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The Who, Moving On
May. 7th, 2019 07:30 pmThis was the opening night of their tour, in Grand Rapids, Michigan. That's about a four hour drive from home, but Cyn's cousin lives near there, so we were able to stay with her for the night, and I went to the show with her husband and son. The arena is small, so even the "nosebleed" seats are good. I sat on the side in the fifth row up, about a dozen rows back from the stage.
Roger had been touring a Tommy show, with full orchestration. He said that was something The Who had never done, so he proposed doing it for a Who tour. My first thought was that they'd add strings to songs that didn't need them. That might have happened, but they played a lot of songs that had orchestration on the original albums. They started off with "Overture" and another seven songs from Tommy, and ended with six songs from Quadrophenia.
They had a full fifty-piece orchestra - strings, brass, woodwinds, percussion - everything. They brought a violinist and cellist, as well as the conductor. Everyone else was hired in town. I hear they had an hour-and-a-half rehearsal.
The Tommy section started off well. Then they went into some other songs. "Who Are You" didn't sound the best. I think they had some mixing issues with that one. They played "Imagine A Man" for the first time ever. It's a mellow acoustic piece, and I liked it a lot. Eminence Front is not one I would have expected to hear with an orchestra, but it sounded great. Very jammy. And then "Join Together". I'm not sure about that one.
Then they sent the orchestra offstage for a bit. They did "The Kids Are Alright", followed by an acoustic version of "Won't Get Fooled Again". I wouldn't say it was my preference, but it sounded good. "Behind Blue Eyes" was OK, and then another mellow acoustic song, "Tea and Theatre", sounded really good. They did a song where the violinist and cellist took the stage. They were seated in the middle, behind Roger's place. I think it was "Behind Blue Eyes".
Then they brought the orchestra back for the Quadrophenia suite, which was great. The last one of that section was "Love, Reign O'er Me", which was amazing. They brought the house down. They ended the show with Baba O'Riley. They didn't do an encore, but if they had left the stage for a minute in between "Love Reign" and "Baba O'Riley", everyone would have been much happier, thinking they had. "Love Reign" seemed like the show closer and "Baba O'Riley" the encore. Both were powerful songs with great endings. For "Baba", the lead violinist stood at center stage for her solo. She was really rocking, and enjoying herself. The audience went wild.
The band was Roger and Pete, of course. Roger's platinum voice is showing some rust. It's getting a bit thin. He had trouble hitting the high notes, and also just belting it out. Pete, on the other hand sounded great. He doesn't seem to have lost anything, including that growl he slips in sometimes. Roger also played harmonica a bit, but his mic was usually off. First night glitch, I guess. And he did his patented microphone swinging. Zak Starkey on drums was amazing - amazingly like Keith! I was disappointed to see Pino gone. He was replaced by John Button, who stood in the back, half hidden behind the drum riser. Loren Gold on keyboards. I didn't notice him all that often, to be honest. Not sure if that was the mixing, or that the orchestra distracted from his parts. Simon Townshend was on guitar, as usual. Pete traded many of his guitar parts to his brother, and even some vocals, since their voices are so similar. He's an indispensable part of the band now. They also had a backing vocalist, Billy Nichols, who stood way in the back. The conductor's stand was on stage left, so I'm glad I sat to stage left, because the stand would have blocked a lot of the stage from my view.
The show was a bit over two hours, so about the same length as usual?
The opening act was Dirty Honey, an LA hard rock band. I'm sure they draw a lot of comparisons to Guns N' Roses. They were decent.
( setlist )
Roger had been touring a Tommy show, with full orchestration. He said that was something The Who had never done, so he proposed doing it for a Who tour. My first thought was that they'd add strings to songs that didn't need them. That might have happened, but they played a lot of songs that had orchestration on the original albums. They started off with "Overture" and another seven songs from Tommy, and ended with six songs from Quadrophenia.
They had a full fifty-piece orchestra - strings, brass, woodwinds, percussion - everything. They brought a violinist and cellist, as well as the conductor. Everyone else was hired in town. I hear they had an hour-and-a-half rehearsal.
The Tommy section started off well. Then they went into some other songs. "Who Are You" didn't sound the best. I think they had some mixing issues with that one. They played "Imagine A Man" for the first time ever. It's a mellow acoustic piece, and I liked it a lot. Eminence Front is not one I would have expected to hear with an orchestra, but it sounded great. Very jammy. And then "Join Together". I'm not sure about that one.
Then they sent the orchestra offstage for a bit. They did "The Kids Are Alright", followed by an acoustic version of "Won't Get Fooled Again". I wouldn't say it was my preference, but it sounded good. "Behind Blue Eyes" was OK, and then another mellow acoustic song, "Tea and Theatre", sounded really good. They did a song where the violinist and cellist took the stage. They were seated in the middle, behind Roger's place. I think it was "Behind Blue Eyes".
Then they brought the orchestra back for the Quadrophenia suite, which was great. The last one of that section was "Love, Reign O'er Me", which was amazing. They brought the house down. They ended the show with Baba O'Riley. They didn't do an encore, but if they had left the stage for a minute in between "Love Reign" and "Baba O'Riley", everyone would have been much happier, thinking they had. "Love Reign" seemed like the show closer and "Baba O'Riley" the encore. Both were powerful songs with great endings. For "Baba", the lead violinist stood at center stage for her solo. She was really rocking, and enjoying herself. The audience went wild.
The band was Roger and Pete, of course. Roger's platinum voice is showing some rust. It's getting a bit thin. He had trouble hitting the high notes, and also just belting it out. Pete, on the other hand sounded great. He doesn't seem to have lost anything, including that growl he slips in sometimes. Roger also played harmonica a bit, but his mic was usually off. First night glitch, I guess. And he did his patented microphone swinging. Zak Starkey on drums was amazing - amazingly like Keith! I was disappointed to see Pino gone. He was replaced by John Button, who stood in the back, half hidden behind the drum riser. Loren Gold on keyboards. I didn't notice him all that often, to be honest. Not sure if that was the mixing, or that the orchestra distracted from his parts. Simon Townshend was on guitar, as usual. Pete traded many of his guitar parts to his brother, and even some vocals, since their voices are so similar. He's an indispensable part of the band now. They also had a backing vocalist, Billy Nichols, who stood way in the back. The conductor's stand was on stage left, so I'm glad I sat to stage left, because the stand would have blocked a lot of the stage from my view.
The show was a bit over two hours, so about the same length as usual?
The opening act was Dirty Honey, an LA hard rock band. I'm sure they draw a lot of comparisons to Guns N' Roses. They were decent.
( setlist )
