The Who Still Rough and Tumble at Jazz Fest; Sunday's Picks

The Who

The best of Saturday and what we’re looking forward to on Sunday at the Fair Grounds

[Updated] Really, the selling point for this year’s Jazz Fest was Jazz Fest, but to the extent that a single act was the draw, it was The Who. The festival is enamored with rock ’n’ roll’s greatest generation, and after The Rolling Stones and perhaps Paul McCartney, The Who are the biggest fish in that sea. It helps that the band was good when it first played Jazz Fest in 2015, and Roger Daltrey and Pete Townshend seemed to be feeling buddy-buddy. 

On Saturday, they weren’t that close. They were fine and professional, but it was no surprise that when the band filed offstage and into waiting limos that whisked the band off the grounds, the two appeared to be in separate cars. 

That wasn’t the story of the show, though. Their relationship has likely been what it is for a long time, and they make it work. The story was the temperature onstage, where Townshend wore a sport coat and scarf while drummer Zak Starkey wore a Team Jamaica track jacket zipped up to his neck. While the audience dealt with heat in the mid-80s, they dressed as if the autumnal leaves could fall at any minute.

Actually, the show was fun as an exercise in rock. The things you associate with rock? The Who did them and made them work. Power chords were in abundant supply, drums rolled and filled constantly, and nothing seemed too slick. Despite the years, Townshend still plays as if he’s in his third or fourth year with the guitar, and the first time Daltrey swung his microphone by the cord, he not only didn’t catch it, but the cord wrapped around his torso. When he delivered the thrilling “Yeaaahhhhh!” at the end of “Won’t Get Fooled Again,” he did so with so much intensity and power that his voice was clearly affected by it for the rest of the show. After that, he had to take some of the big notes including those in “Love Reign O’er Me” in two steps and without the same power. 

But there’s no doubt—that moment in “Won’t Get Fooled Again” was epic, and enough Who songs have entered the culture that there were a number of moments when a single part lit up the crowd. The opening, furiously strummed guitar for “Pinball Wizard.” “Baba O’Riley” and the assertion “They’re all wasted.”

“Baba O’Riley” and its “teenage wasteland” came with a healthy dose of cognitive dissonance as a lot of people 60 and older in the crowd who complain about teenagers and their music these days shouted along as if they were still in a high school parking lot giving the building and institution the finger.

Really, it was a show about moments. It wasn’t as uniformly impressive as their 2015 show. A few tempos could have been a little brisker, and the start of “Who Are You” and “You Better You Bet” sounded like a band finding its stage legs. “The Rock” from Quadrophenia seemed like an odd choice to show up as late as it did, though it was likely there to give Daltrey’s voice a rest before “Love Reign O’er Me.”

But “The Rock” showed the power The Who still have. It’s a fairly simple piece of music, but they kept in engaging for more than six minutes with a rolling, unpredictable energy that was very much a function of the interaction of Townshend, Starkey (dressed to front an Oasis show), and bassist Jon Button, who all flexed their musical muscles at different points to give the song a rippling intensity. It helped that they had strings, French horns, and a percussionist onstage as well since the Quadrophenia material benefits from being heard with something closer to its original arrangements.

The orchestra was a part of the whole set, and the show would have benefitted from a more strategic deployment of it. Giving us “Behind Blue Eyes” with a cello and violin in a stripped down version was great, but often it simply added a little murk to the sound that frequently ate the bass. In the indoor venues that they’re playing on this tour, the orchestra probably works better, and to be fair, it’s too much to ask a band as old as The Who to rethink their stage show for one gig. 

That said, they did show a surprising nimbleness in that department. They have a standard setlist that they have played every night on this tour, but they drastically switched it up for Jazz Fest, starting with “Who Are You” instead of the suite from “Tommy.” The version of “You Better You Bet” was the first of the tour. 

All of that made the show an afternoon well spent. Nothing seemed like a foregone conclusion, and the show definitely reflected who they are now. They still showed a little cheek, inserting the minor-by-comparison “I’m One” from Quadrophenia so late in the show that no one was going to walk away, even if it’s acoustic, country-esque vibe was at odds with the rest of the set. You weren’t seeing The Who in their prime, but you saw them doing the best they can muster now, and their willingness to still go to “The Rock” and Tommy’s “Amazing Journey” when they could play two hours of sing-along favorites says they’re still game for a challenge.

Sunday’s Highlights:

Rick Trolsen’s Neslorchestra - New Orleans’ adventurous jazz scene gets a rare spot on the Jazz Tent stage.

(WWOZ Jazz, 12:10p)

Son Rompe Pera - The Mexican band brings punk attitude to marimba-driven cumbia music.

(Jazz & Heritage, 1:40p; Cultural Exchange, 4:45p)

Las Cafeteras - This East L.A. band draws inspiration from Mexican music from the Veracruz region.

(Cultural Exchange, 2p; Sheraton New Orleans Fais-Do-Do, 4:30p)

Daniel Lanois featuring Brian Blades and Daryl Johnson - The producer and guitarist makes a humble visit to Jazz Fest.

(Lagniappe, 3p)

Terence Blanchard featuring the E-Collective and Turtle Island Quartet - Blanchard performs with the lineup behind Absence, his tribute to Wayne Shorter

(WWOZ Jazz, 4p)