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Daltrey’s R-r-r-regeneration

October 13, 2009 @ 7:41 pm

daltrey2

Roger Daltrey
Showbox SODO, Seattle
October 12, 2009

We need to immediately dispatch this old man crap; Roger Daltrey’s age, how good he looks in its spite, and of course that whole “hope I die before I get old” nonsense. Although if he had chosen to sing “My Generation” tonight it could have been delivered with a healthy dose of irony.
Daltrey’s tour is supposed to provide a training lap for the next phase of the Who, where he promised to play songs from throughout his career his own way. Or at least that’s what he said when I talked to him for Sonicboomers in September.
This could be a crapshoot, as Daltrey’s ”way” could have been dreadful. Instead, it was pretty subtle. He stripped out a lot of the effects of “Who Are You,” essentially boosting its power, and added a few extra bars to the ”Squeezebox” coda.
Otherwise, the renditions were pretty faithful and well executed. He faithfully resurrected ”Pictures of Lily” and “I Can See For Miles” and rescued “Going Mobile” from its slot as the weakest track on Who’s Next. Less compelling was “Blue, Red and Grey,” but perhaps it suffered from being moved out of its setlist order, landing immediately after a surprise appearance by a local hero, Pearl Jam singer Eddie Vedder.
Midway into the set Daltrey called for a “special friend” and Vedder strolled on without introduction, playing one of the band’s own sunburst guitars. At that point half the crowd pulled out their cameras and pointed them at the stage, yielding a Christmas tree effect. After duetting Pearl Jam’s Better Man” Vedder took off the guitar and started to walk off, but Daltrey said how much he enjoyed singing together and invited him to stay on. They did “The Real Me” trading off verses at first and then trading off individual lines. Vedder seemed to sing the final line–that howl–but Daltrey ended the song with a howl of his own.
Daltrey told stories in between, like when a young Leo Sayer wrote “Giving it All Away,” but most of the verbiage was lost in the noise. Even if you could only understand the context, he gets points for actually talking to the audience in a real way.
When the Who play Seattle next year it will more than likely occur in one of the large halls, and sell out quickly. So it’s odd how tickets were available for this week’s show, and any Who fan in the region could plunk down $40 and see one of the big boys play to a small crowd. Many experienced concertgoers complain about how the experience has degenerated, but this was fairly low-impact.
Going to concerts can be a tremendous inconvenience, but if you stay alert there is still a chance for a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

For the ever-expanding picture list go here.

Setlist: Who Are You, Pictures of Lily, Going Mobile, A Second Out, Tattoo, I Can See for Miles, Gimme a Stone, Freedom Ride, Giving it all Away, Squeezebox, Days of Light, *Better Man, *The Real Me, Blue Red and Grey, Walk on Water, Young Man Blues/Shakin’ All Over, Baba O’Riley, Johnny Cash medley, *Bargain.

* with Eddie Vedder

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Comments (8)

8 Comments »

>Going to concerts can be a tremendous inconvenience, but if you stay alert there is still a chance for a once-in-a-lifetime experience<

Inconveniently located and operated venue.

Once-in-a-lifetime show.

I was left thinking “I won’t be forgetting this one”.

They killed on the rockers, thanks particularly to the drummer who Devour-ed the songs.

If the Two do go out again they should take this guy with them instead of Zak, who although great in Tacoma during 1996 mostly just kept the beat in Seattle 2006.

Comment by Ron B — October 14, 2009 @ 2:37 am
I dunno, Zak looks pretty good to me. Both for how he plays, and Who he is.

Comment by Charlie Bermant — October 14, 2009 @ 5:23 pm
Starkey did nothing to generate excitement at the 2006 show until the Tommy rave-up at the very end; even the drum break during a generally tepid ‘Won’t Get Fooled Again’ appeared to have been executed with as little playing as possible.

Scott Devours on the other hand brought back a taste of the old glory with his strong playing, even maintaining the snare roll on ‘I Can See for Miles’.

Comment by Ron B — October 14, 2009 @ 6:08 pm
You’re probably right, from a drummer’s perspective. But I missed the drum roll you mentioned, and actually didn’t notice Devours at all–aside from the fact that he was part of a very powerful, polished band. Many listeners don’t pick things apart on that level, and enjoy the music as a single entity. Not saying who is right or wrong, it just is. Some of us only notice the individual parts when they malfunction. If Zak misses a specific riff we may not care.

Comment by Charlie Bermant — October 14, 2009 @ 10:14 pm
The thing with Who songs is most of them were recorded with Keith, with his rolls and fills a big part of their distinctiveness. You don’t have to be a drummer (I’m not) for them to sound unsatisfactory when played with key drum parts left out.

Any songs recorded and played at first with the rest of the instruments pausing for the drummer to fill in will sound underperformed and underpowered if later the band still makes the pauses but the drummer doesn’t fill them. As with various incarnations of post-Moon Who I noticed the same peculiarity at an Eric Clapton show, Cream tunes being played as though Ginger was still involved but with the current drummer leaving the holes unfilled.

Comment by Ron B — October 15, 2009 @ 2:16 am
You’re right, again. But you need to relax your expectations. As musicians get older–and even die–recreating the original in any faithful way isn’t gonna happen. If you must hear it a certain way, and will be disappointed to not hear a certain drum roll, perhaps you should stay home and listen to the latest remasters.
I’d rather approach it with a bit more openness, asking just one question: Does it sound good, or not? Do I get anything positive out of seeing this person live, or is it depressing? OK, that’s two questions.
When I first started going to concerts it was at a time when the best ones were new experiences and the songs were decidedly different than the recorded versions. For instance, I saw the Who in 1970 with the promise that they were going to play a slew of new songs. Instead they did “Tommy,” again.
Again, I’m not saying you’re wrong. I’d just rather be me, right now.

Comment by Charlie Bermant — October 15, 2009 @ 3:15 am
My expectations were exceeded, making the experience that much more enjoyable. After seeing 4 versions of the post-Moon Who 5 times (and a John Entwistle solo show) I was pleased to finally see someone drive all the more rocking songs home.

Simon Phillips actually produced a thundering wall of sound (a la Keith) at the end of ‘My Generation’ during 1989 in Tacoma. But the next show, in Vancouver he played it the way Kenny Jones used to. Scott Devours was right there every time this recent show with Roger.

Comment by Ron B — October 15, 2009 @ 4:17 am
Thanks for the discussion, Cheers.

Comment by Charlie Bermant — October 15, 2009 @ 5:56 am