Tuesday, June 25, 2013

The Who live at the Point ,Dublin 08/06/2013 Review + Bootleg


The last time I witnessed the Who was back in 2006 at the Oxegen festival, That gig blew me away so I headed to Dublin to get another blasting by the legendary troupe. Tonight's gig would be their eight time to play Ireland and their first night of the Quadrophenia euro tour.

Support tonight came in the form of L.A. rockers 'Vintage Trouble' , This band were incredible! The front man Ty Taylor's energy was something to behold and the full band were decked out in three piece suits oozing 50s soul music. The look was not where the comparisons stopped as the sound was James Brown/Otis Redding/Chuck Berry reincarnated and it was just a joy to watch. The band clearly were loving every second of it and really got into the swing of things. Their infectious sound and energy had the early O2 arrivals on their feet and clapping. These guys were a great opener and well worth checking out, go pay them a visit here.



The Who assembled on stage and went straight into playing the full 1973 Quadrophenia rock opera from start to finish. The album is pretty much a autobiography of the members of the band and the theme of the conflict between the Mods and Rockers at the time. Tonight saw the point filled with many fans reliving their Mod days in the full gear.
The stage was adorned with impressive screens as you will see from the videos , These screens were filled with classic shots/videos of the band and also practically gave a full history lesson of images throughout the world down through the years. It was a fascinating watch!

Being the first night on the tour you could see the band were still shaky playing the album tracks as they must not have had much time to rehearse and it would have been awhile since a lot of these had an airing on stage. The interaction between Daltrey and Townshend was great fun to watch as they seem to be really enjoying it and making fun at each other particularly Pete taking the piss out of Rodger. I have watched many a live gig from the Who on DVD and I must say Rodgers voice was the best I have heard, I presume being the first night of the tour helped but he nailed every note and really was sublime throughout.

They had some great images of the band down through the years on the big screen and the late Keith Moon and John Entwistle played big parts on the nights proceedings, The track Bell Boy was started by Moon via video footage and he played and sang throughout as Rodger looked at the screen with huge emotion. The same was done for the Ox as he played a classic bass solo seamlessly with the band thanks to brilliant video footage again quite an emotional moment as Rodger saluted the big screens.
 
Considering the age of these guys sixty eight and sixty nine they put on a serious show, Daltrey looked like a young man and I was genuinely impressed by his physique. Not many sixty nine year olds would be able to pull of the shirt half open look. He was giving it socks on stage classic swirling of the microphone into the air at a crazy speed and catching it like a young fella. Townsend was at the same classic moves jumping around the place and windmilling the guitar like he was back when they first started out. The rock and roll lifestyle clearly suits this pairing.

After playing the full length album it was time to dust off the classics with 'Who are Who' stating the proceedings. This prompted the crowd to rise to their feet and stay standing until the end. I must say I really enjoyed this part and the seats I got we the icing on the cake being only five rows from the front , dead centre. The band finished with the brilliant 'Wont Get Fooled again' and then Rodger and Pete came back out to play 'Tea And Theatre' from 2006′s Endless Wire with Pete on the acoustic guitar and Rodger with a mug of tea. This ended a superb night of music! What's great is that someone recorded the whole gig and the bootleg is free to download from here. Enjoying listening back to it all day, Cheers for a great night!

Setlist:
01 I Am the Sea
02 The Real Me
03 Quadrophenia
04 Cut My Hair
05 The Punk and The Godfather
06 I’m One
07 The Dirty Jobs
08 Helpless Dancer
09 Is It In My Head?
10 I’ve Had Enough
11 5.15
12 Sea and Sand
13 Drowned
14 Bell Boy
15 Dr Jimmy
16 The Rock
17 Love Reign O’er Me
18 Band intros
19 Who Are You
20 Behind Blue Eyes
21 Pinball Wizard
22 Baba O’Riley
23 Won’t Get Fooled Again
24 Tea and Theatre

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