Things are kind of slow here on Sunday evening...

[John Grossbohlin]

Anybody catch The Who? What happened to those young guys who used to play those songs? Was there any wood anywhere on that set?

[Robatoy]

I thought Roger, Pete and his kid and Ringo's boy were all pretty good. Great show! Great game.

[Lew Hodgett]

good. Great show! Great game.

----------------------------

Great game yes; however, 4th of July it wasn't.

Fireworks would have been good if it were the 4th.

The noise was a bore, I went channel surfing.

Lew

[Dave Balderstone]

There was a Who concert?

[Ed Pawlowski]

NO, just a couple of old guys pretending while playing their music.

[-MIKE-]

The vocals were live, the guitars were live, the drums were live for at least parts of it.

For halftime shows and TV shows in which they have lots of acts performing, they always record their performances during rehearsals. At this point in time, it's a logistical impossibility to have those shows completely live.

What you end up hearing over the air is a mix of live performance and recorded performance. While some of it is technically "pantomimed," they are do that to what they did actually play, a couple days before.

From what I could tell, most of Roger's vocals were live, except his patented scream. All of Pete's guitar was live. Some of the drum may have been live, the jury's still out for me on that one. I didn't pay attention to Pino's bass or the keyboard or other guitars, but they were very likely all the recorded performance.

[Steve Turner]

Yeah, they weren't bad for a couple of old farts, and Zach does a good job filling Keith Moon's shoes. I enjoyed the game too (I was rooting for the Saints), but the most vivid memory for me was Carrie Underwood in that tight white outfit. Rowr!

[DGDevin]

I've seen those old guys nine times in the past decade, they routinely mop the floor with the much younger bands who open for them. No, they aren't as they once were, but they're still pretty damn good. I wonder why rock musicians can't do what blues or jazz or classical or country musicians do (play as long as the audience will still come to see them) without this sort of snotty comment?

Many people don't seem to appreciate that the halftime show is more a theatrical production than a musical performance--as you say they can't leave anything to chance, not with 150 million people watching. Backing tracks and the use of black box technology like Auto Tune is routine for such major productions.

I heard from somebody who helped set up/tear down the stage (set up in four minutes!) and he said the band's rehearsal on the 4th was superior to the actual Super Bowl show. I suspected Daltrey's vocals were from a backing track from the beginning. If the drums were taped then Zak did an amazing job of hitting everything to a small fraction of a second. This certainly wasn't Pete and Roger at their best, I'd give it a B or maybe a B+, but it will seem like perfection in comparison to the acts that will take that stage in years to come when all the "classic rock" generation is gone.

[Scott Lurndal]

Second show I ever worked (ran a Strong SuperTrouper follow) was a Who show (first was Maynard Ferguson circa 1975). This was after Keith had passed (1979) but hey, they rocked (and partied).

Saw them several times over the years, then saw them again at Shoreline the day after Entwistle died. Pete's brother played bass, and they were still excellent.

The halftime show was just fine.

scott

[-MIKE-]

And they certainly weren't using it for this.... I think those guy would draw the line at autotune, live.

I could tell that most of Roger's singing was live, except a few high parts.

There were times it was blatantly obvious that Zack's parts were recorded and there were times it looked live. Doesn't matter to me... they played the parts.

[Lew Hodgett]

That man played a mean horn, especially in the 50s with Kenton.

Lew

[John Grossbohlin]

I think it's more of a commentary on how some of us aren't kids any more... but we remember groups like The Who, The Byrds and other groups as being made up of young guys. It hit home the last time I spoke with Roger McGuinn (family ties).... he's 67 now. A couple local guys, Levon Helm is 69 and Todd Rundgren is 61. Who ever would have thought...

John

[Swingman]

Hell, even the Lawrence Welk show was recorded, then lipped synched for TV ...

[-MIKE-]

Wow, Karl. Lawrence Welk in a Who thread? really? c'mon, man!

:-)

(get to work on those bass polyrhythms)

[Swingman]

"Melody" ... the concept which built both reputations. Think about it! :)

That video of yours is awesome ... my brain simply does not allow for four part (arms and legs) harmony within itself. I don't know how you do it??

First I'd have to grow a couple more arms, then wait until brain replacement surgery is available at the mall, or the synapses can be reprogrammed/flashed.

[-MIKE-]

Like anything, it's only difficult until you do it. :-)

Seriously, you start with two and go from there.

2 part polyrhythm between the feet and or/hands is pretty simple and comes very quickly. 3/2 is the simplest polyrhythm (think Carol of the Bells).

3 part comes soon after, because the two part just goes on autopilot. It's hard to explain, but once it's in your muscle memory, you can sort of train your brain to ignore it and go one to something else.

4 is pretty tough to get, but because you have the rest in autopilot, you can really focus on it. It's really a cool way to exercise your brain. I find that I sleep really well that night, after working on them for a while.

Sooner or later, I'll work on 5 parts, using vocal for the fifth. I'll surely post a video of that. :-)

[Ed Pawlowski]

For the record, it was me, not Mike that made what you think is a snotty comment.

I think, (no, I know) you are being a bit sensitive for nothing. It was a light hearted comment about the fact that they, as many of us, have aged since they were in their prime. Frankly, I was flipping channels and saw them performing and was not sure who they were at first. Kind of knew them, but was trying to place the older faces with the younger performance.

The years are not very kind to the hard and fast living rock musicians.

[Lee Michaels]

"John Grossbohlin" wrote

Old age and music, eh?

I had to pick up a couple patch cords for a small studio I am working on tonight. I stopped by a place I used to buy recording equipment from years ago. The place was still there, albeit with different owners. I saw my old buddy in there who used to be the sound engineer for Heart, way back when when they were starting out.

He still had the hair. But it was ugly grey. His nose was considerable bigger and he looked to be at least a hundred. Still sharp, still knew his stuff and the recent products. But he looked to be at deaths door. Some musician types just don't age well. All that hard living catches up with you.

[Evodawg]

I enjoyed it. I wasn't sure how'd they do. Did better then I expected. Did remind me how old I was, but Face Book does that everyday when I see an old buddy and your image of them is from 30 years ago. You say to yourself I don't remember him/her looking like that. Damn they didn't age well. But they're probably saying the same thing about me!

[DGDevin]

People are amazed that I can accurately predict the lights will go down and the band will come out in five minutes. I just watch for the guys on the Super Troupers to put down their magazines, pull their headphones all the way on and take the controls.

He died June 27, they cancelled the show in Vegas, played the Hollywood Bowl July 1 and then played Shoreline July 3--"Defiantly spitting into the abyss" as the SF Chronicle described it. I was at that same show, it was one of the most moving musical performances I ever witnessed--the emotions coming from the band (and the audience) were vivid. Talk about musicians playing their hearts out.

Pete's brother Simon played guitar and sang backing vocals, the bass player was Pino Palladino--both still play with the band.

I enjoyed it even though it was far from what even the current version of The Who can deliver. Pretty hard to really open the throttle in just twelve minutes.