Review: The Who Hits 50, Townshend hits 71

Craig Wright

May 17, 2016

Pete Townshend does the windmill. (Creative Commons).

The Who were scheduled to perform in Portland as a part of the Who Hits 50 tour, but Roger Daltrey was hospitalized due to a case of viral meningitis which forced the band to postpone the tour. They promised to come back stronger than ever, which seems unbelievable for anyone who has ever listened to Live At Leeds.
Daltrey and Townshend were the last of the eight-person band to enter the Moda Center’s stage, and it was clear from the first note that this show was worth the nine-month wait. Townshend struck a power chord with a windmill attack on his candy apple-red Fender Stratocaster as the the arena was bathed in red light and hit with a wall of sound. The bold opening song of “Who Are You” made it clear that tonight’s Who set was going to be one for the ages.
The Who Hits 50 tour reached Portland’s Moda Center on Tuesday, May 17. And despite the tour’s humbling name, Townshend, Roger Daltrey, drummer Zak Starkey (son of Richard Starkey) and Pino Palladino are perpetually youthful, as vital as ever. Townshend’s brother Simon plays second guitar.
The band’s set was introduced by a scrolling history of the band’s relationship to the Rose City – they first visited Portland in July 1967 at the Portland Coliseum (now the Veterans Memorial Coliseum), where they opened up for Herman’s Hermits.
Each track scored a visual feast to match. “The Seeker” showed a young Daltrey sprinting (it’s a clip from the band’s 1975 rock opera film Tommy) and doing cartwheels.
Daltrey, now 72, bounced back from his September hospitalization and showed that his pipes can still reach the high notes, the low notes and the iconic screams. During “Bargain,” he’d aim the microphone toward the audience to hit “the best I ever haaaaad!”
Townshend recalled when the band played at Monterey Pop festival and learned that “good buddy” Jimi Hendrix was also on the bill. Townshend thought, “Ah, fuck,” before joking that the band left the stage with little on it. He then began a suite from 1973’s rock opera Quadrophenia with “I’m One.”
“The Rock,” an instrumental masterpiece, was made even more powerful as sobering news footage from burning oil fields in Kuwait and Daily Mirror covers announced the deaths of legendary musicians Elvis Presley, John Lennon and original Who drummer Keith Moon. It also featured footage of Clash frontman Joe Strummer, Queen Elizabeth and Vietnam protests. It clarifies what may have been going through Townshend’s head when he was attempting to write his failed project Lifehouse. “The Rock” video proceeded to modern news events with shaky camcorder footage from the Sept. 11 attacks, Tony Blair and Bill Clinton chumming it up, and Occupy Wall Street protests. It was a sobering event that led to “Love Reign O’er Me.” The crowd responded with a long standing ovation.
Later the 70-year-old Townshend remarked, “I don’t like to remind myself how old I am,” before noting that he’d be 71 on Thursday this week.
Cameras regularly panned to the front rows, where someone in the audience held up a rudimentary cardboard sign that said “100th show” and an arrow pointing to the left. The sign popped up so frequently that Townshend eventually was obliged to remark, “You’ve probably held that sign up 100 times.”
The set closed with the sublime “Baba O’Riley” and Townshend’s domineering guitar playing on “Won’t Get Fooled Again.” The Who don’t need an encore when the set ends with Starkey’s drum solo and Daltrey’s blood-curdling animal howl to cap off a perfect hits-filled set.
“For those of you who are seeing us for the first time,” Townshend boomed, “TELL YOUR FRIENDS THEY ALREADY MISSED US!”
Setlist: