The Who were honored last night on VH1...and I'm pleasantly surprised at how well it turned out. I'll admit I was expecting VH1 somehow to screw this up since their efforts have been concentrated on cheesy reality programming rather than music lately. But I digress; for the most part it was really good.
Foo Fighters opened the festivities with "Young Man Blues" & "Bargain." Very good I thought, but then again I'm a mark for anything Dave Grohl is involved in. The Foo Fighters are one of the Top 5 straight-ahead, full-throttle rock & roll bands today, bar none. Top notch; great sound.
Next up was Incubus. I'm not a huge fan, so here lied my first doubt about the show. Boy was I wrong! They absolutely nailed "I Can See For Miles." My bad. They sounded incredibly like the original. They also performed "I Can't Explain" on the show. The Flaming Lips then came on stage, with Wayne Coyne in his plastic bubble. They performed "See Me, Feel Me" and really did not sound bad. I'm not real familiar with Flaming Lips, & was a little put off by their stage antics. The drummer did pull off the Keith Moon stage exit though, knocking over his drum set. I might need to check out this band a little more...
Tenacious D performed "Squeeze Box" next. Yawn. Anyone else about tired of Jack Black yet? Kung-Fu Panda yer ass off the stage; this is a Rock & Roll show man! Just kidding...but you know what I'm sayin'? This put me ion the mood for a sandwich, & in doing so I missed the first part of what was probably the best performance all night: Pearl Jam's rendition of "Love Reign O'er Me." They followed that up with a great cover of "The Real Me," also from Quadrophenia. Ohhhhh, doctah! That was great! I enjoyed watching the guitarist jumping around like Pete Townshend during this number.
Next was Adam Sandler, doing a little ditty to the tune of "Magic Bus." I kept waiting for "Red Hooded Sweatshirt," but no dice. And now ladies & gentlemen....THE WHO!!! "Baba O'Reilly,"kicks ass. "Who Are You?" The same - Daltrey even got away with the F-Bomb on TV - sweet. "Behind Blue Eyes" was next - again just a treat to watch Daltrey & Townshend perform live again. Finally, "My Generation" closes the show, or does it? Pete grabs his acoustic while Roger grabs his coffee mug. They have something special for us. I don't know the name of this song, or if it was only written for this occasion, but it brought a tear to my eye. I wish I could find a clip for you to see. A couple of lines go, "...one of us gone, one of us mad/one of us mean and one of us sad," as Daltrey points to himself & then then Pete for the final two nods. He ends it with, "...let's go have a cup of tea." A well-deserved cup of tea sir, I might add.
Great show. Great band. Great songs. Great respect. Thanks VH1...and keep this kind of programming coming.
Good stuff DJ. And The Flaming Lips are amazing. "Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots" was an ungodly album, and "Flight Test" is one of my favorite 00's bands.
ReplyDeleteShould said "Flight Test" is one of my favorite 00's songs, not bands.
ReplyDeleteDang, I missed it. Went to see the Caped Crusader instead. (top notch as well). Hopefully VH1 will re-run the show.
ReplyDeleteI've got this on my DVR, and I can't wait until I get some time to watch it.
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