π

The Who (and Slydigs)

Show Sidebar

On Wednesday, I had the fortune of attending probably the last concert of The Who in Austria.

The only remaining original band members are Roger Daltrey (lead singer and charismatic front-man) and Pete Townshend (composer and lead guitarist). Of course, the drummer (Keith Moon) died first (in the 70s) and John Entwistle (base) followed 2002 on the day before a tour started. He was replaced by Simon Townshend (Pete's brother). Their current drummer is Zak Starkey whose father is Ringo Starr.

Their current tour is called Back to the Who Tour 51! and is an extension to their previous The Who Hits 50! tour.

History

The Who was a very influential band. They set standards for composition, stage shows (equipment smashing), studio technology, guitar playing, and so forth. Many other bands like The Beatles were heavily influenced by The Who.

They were one of the signal bands of the Mod movement although I find it hard to picture young people in suits and slipovers listening to wild music by The Who.

A very nice touch was a long slideshow on the main screen before the concert started. It also included many references to the concert location (Vienna) and provided photographs and interesting back-ground information on the band members, important back-stage members, the cultural influence of the band, and so forth. I enjoyed the slideshow very much! Please do copy this idea - waiting for the main act was not boring at all.

50 Years!

Well, there is a lot of history associated with The Who. The two original band members are 71 and 72. It's very remarkable that the two are still able to perform a hard rock concert. Multiple times it was obvious that they reach their limits. Most of all Roger Daltrey had some minor issues with his voice. But the fans did not care. Most of them had been fans for many decades and therefore, the concert was more or less an event which lived from the memory of the 70s.

The concert was really impressive with band members being 70+. Roger Daltrey was very active and showed his microphone tricks (he will never use cordless ones!), Pete Townshend did his famous windmill motions and proved his ability to play guitar top of the art.

However, compared to their performances back then and current young bands, the concert was average at its best. But don't tell this their hard core fans :-)

. @slydigsband had really perfect sound but #TheWho were way too loud 😕
Needed earplugs which resulted in even worse sound. Bummer 😒

— Karl Voit (@n0v0id) September 14, 2016

One (old) fan of theirs was particularly great: he stripped down his T-shirt and danced on the aisle very hard. He knew all the songs, he imitated even Pete's movements - great show. It was fun to watch the multiple helpless attempts of a security person to get him to sit down again. The man even motivated some younger women to join him in his ecstasy.

Becoming a Fan

I did not consider myself a fan of The Who. I did know some of their famous songs though. My school teacher for music showed us Tommy and Quadrophenia but I frankly did not care much back then.

Meanwhile I do love Led Zeppelin and other rock groups of the 70s. Therefore, I now appreciate the great music of The Who as well.

Before the concert, I briefly listened to various albums. Now, after the show, I am currently pretty fond of Pinball Wizard and Baba O'Riley. The latter one is also a great example of using early synthesizers:

From now on, my playlist will be influenced by The Who for sure.

Slydigs

We came to the Vienna Stadthalle during the performance of the supporting band called Slydigs. They are a really cool newcomer band I never heard of before. Especially their last song "The Love That Keeps On Giving" really rocked the place!

I instantly bought their album:

We should have arrived earlier to attend their whole gig. Promising band!

#TheWho were awesome history. But I kinda liked their support-band @slydigsband better! 😎#Vienna

— Karl Voit (@n0v0id) September 14, 2016

Comment via email (persistent) or via Disqus (ephemeral) comments below: