The Who rocked Edmonton

I went to Friday night’s The Who concert at Rexall Place. All I can say is, it was awesome. I almost missed the boat when the tickets went on sale, and didn’t have time to find someone else willing to pop for a $100 CDN ticket, so I went by myself. My buddy Reagan went with a friend of his, and I saw him there, but we were far apart, with me in the 11th row at Pete Townshend’s side of the stage, and him in the 12th row on the floor. We IMed each other a few times during the show on our smartphones, but never managed to hook up through the crowds.

Photo from the Winnipeg Sun
Anyways, the show was amazing and it was almost surreal to see Pete Townshend and Roger Daltrey in person. They have so much stage presence that they seem larger than life. I’m really mostly speechless about how it felt to hear things like “My Generation”, “Behind Blue Eyes”, “I Can’t Explain” and “Eminence Front” performed live by The Who. It is definitely something I’ll never forget. I don’t expect to see those guys back in Edmonton, so I’m very happy I went.

Pete had his share of problems during the concert, mostly with guitars. He used a plethora of guitars to make his signature sounds during the performance, changing to a new instrument almost every song. For some reason, several times his guitar would not work properly, causing him some consternation and holding up the performance. This was mentioned in the various news articles I saw in the Edmonton papers the next day. The thing they didn’t mention was that Pete also seemed to get a big shock from his microphone a couple of times, causing him to jump back suddenly. After the second shock, which occured after their intermission break, he even sat down on a stool that he had used on stage during “A Man in a Purple Dress” and looked a little dazed. The show went on and Pete was a consummate performer regardless, and I can only reiterate: Awesome!