There’s something curiously subdued about the Who as their 50th anniversary tour rolls into London. Their two arena shows were rearranged from December, when singer Roger Daltrey was too ill to perform. Three months on, there’s a distinct air of mortality about them.
There are no problems with Daltrey’s voice, still a house-flattening bellow, but he’s no longer a frontman who commands the stage – it’s left to guitarist Pete Townshend to inject some kinetic energy.
Daltrey twice fluffs his vocal cues, in Substitute and I Can See For Miles, and even the pair’s bickering after the first incident – Townshend mocks the singer for ruining his carefully structured song, Daltrey responds with a weary, “He’s such a tart” – sounds like men trying desperately to will themselves back to being the world’s angriest, toughest rock’n’roll band.
The Who can still be a breathlessly exciting live act, especially in rooms smaller than this 20,000-capacity barn, but tonight they seem constantly to be trying to catch up with themselves. “Can you imagine a football team playing two games in a row?” Daltrey asks, only three songs in. “That’s what they expect of us.”
In the last third of the set, though, what had been a disjointed ragbag of a show finally starts coming together. Once Eminence Front – a 1982 single that saw the champions of “maximum R&B” trying to adapt to 80s musical styles and is every bit as bad as you might expect – is out of the way, we get a surprisingly delicate So Sad About Us and a version of A Quick One (While He’s Away) that manages to transcend its own incredible silliness, before a sprint through a mini-suite from Tommy finally gives the Who an unstoppable momentum.
It’s too late, though: with the show all but over, there’s no time for them to nick a winner before the final whistle.
• The Who Hits 50! European tour continues in June (Belfast Odyssey Arena: 21 June; Dublin 3 Arena: 23 June; London Hyde Park: 26 June; Paris Le Zenith: 28 and 29 June; Amsterdam Ziggo Dome: 1 July). Tour details.
