Wolf Trap, Vienna, VA
6/12/2024
After 60 years in the game, a singer might want to mix it up a little. The Who might or might not be over (fans have watched Pete Townshend equivocate on this point for 40 years, so we’ve stopped paying attention), but Roger Daltrey wasn’t made for slowing down. Instead, he’s on the road on a solo tour, backed with an “electric/acoustic band” of likeminded musicians. Both he and his audience are aging, and it feels a little out of place to wander a crowd of well-dressed gentry in a beautiful setting while waiting for music associated with teenage angst and unmatched volume. The years have passed, but the fervor hasn’t dimmed. After a brief opener, Daltrey would take the stage with as much magnetism as ever, lit up with enthusiasm for doing a memorable set of music just his way.
As that opener, KT Tunstall probably knew she faced a challenge in trying to be relevant, let alone entertaining to a crowd restlessly awaiting rock royalty to take the stage (they’ve mellowed, but traditionally Who fans are notoriously down on opening acts). Performing solo, the Scottish songwriter was more than up to the task, though, primarily because she tells stories as well as she performs music. Her banter added energy to her short set, which included not only new music and hits “Suddenly I See” and “Black Horse and the Cherry Tree,” but also odd mash-ups of her songs and cuts she loves. To understand the joy of a kazoo-based “Seven Nation Army” mashup, you’d just have to hear it. She left the stage after 30 minutes, the crowd still happy and not yet fidgeting, and Tunstall seemed as excited to hear Daltrey as she was to open for him.
Daltrey had a much easier task: simply show up for a welcoming crowd. He’s made it clear that this is not a Who show, responding to complaints that he’s not playing enough of his band’s material with a lighthearted, “Come on! There are other things to do!” The concert itself largely centered on Daltrey having a good time; rarely do performers and audience members laugh as much as both did throughout this show. He does have a more precise point to make on this tour, though, wanting to bring together a set of real musicians playing “real instruments,” with no synthesizers, no orchestras and “no conductor waving his thing at you.” Daltrey’s spent enough time in those settings that it only makes sense that he’d want to strip down the music and get back to those maximum R&B roots.
Those “real musicians” (and it takes a bundle of them to scale down this music) will largely feel familiar to fans who have followed the Who over the past couple decades. Guitarist Simon Townshend may be Pete’s biological brother, but he’s apparently become Daltrey’s “soul brother.” Percussionist Jody Linscott continues her Who connection, seemingly ageless in her noticeable joy in her performance. Billy Nicholls (mandolin), Geraint Watkins (keys, accordion), and Scott Devours (drums) all fit in nicely, as does relative newcomer violinist Katie Jacoby (a scene-stealer from 2019’s Movin’ On tour). The lineup matters, as Pete Townshend has recently complained that the Who touring band is simply people Daltrey picked out. The two wouldn’t be who they are without some sort of public tension, but none of that mood came through the concert, which opened with Townshend’s solo hit “Let My Love Open the Door,” to great enthusiasm. Daltrey had nothing but high praise for his curmudgeonly Who partner.
Daltrey’s career has taken all sorts of detours (pun intended, for serious fans), and he paid attention to most of those routes throughout the evening. Obvious Who classics showed up, often reworked so that Jacoby’s violin took over the old synth parts (a wonderful piece of arranging), and so did Daltrey solo pieces, soundtrack work, a collaboration with Wilko Johnson, and an array of sometimes surprising covers (who would have predicted getting a Creedence Clearwater Revival song?). The new versions always worked, even if “Who Are You” is not, as Daltrey suggested, just “a Shepherd’s Bush blues song” when stripped off all its alleged baroqueness.
Throughout the early part of his set, Daltrey answered questions the audience had submitted earlier in the evening. For the most part, these interludes provided comedic relief as Daltrey chose the sillier questions: had he not been a rock star, how many lady friends would he have had? (Twice as many). A moment of gravity about the Kinks led to one of the evenings highlights has he performed their song “Days” alone on acoustic guitar, seemingly impromptu. Mostly, though, these moments were just a way to connect with fans and keep the evening light.
The levity didn’t unfocus the band, who pounded through these cuts with every bit of the commitment they deserved, succeeding with both their technique and their verve. At their best, they sounded unstoppable. That doesn’t mean it was a perfect performance; at times it was more enjoyable than tight (Daltrey laughed about his prediction of errors to come). There were some forgotten lyrics and setlist confusion, but the enthusiasm and Daltrey’s easy confidence carried even those moments through. The band ended its full set with “Baba O’Riley” and Jacoby’s star turn, but went on for an allegedly unrehearsed rendition of “Young Man Blues” that showed a band still finding its way.
The audience didn’t seem to care. We were getting one more go-round with an octogenarian rock legend. Some of the notes aren’t there, but his voice has held up surprisingly well despite the wringer it’s been through. Daltrey’s charisma and attitude remain as strong as ever, and seeing him enjoy doing exactly what he wants to is simply infectious. It’s a show about fun times and straightforward music, and it’s remarkably affecting, using a little bit of everything to create a notably singular evening.
