Review: The Who delivers the hits in Rogers Arena visit

Roger Daltrey went on record last year calling The Who Hits 50! Tour the legendary English rock band’s long goodbye.

Longer still after the band was forced to reschedule its original date when the singer took ill in September 2015.

Daltrey was in very solid voice at Rogers Arena on Friday. He isn’t the powerhouse he once was; I don’t expect any of us will be when we hit 72.

The diminutive belter still struts like a bruiser and that epic scream in Won’t Get Fooled Again… All good.

Along with guitarist Pete Townshend, 71, the surviving members of the Who hadn’t played Vancouver since 2006 when they were out supporting Endless Wire.

That was the last new material from the group, but as Townshend joked: “You all want to hear the old stuff so that’s what we play.”

Fair enough. But a lot of the band’s classics were forged by the exceptional chemistry between Daltrey, Townsend and late bassist John Entwhistle and drummer Keith Moon. Easily one of – if not the – best live band of its era, the four could make an incredible noise ripping through gems such as The Seeker or the Kids Are Alright.

Just watch the Isle of Wight performance on YouTube.

But with six backing musicians, including Ringo Starr’s son Zak on drums, the earliest hits fell flat. And all the windmill guitar moves couldn’t hide the fact.

Then the group played Behind Blue Eyes from 1971’s utter genius album Who’s Next and it was a whole different show. The additional voices just made the lyrics all the more resonant. The three multi-instrumentalists and longtime touring guitarist Simon Townshend proved absolutely critical for the Quadrophenia segment of the show.

This was the highlight of the evening, containing  5:15, I’m One, a lengthy version of the instrumental The Rock, and then a spectacular version of Love Reign O’er Me. The Rock included a video montage of both famous dead musicians and a few others, as well as a quick run through major political events of the 50 years the band has been playing. Apparently Lady Diana was of key interest to the director. Only her and Margaret Thatcher received multiple moments. Go figure.

A Tommy section, with, naturally, a version of Pinball Wizard, had the crowd howling approval. The group certainly touched on its most popular material with the cutoff around Eminence Front from 1982s Its Hard.

That was the last single the group charted, so fair enough. It was a hits tour after all.

And a good one once they hit their happy place.

Sderdeyn@postmedia.com

Twitter.com/stuartderdeyn