The Who/Robert Plant

Tweeter Center - Mansfield, MA 

This past June 27th will be remembered as one of saddest days in  The Who's (and Rock's) history, as the news of the bassist John Entwistle dying on the eve of the bands tour opener in Las Vegas was a shocker! In the fallout, all bets seemed to indicate that the band was over and that there planned US tour would be scrapped. Well, Las Vegas odds be damned, The Who resumed their tour a short four days after Entwistle's passing (with studio ace Pino Palladino subbing) and opened the tour with a blistering show at the Hollywood Bowl in early July and vowed to continue the planned full tour. 

The show came to the Tweeter Center in MA on Friday 07/26, after a two week break, and New England got its first glance at the "duo" version of the Who. Since the group has not made a lick of new studio material in 20 years (save for a couple of tracks on Pete Townsend's 1989 concept disc, Iron Man, and a cover of "Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting" for an Elton John tribute CD in 1991), they are really touring behind the new greatest hits double CD, The Ultimate Collection (which is, save for their '94 box set, by far the satisfying and comprehensive compilation ever assembled on the bands career) and the forthcoming double CD reissue of their 1964 debut, My Generation.

Though, one has to admire Palladino's courage for taking the slot, which puts him in one of the most uncomfortable positions in Who history since poor Kenny Jones took on the virtually impossible (and thankless) task of competently filling in for Keith Moon in the late 70's and early 80's. This does not mean that Palladino is not a fabulous bassist. Hardly! He did some vast plucking on "Another Tricky Day" (a well chosen resurrected gem from 1981's Face Dances) and did a more than admiral job feeding the opening minutes of Baba O Riley into the frantic thrash of Townsend's power chords. Although it seemed a heady task to have Palladino recreate the solo on "My Generation" - which really should be dropped from the bands set, not just for the bass solo, but the line "Hope I Die Before I Get Old," just seems inappropriate at the moment (Daltry even rolled his eyes when shouting out the once defiant - now kind of eerie - line).

While the concert didn't reach the nirvana of the near perfect show the group put on at the same arena two years ago (a pre-July 4th 2000 show that no other band could come close to matching that summer), it was an indication The Who, as a live act and with only half the original members, still have it over anyone else (doubters need to check out the last years Concert for New York and see how the band effortlessly uspstaged Mick and Keith, who foolishly tried to follow their set).