Daltrey does his mic-flinging acrobatics in a shiny Le Bon suit. Townshend’s windmills are inhibited by striped balloon pants. Watching The Who decked out in the trappings of a New Romantic scene they had precious little affinity with at Shea Stadium in 1982, supporting their 10th album, It’s Hard, is disconcerting; they’re a band painfully out of time.
They knew it too – this was the first of many farewell tours – but only the synth-funk chant of Eminence Front and Entwhistle’s Genesis-y Dangerous sound dated.
Like hashish and Bruce Forsyth, the eternal whip-crack of Pinball Wizard, Who Are You (dedicated to “all the people in our dressing room”) and Won’t Get Fooled Again resonate in any era, and Baba O’Reilly, Love Reign O’er Me and See Me Feel Me tingled the spine of Shea 1982 as powerfully as they will Glastonbury 2015.
They even close with a couple of Beatles tunes, in tribute to the venue. Timeless, in spite of the wardrobe dept./o:p
