Concert Review: The Who with Robert Plant @ MSG 8/4/2002
The first miracle of this show was the fact that I was able to get tickets in the first place. I totally missed the boat on getting seats when they went on sale, and then lost interest when I heard the news about John Entwistle. But as always my curiosity was piqued after reading the review of last Wednesday's show at The Garden. I'd always heard that Ticketmaster released tickets to sold out shows a few days before the event, so I logged onto their site on Saturday morning and lo and behold scored a pair of tickets on the lower level of the arena. Score one for the optimist.
The allure of psychedelic rock may have faded, but it's never to late for short vacation trip back to the 70s. As a fan of Led Zeppelin I was greatly looking forward to hearing some of those classic tunes performed by the original lead singer. Plant and his band took the stage at about 7:45 to a 3/4 full house and immediately broke into a couple of tracks from his new album Dreamland. The songs radiated bluesy influences mixed with exotic, middle eastern style guitar riffs. Although the songs were unfamiliar they definitely rocked hard. Plant's voice was dead on and showed no signs of weakness as he wailed over his five piece band's rocking thunder. His band included a keyboardist, standup bass and cellist in addition to the standard backing musicians. A pair of guitarists drove the music's hard edged sound.
The first real treat of the set came around the fourth song when Plant sat on a stool with his guitarist brandishing a mandolin and the crowd roared for the intro of "Going to California". Plant talked to the audience a bit but his short opening set precluded him from doing more than plugging his new album. The rest of the set was strong with Plant throwing in three more Led Zep songs including, "Babe I'm Gonna Leave You" and an encore of "Whole Lotta Love". In addition, Plant rocked out on his early 80s comeback hit "Tall Cool One" from the album Manic Nirvana. Overall, the crowd was very pleased and although unfamiliar with the new music, they received the tunes very well. In the end it was the old stuff that made Robert Plant's set shine.
Prior to The Who's opening, two large video screens displayed a video of the band's rehearsals for the tour at Pete's studio in England. This video included footage of late bandmember John Entwistle and the crowd responded with cheers. The Who ambled onto the stage in full view of the packed house at MSG at 9:15PM. Like the grizzled rock veterans that they are, they seemed cool and collected as they donned their instruments for a two-hour sonic assault on the sellout crowd. These days The Who is made up of Townshend, Daltrey and a variety of backup players including drummer Zak Starkey, bassist Pino Palladino (a veteran of Townshend's solo group), Simon Townshend (Pete's brother) on backup vocals and guitar and Rabbit Bundrick on keyboards. The group launched right into "Can't Explain" followed by "Substitute". The group started strong and the crowd was energized by these old tunes that feel so new.
Townshend did most of the talking during the two-hour show, making references as wide ranging as the loss of John Entwistle to American's obsession with white teeth to the events of 9/11/2001. Daltrey and Townshend repeatedly thanked the crowd for their attendance and enthusiasm as well. Verbage aside, the concert rocked with great vocals from Daltrey even though he's lost a bit of range on the high end. Townshend's guitar crunched and squealed thru the heaviest tunes and then delivered clean melodies on the slower, more melodic parts of their tunes. Both performers were top notch, especially considering the fact that they're both in their fifties. Hell, they'd blow away most rockers half their age today.
As for the songs, it was pure joy for the crowd. The band ripped through a tight set of hits including "Who Are You", "You Better You Bet", "Eminence Front", "My Generation", "5:15", "Behind Blue Eyes", Baba O'Reilly" and "Won't Get Fooled Again". The band played an encore of songs from the album Tommy highlighted by "Pinball Wizard" and "See Me, Feel Me". When the concert was over my throat was sore from singing and my legs were tired from dancing, just as it should be at a great rock n' roll show.
