by Alex Lloyd Gross
Roger Daltry, the front man for The Who was in Bensalem last night enjoying himself on stage as he regaled the sold out crowd with songs and stories from The Who (and others) for about two hours at the Xcite Center at Parx Casino. Few people realized that exactly 44 years ago on that date, Daltry was again on stage in Philadelphia, playing a sold out show at JFK Stadium with The Clash and Santana.
Fans who paid top dollar for tickets wanted to hear something familiar. This was a show where songs played could be vastly different from what arrangement was on the record. Example, an electric violin solo during Baba O Riley. The version played of “Who Are You” also had a different arrangement than what some might be used to.
Daltry knew that and told the crowd early on not to expect to hear things like they appear on the record. While he played a lot, there are some songs left out of the set, such as “Bell Boy”, “5:15” and “The Punk and the Godfather”.
He did play “Substitute”, “Going Mobile” and “Squeezebox” which had had the males and females sing different parts of the song. Daltry is smart enough to keep his mouth shut when it comes to world events or politics. He simply said we should stop fighting and killing each other and then let his music do the talking.
Daltry did not acknowledge his McVicar soundtrack as he did not play “Free Me” which got a lot of radio airplay in this area back in 1980, when it first came out. Instead, he played some cover songs that people in the crowd should have known. “Have You Ever Seen The Rain”, “I Can See Clearly” and he closed the show with Niel Young’s “Rockin” In the Free World”.
Roger Daltry was known for twirling a microphone , it was his signature move. He did that once or twice during the last night
Daltry dressed in regular street clothes, a white collared shirt and jeans. 44 years ago, he wore a white suit at JFK Stadium. Last night was way more intimate and people could interact with him on stage. A feat that would have been darn near impossible at JFK.. Last night was in a word, EPIC.