Although they’ve bid farewell to touring more than once, it’s safe to assume the world tour Roger Daltrey and Pete Townshend launched in 2015 was their last extensive itinerary as The Who. They do have concerts scheduled both together and solo throughout the rest of 2017, with Townshend enlisting an orchestra and Billy Idol to present The Who’s Quadrophenia for a handful of September shows. The best plan for seeing Townshend and Daltrey playing songs from that classic 1973 album together for the next few years, however, may be to catch them at The Who’s new Las Vegas residency at the Colosseum inside Caesars Palace.
Townshend, known for his aversion to touring and his workmanlike attitude towards performing, has said in recent interviews that he now enjoys the camaraderie surrounding concerts. Daltrey has always enjoyed performing, but suffered a bout with viral meningitis in the midst of the last tour that may have made the idea of staying in one place for a stretch of shows more inviting. Before the start of the 2015 tour, he had expressed to Rolling Stone that while he enjoyed being onstage the rigors of touring were “incredibly hard work,” and The Who might explore playing multiple dates at theaters.
A residency at the Colosseum was a perfect solution. Playing Las Vegas in 2017 is a far cry from playing the early ’60s London club scene, where tough-talking Daltrey first saw old schoolmate John Entwistle carrying a bass and asked him to join his nascent R&B combo, The Detours. Entwistle brought rhythm guitarist Townshend on board, and after Keith Moon invited himself to try out on drums the classic lineup of The Who was formed.
As the band evolved from its “Maximum R&B” era into mid ’60s mod culture’s favorite musical group, it also helped shape rock stagecraft and sound. Townshend’s impulsive smashing of a broken guitar while onstage inspired costly but crowd-drawing acts of auto-destruction and explosions. He pioneered the use of stacks of speaker cabinets, which became standard equipment for rock guitarists and helped make it possible for bands to play larger venues. He popularized the power chord, perfected the concept album and created a catalog of hits. By the time he began to burn out on touring in the mid-’70s, The Who had created the template for the “rock band,” and rock music, in terms of touring and composition.
Moon is long gone, having passed away in 1978. Entwistle, arguably the most influential and respected rock bassist of all time, died in Las Vegas in 2002. The Who’s music lived, as did demand to see them live, and Daltrey and Townshend are happy to continue to deliver. Joining them on drums is Zak Starkey, who received his first kit from his father Ringo Starr’s pal Moon, and Townshend’s younger brother Simon, who has been a touring guitarist for The Who since 1996.
How often they play Vegas remains to be seen, but if Daltrey has his way, he and Townshend won’t stop until they drop.
Caesars Palace, 8 p.m. July 29, Aug. 1, 4, 7, 9 & 11, starting at $76 plus tax and fee. 866.320.9763
