Roger Daltrey – Who’s Back?

Roger Daltrey of The Who

September 30 2011 – Tonight Roger Daltrey stormed into Toronto for an essentially sold out gig at The Sony Center. If you happen to have forgotten (or are on this site by accident), Daltrey is the lead singer of The Who. This is the second time in the last 12 months that we have had a classic rock icon named Roger visit Toronto. Last September we had Roger Waters of Pink Floyd visiting us for 3 nights at the Air Canada Center. (Click here for our coverage of The Wall). Unlike Roger Water’s uber-spectacle production of The Wall, Daltrey took the exact opposite approach and presented a low-key show that put the spotlight on the music. The only things on stage was 6 musicians, a bunch of  instruments and a projection screen. While Waters could hide behind the visual spectacle of The Wall, Daltrey was exposed and under the microscope at a much smaller venue. Tonight’s show featured material from 3 sources – the classic 1969 album The Who’s Tommy, The Who’s back catalog of hits and some of Daltrey’s solo material.

Roger Daltrey brings Tommy to Toronto

As the clock ticks on all the great classic rock bands we are often left with watching partial line-ups of the original bands since many of the original members have died or have been replaced. Since there are only 2 living members of The Who left and 1 of them (Pete Townshend) is dealing with severe hearing loss, we are down to one member to keep the spirit alive. Townsend is fully supportive of Daltrey’s effort and had this to say before the tour started “Great to see Roger performing TOMMY with his band in 2011. I will be there in spirit and Roger has my complete and most loving support. Roger is touring his unique concert version of TOMMY using his faithful presentation of the original work as the backbone for a set of wider material. It is wonderful to hear the way Roger and his new band re-interpret the old Who songs.” We really hope that we have not seen the last of Pete Townsend and that rumors of a Who tour next year in 2012 come to fruition. This is what Townshend had to say “The reason I am not on the road with Roger is that this is entirely Roger’s adventure, one that is bringing him great joy… I don’t belong on this Tommy tour. I wish him well, sincerely, and I look forward to playing with Roger again doing Quadrophenia next year.”

Simon Townshend

There was a Townsend on stage though, as Pete’s brother Simon Townshend was lending vocal support and was one of the two guitarists in the band. This was nothing new as Simon has been touring with The Who as a second guitarist on and off since 1996. Simon really impressed the crowd and along with the other guitarist of the night, Frank Simes, really kept the spirit of The Who alive. The rest of the band was Loren Gold on keyboards, Jon Button on bass, and Scott Deavours on the drums. This lineup is essentially the same that Daltrey used in his last tour opening up for Eric Clapton a couple of years ago.

Frank Simes Autograph and Simon Townshend Guitar Pick

Tommy is a rock opera which was released as a double LP (1969), a film (1975) and even a Broadway musical (1993). The album has sold 20 million copies worldwide and features the monster hits Pinball Wizard and See Me, Feel Me. The story of Tommy is about a dead, dumb and blind kid that becomes the pinball champion of the world, gets cured of his catatonic state, and rises to fame as a messiah of a cult due to his apparent enlightenment. The video of Pinball Wizard from tonight’s performance can be seen below.

Daltrey was at the top of his game including his trademarked microphone whirling, tambourine tapping and harmonica blowing. He hit all the notes and one would have a very hard time believing they were watching a 67 year old on stage. He even opened up his shirt at close to the end of the gig to show stomach muscles to the adoring females in the crowd. The audience itself was mostly comprised of what Daltrey would all my generation – i.e people that probably saw The Who when Keith Moon was still rocking the drums. The show featured all of Tommy (minus one song called Underture), and the usual best of The Who songs like (Who Are You, My Generation, Baba O’Riley, I Can See For Miles (YouTube video here), etc). Needless to say the crowd got very loud and stood for the second half of the gig. What is really cool is that the official ‘bootleg’ of the show (and all other shows on the tour) are available for download on The Who’s official website –  $15.95 for MP3 to $26.95 for FLAC-HD.
 
Verdict: Excellent show and a great opportunity to see one of classic rock’s seminal albums in it’s (almost) entirety. Daltrey used to sing “hope I die before I get old” but we sure hope he never gets old!

Author: T-Mak