24 hours on and I'm still buzzing from having seen The Who at The Forum on Wednesday night. They were amazing - totally fantastic.
Was it the best gig I had ever been to? Quite possibly.
Actually, I'll say now, YES!
Why, lots of reasons - here's some:
-We didn't know we were going till the day before, so it was an unexpected treat.
-The venue is a beautiful old theatre holding c1000 people.
-The crowd were up for it.
-From the moment they hit the stage the band didn't hit a note wrong (although Roger did forget the lyrics a few times).
-Even if you think you don't know many of their records, you do. Any show that starts of with Who Are You (CSI theme tune!) Can't Explain and Substitute can't be bad. Plus they've been doing this for 40 years (minus a few line up changes) so they're as tight a musical unit as you could want to find.
Otherwise written as: Great Venue, Great Songs, Great Band.
And finally, there is the man himself. Pete Townsend is now the official Guitar God (sorry Brian!). He blew me away. His playing is mesmerising - it's not just the swirling arms and the dramatic jumping up and down, he plays the guitar harder than anyone else I've seen. It's not always pretty, and it doesn't mean that the lady always sings, but it sure as hell rocks.
The encore which include an awesome Tommy medley includes a massive ten minute instrumental section with the guitar at the fore and even now I can't get over it. Sean tells me that you can replicate the experience if you buy the Live at Leeds album, turn down the lights, turn up the amp so that it's so loud you can't here environmental health when they beat down your door.
Amazing! Awesome! I don't have superlatives to sum it up - if you get a chance to see them on this tour - GO!
