Shoes, Ships, and Sealing Wax

Hey kid, rock and roll, rock on...

Went to The Who concert last night. Well worth it.

Even if such a late night does rob me of the ability to write in complete sentences.

Some random thoughts...

I saw The Who first in '89, and I was on the younger end of the fan base then. (Though I saw the show with a trio of 13-year-old boys, my brother and two of his friends. The other boys' mothers were relieved that I was a responsible 20-year-old so they didn't have to chaparone and spend the concert in the quiet room.) I'm still on the younger end of the fan base, although I did see some kids there last night. Most of the people in our section seemed to be around the age of Roger Daltrey and Pete Townshend, but without having aged quite so well.

Roger looks good for a guy my age, not to mention a man of 60-some.

The two guys in front of me who kept jumping up to dance...not so much. I was afraid the guy in the Land's End outfit was going to tear his rotator cuff trying to do the air guitar windmill.

At first I thought it was a little, I dunno, ironic? to see the paunchy bald guys rockin' out to My Generation...but watching the video montage behind the stage, with shots of people of all ages and cultures dancing, it seemed less dorky. (And I thought it was very cool that they segued from My Generation to Cry if You Want: "Don't you want to hide your face/When going through your teenage books/And read the kind of crap you wrote/About "Ban the Bomb" and city crooks...")

The songs from Endless Wire are starting to grow on me. The music reminds me a lot of Quadrophenia; in fact, when they started The Man in the Purple Dress, I thought it was the opening to I'm One.

Pino Palladino was good, he sort of staying off to the side and didn't move much. Still, on the way home, I had Success Story, Boris the Spider, and My Wife going through my head.

A couple of friends of mine tried to get me to go to Las Vegas for the show in 2002. One of my old friends lives there, and they thought it would be a great reunion, see each other and The Who. I begged off (fear of flying), but when I heard the news that John Entwistle had died, I immediately called them both to see if they had tickets.

Zak Starkey had a Keith Moon thing going, with his floppy white shirt and sweaty hair. Seeing him made me think of the scene in The Kids Are Alright with Ringo Starr interviewing Moon. "Not drunk, teeny boppers! We need our medicine..."

Speaking again of kids, I had no idea who the opening band (Rose Hill Drive) was, but they weren't bad. Something they did reminded me a bit of Cream (well, without Eric Clapton, Jack Bruce, and Ginger Baker), and I might see if I can find the song to download it. "I'm sure they have a MySpace site," Victor said.

I took today off work, knowing that after a loud, after midnight night I wasn't going to be in the mood to get up at 5 to go to work. Besides, I won't be able to hear anything anybody says to me today anyway.