The Who live in Helsinki, Monday, 09. July 2007

Set list

Encore

Line Up

Roger Daltrey: Guitar, Harmonica, Vocals
Pete Townshend: Vocals, Guitar
John Bundrick: Piano, Keyboards
Pino Palladino: Bass
Zak Starkey: Drums
Simon Townshend: Backing Vocal, Guitar

Note

Thanks to Marko Toikkanen for the translation of the review.

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The two man rock opera

Helsingin Sanomat, 11.07.2007

It was no coincidence that British veteran rock group The Who ended their Helsinki-concert with Tea & Theatre off their latest album, Endless Wire. It is a song ...
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Fanreports

Marko Toikkanen

As I came back home from the gig I was hot, sweaty, my voice was nearly gone, I shouted, played air guitar, drums and God knows what else for the whole two hour show. Right from the Pete's opening question of "Who of you were here 40 years ago?" (referring to their last gig in Helsinki) and the opening riff of I Can't Explain till the closing chords of Tea And Theatre. I try to leave my state of being euphoric fan and try to take a critical glance at the show. First of all, the setlist didn't contain any surprises, it was a standard no-Wire & Glass-set (neither The Real Me) with Pete performing Drowned solo. Roger sounded a little rough, but mainly did OK. He also apologized to the crowd for his voice cause he "has been singing in the rain for the past two months". I thought the start of the the gig was very average on Who-standards with the Finnish crowd being fairly quiet, as usual, only clapping at the end of the songs. First one to really wake it up was Who Are You being a CSI-tune. For me it is probably the least favourite of Who's classical set. I'm probably in a minority on that one, but I just feel it doesn't go anywhere. The other You've-heard-this-one-on-TV-tune, Baba O'Riley is on the other hand totally awesome live. Got the general crowd going as well. In the band introduction Pete talked a bit about John Entwistle while introducing Pino and Simon. He told that Simon came in originally cause of the high voices John couldn't do anymore. Pete mentioned that John spoke in a very low voice, made an impression of him, adding "you couldn't really tell what he was saying". Pete had troubles remembering in what year John died, first saying it was 2000-something, later correcting it to 2004. Close, heheh. Pete told he was happy to end the tour in Scandinavia, on the top of the world, as he put it. Also Helsinki in particular got praises from him, but I should imagine pretty much every city he plays in gets them as well. The definite turning point of the show was My Generation, when Pete seemed to shift up to another gear, starting to windmill his guitar franticly. I liked also the jam bit with "I hope I die before I get old - like you"-line while pointing at the crowd. The energy overdrive carried through the rest of the show with getting the stubborn audience finally on their feet: First Won't Get Fooled Again with "an extra" ending. Then in the encore The Kids Are Alright first as an appetizer before launching into a Tommy-medley, which was one of the most powerful and windmill-filled I've ever seen from any DVDs. Just awesome. Tea And Theatre worked perfectly as a calming, emotional set ender with the crowd appreciating it to bits. "We will be back. I hope. Hopefully it won't take another 40 years", Pete ended.

The Who Concert Guide

Helsinki, Hartwall Arena