Review by Shawn Perry
Photos by William Trillo
Whether the Who will reconvene for more shows remains to be seen. That doesn’t really matter to the band’s singer, Roger Daltrey, because he’ll keep going with or without the Who. When the urge to tour on his own has come around in the last few years, he’s brought along longtime Who associates Simon Townshend, Frank Simes and Loren Gold to play in his band. With drummer Scott Devours and bassist Jon Button to round out the lineup, Roger Daltrey has the freedom to explore the Who catalog, his solo catalog, and anyone else’s catalog, if he so desires.
Earlier in the summer, Daltrey and company played a series of shows around the country with regional orchestras, performing Tommy in its entirety. Afterwards, He decided to change the theme to The Who Hits, Rarities and Solo Hits, and finished the summer run at Fantasy Springs Resort Casino.
With temperatures reaching 111, the Fantasy Springs Events Center provided a cool refuge for the roughly 3,000 Who and Daltrey fans who showed up. No introductions needed, Daltrey and his band took the stage at little after 8:00 and opened big with Tommy’s “Overture.” The singer bashed a pair of tambourines while the rest of the musicians carefully maneuvered through the piece’s intricate chord structure that Pete Townshend wrote 50 years before. His brother Simon and Frank Simes drove the epic introduction with a pair of acoustics, Daltrey sang ‘It’s A Boy,” then Simes switched over to electric for “Pinball Wizard.”
The Who frontman asserted his presence by swinging his non-wireless microphone around like a lasso and diving head-first into the verses: “Ever since I was a young boy, I played the silver ball…” Obviously, with Tommy fresh on his mind, they could have easily done a few more from the infamous rock opera. Instead Daltrey took a breath and recalled the last time he was in the area for two weekends on the Desert Trip bill. Then he rhetorically asked, “How do you live in this heat?”
It was onto another rhetorical question in the form of “Who Are You?” Daltrey was armed with a blond Telecaster to add a little muscle to the rhythm, while Simes shook out those Townshend-like stinging leads, and Gold, Button and Devours minded the gaps.
It was during the Rarities portion of the show when song selections really started to go deep. There was “Another Tricky Day” from the Who’s 1981 Face Dances, their first without Keith Moon. The song was a modest hit with fans, though never released as a single. Its inclusion tonight, along with “Athena,” from 1982’s It’s Hard album, showed an affinity for 80’s Who songs, if not for the fact that they were written by Pete Townshend. “Gettin’ In Tune,” the first of four pulled out from 1971’s Who’s Next album, found Daltrey and Simon Townshend, with Simes as their guide, in perfect sync.
With a solo album As Long As I Have You released earlier in the year and for sale in the lobby, it was surprising Daltrey didn’t perform any of its songs. Aside from a generous helping of Who delights, there only a few solo songs on the list. After talking about meeting and working with Leo Sayer, they played his song “Giving It All Away,” which became big hit for Daltrey in the UK in 1973. “After The Fire,” the Pete Townshend song the Who almost recorded until it landed on Daltrey’s 1985 solo release Under A Raging Moon, was another one they tackled.
As Daltrey told audience, Simon Townshend played and sang “Goin’ Mobile” as well, if not better, than his famous brother. From there, the show started to wind down with sturdy Who staples. “Naked Eye” set it up and “Baba O’ Riley” got them on their feet, fists pumping to the signature opening sequence. Back in the Who’s prime, Daltrey would march in place or walk in circles during this song. Nowadays, he’s more measured in his stance, more focused on delivering the vocal than moving about. Still, the occasional swing of the microphone proves he’s not standing still.
On both “Baba O’Riley” and “Young Man Blues,” Daltrey took the command, hitting the sweet notes, blowing harp, giving the band space to breathe and rock these Who classics as raw and raunchy as they could. Once, they finished off with another Daltrey solo number, “Without Your Love,” it could have very well ended for the night. The singer, however, had one last set of songs he wanted to perform.
In a virtual repeat of the 2011 tour, Daltrey turned to Johnny Cash to help him bring it home with a medley that included “I Got Stripes,” “Folsom Prison Blues,” “There You Go,” “Train of Love” and “Ring of Fire.” The singer says singing these songs is good for his voice, especially after an intense run through some heavy Who numbers. But then it was all over — the show, the tour, who knows where or if after this. If someone is going to keep the music of the Who alive, Roger Daltrey’s just the man to do it.
