The Who at TD Garden, Boston, MA

Today is Pete Townshend’s 77th Birthday!

Last night’s THE WHO HITS BACK tour stop at TD Garden was one hell of a way to celebrate for fans, the band, and Pete. He’s survived COVID himself and was truly grateful to “be anywhere”. Die hards were not treated to The Faces proto hits like Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere or My Generation, but The Who celebrated their catalog and used the full orchestra to their advantage. This is not ever a nostalgia tour or makeup dates for the legendary rockers. They love Boston and playing Boston and it shows.

To be honest, I’m more of a QUADROPHENIA guy than a TOMMY guy but by the time PINBALL WIZARD wrapped up the medley, I was fully awake.

That is to say, with half of my scalding hot Dunkin’ regular (they don’t have cream, just powdery ‘coffee lightener’ for the fixin’s there) spilled on my shirt and lap, I was ready for anything! I see now why that lady sued McDonald’s that time!

Back to the show, my late stage THE WHO hits WHO ARE YOU and EMINENCE FRONT, both with innovative for the time synth tracks from Pete’s experimental stages were just what I needed and the show steamrolled on from there. THE WHO have some hits that I know but don’t play too much like JOIN TOGETHER and WON’T GET FOOLED AGAIN. These radio hits aren’t my go-to tracks but was great to hear them live.

The band breaks up the set into four chunks, two with orchestra, one with band only and one encore break. To hear QUADROPHENIA and TOMMY songs with full orchestration as intended really is something to experience, especially for those who saw the stage versions.

Video production is mostly for closeups of the band playing, but near the end of the set was a lot of imagery of historical events from the last 50 years with tributes to Lennon, Elvis, and of course the two other members of the band Keith Moon and John Entwistle.

Great moments of storytelling too, as Roger relayed how Boston was the first show back after being arrested in Montreal. Pete was hilarious as well, asking for “proper” birthday presents instead of the ‘card everyone signed’

For the full set list see the link above. Thank you to Matt Lambert for capturing the show, “LONG LIVE ROCK!

• claynferno for Secret Boston

This reviewer showed up late for the talented Amythyst Kiah portion of the evening, but Matt captured their performance beautifully below. - Ed.