Frank and Dawn and I attended The Who show at the Hollywood Bowl.
My reactions? Read on:
1. A guy behind me had a great comment:"Man, last time I saw the Who, everybody in the audience was a lot younger..." yeah, and they didn't bring their kids with 'em either.
2. Pete's guitar playing was darn good. It's cool that he finally learned how to play onstage and actually takes off on sonic-jazz-chord-adventures-that don't-lead-anywhere. The Who sounded great at this show, super-musical.
3. Pino Palladino needs to TURN HIS BASS UP! An eerie silence permeated the bowl as the solo to "My Generation" approached...the ghost of John Entwistle floated effortlessly by, Pino tried, and the Who carried on....
4. Roger experimented with his lyrics/vocal arrangements. Not as exciting as Pete's experiments, but Roger was never really that exciting anyway...
5. Zak Starkey played very "Who-like" drums...he needs a few more drums and cymbals though...that way he can try playing "forward" more...maybe a big giant gong would be cool...
6. I particularly enjoyed Pete's acoustic rendition of "Drowned"...similar to the "Secret Policeman's Ball" version. Man, that Pete can tear it up on acoustic Takamamine...
7. The Who pulled off an extended "Won't Get Fooled Again" jam...very reminiscent of John Lee Hooker's "Boogie Chillun"...memorable stuff...
8. The two new Who tunes worked out okay live, even though they sucked terribly on the new Who greatest hits package.
9. The Who still seems to express sincerity...it seems like they still think they are a viable "rock" band. (Even though, in all truthfulness, rock is now totally DEAD)
10. Context... from the Who's old-fart standpoint, I think that they provide a needed service to aging baby boomers and their kids...namely, they allow them a space to smoke weed and reminisce about their past. Baby boomer kids can go to a Who concert and pretend that they are actually seeing a real rock show. Old mods and gen-x punks can go to a Who show and get totally pissed off at the absolute commercialisation/consumerization of the Who. Hey, they are simply the loudest commercial in the history of commercials ever, right?
11. No moshing allowed at a Who concert...just weird Jerry-Garcia-follower-interpretive-weed-dancing...that's okay though, because now that rock is DEAD, moshing and slamming should finally be dead too.
12. The Who can still jam, but only for 15 second intervals.
13. The Who is not the loudest band in the world anymore...Dick Dale now holds that prestigious spot. Rock on DD!
14. Nothing got smashed or even broken, although at one point it looked as if Pete might have hurt his hand banging his fist into the face of his Stratocaster. That sounded the best...banging Stratocaster feedback noise...a Townshend trademark.
15. Pete's red Stratocaster #2 sounded better than his white Stratocaster...and way better than red Stratocaster #1.
Piercing clearly stated tone... Now, if we can only convince him to leave that damn tremolo bar alone...man, it's like he thinks he's Eddie Van Halen, or something.
16. I wonder if I will ever hear anyone really rock again?
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