The Who

Pete Townshend's awareness of the Who's archive has never been in doubt -- as far back as the mid-'70s, when Odds & Sods took a bite out of the already burgeoning bootleg market, he was ferreting through the tape boxes in search of, indeed, odds and sods. Since that time, the average Who collector has probably been better served than fans of any other comparable band, although one does wonder what will happen when the well finally runs dry?

This triple-DVD package of Tommy and Quadrophenia: Live might suggest that there is, in fact, a little something to fear as far as that water level goes. Whatever one thinks of the actual music here, there's no question that Tommy and Quadrophenia -- rock-operas both, for better or worse -- represent mammoth undertakings, both in terms of their creation and their subsequent resilience. No matter that one (Tommy) has already been so overplayed that one wishes the boy had never been healed; nor that the other (Quadrophenia) is as under-rated as its predecessor is overwrought. Townshend himself never lost faith in either, and once it became apparent that the Who was no longer a functioning rock band in any conventional sense of the word, he was able to turn his full attention to both. The results -- album-specific tours for Tommy in 1989 and Quadrophenia seven years later -- have themselves now ascended to legendary status; and the first two-thirds of this package tell us why. Beautifully filmed, exquisitely mastered and designed, with both the fanatic and the casual onlooker in mind, full shows (from L.A. in 1989 and New Jersey in 1996) reiterate the band's own re-creations of these milestones in a form that truly brings meaning to the "rock-opera" albatross.

Stage sets, guest stars, backdrops, films, narration -- no extravagance was spared as messrs. Townshend, Roger Daltrey, and John Entwistle pounded through their performances and, if things do border on the edge of preposterousness occasionally, then so much the better. Both productions demand the most lavish settings possible and, within the confines of what a rock show can be expected to deliver, both get everything they deserve. Not only that, but the third disc in the package completes both concerts with a Live Hits compilation of the second (non-Tommy) portion of the 1989 show, and the Quadrophenia tour encores, all adding up to one of the most breathless succession of classics (and otherwise -- does anyone really need to suffer through "Face to Face" again?) in the band's entire repertoire. Add in the bonus features, interviews with Daltrey, Townshend, and Billy Idol (special guest on both tours), and the entertaining Quadrophenia Story featurette, and the only serious flaw here is the absence of Gary Glitter from the Quadrophenia show. Having played the Godfather with marvelous aplomb throughout the rest of the tour, he returned to the U.K. for his own Christmas shows and was replaced with P.J. Proby for the final U.S. dates -- including this one. But that is a minor caveat -- if you saw the tour, then you get something new here; and, if you didn't, then it hardly matters. The point is, the Who are firing on all cylinders throughout both performances, which means the archive's still got a long way to go before they finally hit the dregs. ~ Dave Thompson, All Music Guide