is all
right, too.
They both made it through Thursday
evening’s session at the Rirhfielti Coliseum
in spectacular style and, in the process,
gently laid to rest abundant apprehension
that had been attached to the encounter.
The apprehension stemmed from the
tragedy Monday night at Cincinnati's Riv-
erfront Coliseum where 11 people were
trampled to death during a frantic rush for
general admission seats to a Who concert.
But. no such ChaOS was even vaguely
evident at Thursday‘s reserved-seats-only
show in Richfield.
DESPITE THE capacity crowd of near-
ly 20,000 extremely avid Who fans, courte-
sy and organization prevailed.
So did rock 'n‘ roll.
In its five-year history, the Coliseum
has seldom, if ever, seen a more dynamic 2
hours and 15 minutes of high-powered
rock.
The legendary 15-year-old British band,
which last appeared at the Coliseum on
Dec. 9, 1975, was a study in superlatives
throughout its 20-tune set.
Following the only questionable portion
of the show — a nine-minute promotional
film clip featuring mob violence scenes
from the band’s new movie Quadrophenia
— the quartet and three backup musicians
Review
assembled on stage at precisely 8:33 pm.
But from that point, they were every-
thing you could expect from The Who —
maybe more.
ROGER DALTREY, the compact little
gentleman who does the singing, pranced
and strutted like a show pony.
His microphone twirling was in fine fet-
tle. too.
Guitarist-composer Pete Townshend,
the brains of the outfit, hit the strings with
swooping roundhouse rights that actually
drew blood from his fingers.
He also hopped and jerked as if he was
being manipulated by a puppeteer with a
twitch.
Bassist John Entwistle and drummer
Kenny Jones —— the man who replaced the
late Keith Moon - aren't as eyecatching,
but their performances were flawless.
And the agenda of tunes, well, it was a
what‘s what of furious. uninterrupted Who
music.
In order, it included Substitute, Can't
Explain, Ba ba O'Reilly, Punk, Boris The
Spider, Sister Disco, Blue Eyes, Drowned,
Who Are You, 5:15, Pinball Wizard, See
Me, Feel Me, Long Live Rock, My Genera-
tion, I Can See For Miles, Sparks, Won’t
Get Fooled Again and Summertime Blues.