The Who Live In Boston DVD

I recently used a gift card that I got for Christmas to pick up The Who Live in Boston DVD. This was the final show of their 2002 summer tour in which the band played about 20 or so concerts. On the eve of the tour, bassist John Entwistle died at the age of 57. Pete Townshend and Roger Daltrey made the difficult decision to go on with the tour. The DVD includes interviews with both Pete and Roger.

Daltrey explains that one of the main reasons they decided to go on with the tour was because it was completely sold out and when they began thinking about all of the people that were working on the tour, it numbered in the hundreds.

Townshend talked about his relationship with Entwistle which dated back to when they were 11 years old. He also compared and contrasted Keith Moon and Zak Starkey.

The DVD also includes some of Entwistle’s drawings of Jimi Hendrix, Mick Jagger, Elton John and others. Now onto the concert...

Pino Palladino (picture far left) was tapped to play bass. Pino had played with Townshend on many of his solo shows and also is part of the John Mayer Trio. His bass playing is good, but very different from the great Entwistle. Zak Starkey manned the drums; Pete's kid brother Simon (pictured next to Pino) played extra guitar and sung backing vocals; while John "Rabbit" Bundrick (pictured to the left of Pete) was on keyboard.

Interesting, when Keith Moon died, The Who brought in a new drummer and added a keyboardist. When "The Ox" passed, the band had to not only bring in a bass player but an extra guitar. No doubt a testament to the greatness of Moon and 'Wistle.

The band played a setlist that touched all of their albums and put on a blistering performance of "Amazing Journey/Sparks" which has to rival anything they did during their halcyon years. Daltrey also delivered an incredibly potent and emotional rendition of "Love Reign O’er Me."

This DVD reminded me of when I saw the band on that tour in August 2002 at Madison Square Garden, where incidentally I ran into Lenny Kravitz in the audience (I never realized how tall he was). I still have the t-shirt from that tour.

Anyway, I heard about this DVD on The Who’s message board and I’m glad I did. Definitely two thumbs up.

Here is the setlist:
•I Can't Explain
•Substitute
•Anyway Anyhow Anywhere
•Who Are You
•Another Tricky Day
•Relay
•Bargain
•Baba O'Riley
•Sea and Sand
•5:15
•Love Reign O'er Me
•Eminence Front
•Behind Blue Eyes
•You Better You Bet
•The Kids Are Alright
•My Generation
•Won't Get Fooled Again
•Pinball Wizard
•Amazing Journey/Sparks
•See Me Feel Me
•Listening to You