The Who kicked off their Song Is Over farewell tour Sunday night at the Anfiteatro Camerini in Piazzola sul Brenta, Italy. It was their first gig since firing longtime drummer Zak Starkey and replacing him with Scott Devours, their first regular tour show without an orchestra since 2017, and the official unveiling of new background singer John Hogg after giving him a test run earlier this year at the Royal Albert Hall.
The setlist stuck largely to the standards, but they did break out the Who’s Next deep cut “Love Ain’t For Keepin’.” Prior to the Royal Albert Hall gigs in March, they hadn’t touched it since 2004. Also noteworthy was the inclusion of “I’ve Had Enough” in a segment of Quadrophenia songs that also included “The Real Me,” “5:15,” and “Love, Reign O’er Me.” It was essentially the first time they’ve ever done “I’ve Had Enough” outside of complete performances of Quadrophenia.
We say “essentially” because there was a lone “I’ve Had Enough” at the launch of the original Quadrophenia tour on October 28, 1973, at Trentham Gardens in Stoke-on-Trent, England. It’s a show that looms large in Who lore since they attempted to play practically all of Quadrophenia that night, leaving out the title track and “Cut My Hair.” They cut “The Dirty Jobs,” “Is It In My Head,” and “I’ve Had Enough” by the second show so they’d have more time to devote to older material.
When the tour hit Newcastle, England, a week later, the primitive analog tape machine the band used to play the complex Quadrophenia songs malfunctioned. A frustrated Pete Townshend had a meltdown in response, tossing sound man Bobby Pridden to the side and lunging at the board.
“Townshend began pulling at the sound board, yanking out wires, demolishing many of the prerecorded tapes it had taken so many weeks’ work to piece together,” Dave Marsh wrote in his 1983 book Before I Get Old: The Story of the Who. “The rest of the band watched in a daze.” (The Who wouldn’t devote a substantial amount of their show to new material again until the start of the Endless Wire tour in 2006.)
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It’s significantly easier for the Who to play complex songs like “Love, Reign O’er Me” these days since they’ve added a keyboardist to their live band along with several other musicians. On this new tour, Roger Daltrey and Pete Townshend are joined by Devours, Hogg, guitarist Simon Townshend, bassist Jon Button, and keyboardist Loren Gold.
In a new interview with Pollstar, Daltrey said this was a “back to basics” tour after all the recent outings with orchestras. “We are trying to just make it more like what we were in the ’70s, make it raw,” he said. “Let me explain something: the problem with modern rock concerts is that, in some way or the other, people expect too much in a visual way, which involves screens and lights and all that stuff. And to keep all that stuff on the same page as the music and what the band’s putting out, you have to have a set list.”
“I fucking hate set lists!” he continued. “I hate them because, to me, the next song should follow the energy of what you’ve created to the previous one. And you don’t know that until you go out there doing it. In the old days, before we had screens, we used to mix the sound from the front of the stage and the lights from the front of the stage, we used to just do it all on the stage. You could make the set list up as you went along, and that was fabulous. It was freedom. But now, of course, it’s impossible, because you’ve got to work with a team. It’s like a military operation.”
It’s a military operation led by two men in their early eighties. And on opening night in Italy, Daltrey sang “See Me, Feel Me “while kneeling down since he was suffering from leg cramps. “The Song is Over” was listed as the final song, which makes sense considering that’s the name of the tour, but it was cut, quite possibly due to Daltrey’s leg cramps.
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The tour continues Tuesday night at the Parco della Musica di Milano in Segrate, Italy. The U.S. leg begins August 16 in Sunrise, Florida. It wraps up September 28 in Las Vegas, but more shows will likely be added before they wrap this thing up.
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The Who’s setlist at Anfiteatro Camerini in Piazzola sul Brenta, Italy:
“I Can’t Explain”
“Substitute”
“Who Are You”
“Love Ain’t for Keepin’”
“Bargain”
“The Seeker”
“Pinball Wizard”
“Behind Blue Eyes”
“The Real Me”
“5:15”
“I’m One”
“I’ve Had Enough”
“Love, Reign O’er Me”
“Eminence Front”
“My Generation”
“Cry If You Want” (Snippet)
“See Me, Feel Me”
“You Better You Bet”
“Baba O’Riley”
“Won’t Get Fooled Again”
