The Who, October 29th, 2008, Izod Center, East Rutherford, New Jersey
So, once again, it's been awhile since I've bothered posting anything here. Despite remaining occupationless, I've been pretty busy during the last month or so: visited the college I was expelled from 6 years ago, punched a friend in the face for absolutely no reason, attended a very fun wedding near Seneca Lake at which I had the pleasure of being in the wedding party, applied to a shitload of jobs (getting no response), celebrated my I-banker buddy's birthday with characteristic self-destruction and excess, celebrated my wacky Ukranian friend's birthday with characteristic self-destruction and excess, celebrated my birthday with characteristic self-destruction and excess, got shut out of the Chanel thingy in Central Park, ate the best cupcakes I've ever had, got called an "eediot" by some asshole at an Afghani restaurant, applied for a shitload more jobs (again with no response), almost totally quit smoking (cigarettes), told a negligent busboy at a steakhouse that my tablecloth was so filthy that I felt like I was "eating out of a fucking diaper," got to assemble and run a chainsaw, went to Boston for a non-sequitur-filled three day weekend, ran the chainsaw some more, and probably some other shit that's escaping me.
But that's not what this blog is supposed to be about now, is it?. Since my last entry here I've actually been to see a few shows. Let's talk about one of them.
The Who, October 29th, 2008, Izod Center, East Rutherford, New Jersey.
The Who is one of several bands that I routinely throw out there as being "my favorite band of all time" (along with Guided by Voices, Black Sabbath, Guns N' Roses, and others) and having never seen them before John Entwistle's passing, I figured it wouldn't be a terrible idea to check 'em out before Rog or Pete (or myself) pops off. While debating whether or not to go to this show, I reminded myself that The Who wrote my single favorite song ever ("A Quick One While He's Away") and that I frickin' love all things Tommy. What's more, tix weren't outlandishly expensive ($46 and change before TicketBastard fees), so why the frig not.
To the best of my knowledge, there's no adequate public transportation that would take my fat ass from NYC to East Rutherford, so I got in the car and headed thru the Lincoln Tunnel a little after rush hour started. Yeah, traffic sucked, but not as much as the $15 (!) fee for parking at the Meadowlands. Fucking brutal!
Found my seat, which of course was located directly in front of an incredibly annoying/super hot 16 year-old Jersey trash whore with absolutely amazing fake tits. There was just something about the combination of the pitch of her voice combined with the speed at which she was spitting out the syllables that was driving me fucking bonkers; well, that and the fact that her entire pre-show routine consisted of calling school chums seated in other sections, screaming, and waving madly so as to get their attention. I popped a few Tums before deciding I'd sit somewhere else. As I found a new seat, I noticed that the evening's crowd consisted largely of four groups: upper-middle class 40-50-somethings unashamed to pay $40 for a fucking Who tee shirt, their spoiled kids, drunken cougars, and creepy fat loners (including yours truly).
I have very little to report about the opening band, a three-piece from Canada that sounded kind of like a slightly more aggro Ted Leo (aka generic and super boring). Fortunately I had cell phone Tetris to divert my attention.
The Who took the stage, and, not gonna lie to you, I wasn't feelin' it. I had scanned setlists of recent shows and found that they're playing several songs off their '06 shitbox Endless Wire, which I have no intention of actually listening to in its entirety. (Their last studio album before this one, '82's It's Hard was pretty crappy. Can't imagine Endless Wire is any less so.) What's more, the crowd around me seemed less than excited to be there, so there was very little positive energy off of which to feed. And my terrible seating options meant that I would be unable to see the stuff on the projection screen behind the band. Meh.
The early part of the show was highlighted by an extended jam on "Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere," after which the set took a definite turn towards the crappy: new song "Fragments," a decent version of "Who Are You" (never my favorite Who song by a longshot), a hoarse-throated "Behind Blue Eyes," another Endless Wire song entitled "Real Good Looking Boy" (only Townshend's second gayest composition ever, behind the inexplicable "Rough Boys"), and relative rarity "Sister Disco," another song I'm not all that fond of. I was beginning to regret coming to what was amounting to little more than a half-assed nostalgia fest. Making things worse was Pete Townshend's maddeningly centrist take on the US (which he declared "THE GREATEST COUNTRY IN THE WORLD!" to the joy of all the Joe the Plumbers in attendance) and the at-the-time still upcoming US election ("they both seem like good guys... can't go wrong with either of em!") Cough, cough. It was shaping up to be a dreary night.
However, the moment that the pre-programmed synth intro to "Baba O' Riley" started up, I hopped up out of my seat and began sneaking one-hitters under my jacket, which -- along with better song selection -- totally turned the show around for me. Man, what a great song, although allow me to let Robert Pollard put it better than I ever could:
--Robert Pollard, April 16, 2002
Agreed!
From then on, the rest of the set continued nicely, with "Eminence Front" and "Love Reign O'er Me" being particular highlights for me. The evening's biggest reaction from the crowd was during Rog's scream at the climax of "Won't Get Fooled Again," which served as the evening's set-closer.
For me, the real fireworks came during the first part of the encore, which conisisted of a medley of Tommy classics. Off the record, I may or may not have welled up during "Sparks." Honestly, this 15 minute-or-so trip back to 1969 was worth the price of admission alone for me, and probably the overall highlight of all the live performances I've been fortunate to catch this year. Kick ass.
The encore ended head-scratchingly with another new song, during which most of the crowd filed out. As I was ascending the lot staircase towards my fine automobile, a boomer blurted out, "well, it sure beats the heck out of the Jonas Brothers!" Indeed. In fact, indeed squared.
Setlist:
I Can't Explain
The Seeker
Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere
Fragments
Who Are You
Behind Blue Eyes
Real Good Looking Boy
Sister Disco
Baba O'Riley
Getting In Tune
Eminence Front
5:15
Love Reign O'er Me
My Generation
Cry If You Want
Won't Get Fooled Again
Encore:
Pinball Wizard>
Amazing Journey>
Sparks>
See Me Feel Me>
Listening To You
Tea & Theatre
----
Trying to muster up the cajones to see Cheap Time tonight a few blocks from my apartment, then I gots Brian Wilson tomorrow night and Baroness Saturday. I'm working on my end-of-the-year best-of lists, which I hope to have up before Christmas. I just realized today that my Best Of Albums list will have over 100 entries on it. Jesus fucking Christ I need a job.
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