Review: The Who @ MSG

I'm a little tardy in writing this review (darn life gets in the way) but yours truly and the misses had the pleasure of going to see the great, legendary British band The Who at Madison Square Garden on May 26th.

In short -- it was a great show. Roger Daltrey and Peter Townsend are still incredible, even into their seventies. 

In my 'umble opinion, The Who is one of the greatest rock bands in history -- in HISTORY! I tells ya' -- in the Top 5 with The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, and Led Zeppelin -- and I don't know who's #4. The Who have so many hits, so many classic and brilliant songs, that it would probably take a full 48 hours to perform all of them.

But they performed a lot of them: "Pinball Wizard" from Tommy (which I saw on Broadway in 1995 so it was great to see the band do it live), "Eminence Front" (perhaps my favorite song of theirs), "Won't Get Fooled Again", and many others, including songs from Quadrophenia. They closed out the show with a rousing version of "Baby O'Reilly" that rocked the house, with a young violinist ending the show that felt, in some ways, like a passing of the torch from Daltrey and Townsend to the next generation.  

Obviously, in this show, they didn't perform all of their hits (no "Magic Bus" or "My Generation" or "Squeezebox") but we left MSG happy to have seen this amazing band. 

Besides the music, this was the most touching and emotional show I've ever seen.

Most rock stars tell the audience "Hey, great to see you, thanks for coming out," but Pete Townsend went much farther. He told us that he's 77 years old and, after COVID and health problems, he couldn't believe that after more than 50 years with this band that people still want to see him and Daltrey rock out -- especially when there's lord knows how many young artists and bands these days. He was truly grateful, and you could tell how much he and the band really truly loved just playing and singing their music, amazed that after so many decades, so many shows in so many cities, they still get to do this and that we, the public, still want them to do it. 

Great music, great enthusiasm, great artistry -- that never gets old, that is truly timeless.