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The Who, a British rock group, featuring Peter Townshend, lead guitar; Roger Daltrey, vocal; Keith Moon, drums and John Entwistle, bass...for one performance at Freedom Palace.
IT HAD ALL the comforts of jungle survival traning in Panama....all the electrical conveniences of the Great Blackout in New York....yet who could deny the greatness of the performers?
Who? The Who, that's who...
The crowd of 3,500 sweating bodies that jammed Freedom Palace last night seemed to see through much of the travail and discomfort to what was there: The Who - undeniably one of the top two or three rock groups in the world.
Despite agonizing technical difficulties, The Who put forth a fine effort. But the real stars of the evening weren't on stage, they were watching it. I mean the audience. Considering the circumstances, they remained beautifully "un-hassled".
After waiting hours outside in the heat for a concert to begin at 8 o'clock - only to see the Who come on stage an hour and a half after that time - they held their composure amazingly well.
To describe the interior of Freedom Palace last night as a sauna is not overstatement. Yet the audience remained patient. The Who finally appeared at 9:30 o'clock, played two numbers and then Peter Townshend's amplification system cut out. This was first of at least three such interruptions.
They did "Water," a number that will appear on their forthcoming album. It was oriented toward Roger Daltery's singing. "We need water" he howled. How appropriate.
After another set they launched into excerpts from their famous rock-opera "Tommy," starting first with "Overture." Townshend displayed an amazing ability to pick his guitar strings while keeping each note distinct.
After "It's a Boy," Townshend's amps failed again. The group made it through "Pinball Wizard," only to have the bleeding sound fail again in the middle of "I'm Free." Words cannot describe the frustration.
And so it went. "Summertime Blues" and "My Generation" followed. Well done, but nothing great.
In fact, that can be said of the whole concert. It was no one's fault really. The audience tried. The Who tried. The promoters tried. I've seen many concerts go this route....here and elsewhere. -S. W.
The Freedom Palace gig on July 2, 1970, had The Who and an oversold house of at least 3,500 fans crammed together on the chairless, artificial -grass floor of the former Pla-Mor Ballroom at 31st and Main. The indoor temperature soared well over 100 degrees, and power outages halted the concert at least three times.
Richard Stern was a teen-age stage manager at the show. He remembers an Immigration and Naturalization Service official who kept the band's grand supply of sound equipment from being hauled in on schedule.
"There was some paperwork or something that had to be taken care of and rectified, and it was just a fast, furious load-in and a quick sound check," Stern said. "It was just high anxiety, kind of pandemonium. It was exciting."
The Who kept remarking from the stage about the oppressive heat and tossed ice, water and beer on the crowd when they weren't performing " one of the most violent and intense shows I'd ever seen," Stern said.
Backstage, band members ran around in their underwear to keep cool.
"They would get to these incredible crescendos in their music and the power would go," Stern said. "And I remember Daltrey was a little (miffed), to say the least. He was complaining back to his management," What are we doing here?" and "This is king of weird."
Later, the band offered to pay for rewiring the electrical system, although that never happened. In six months, Freedom Palace was closed because of financial problems.
"Townshend was just hanging out on the couch waiting to go back on" Stern said. "Who knows how Keith Moon and John Entwistle calmed themselves down? It was a different era."
Townshend didn't spend all of his free time on the couch. During one break, he took a liking to an Afghan hound named Zada that had jumped onstage and led it outside onto a fire escape. The animal belonged to mini-skirted Jene Maddock.
"He had kind of a hold of my dog and the dog's leash was over my wrist so I ended up joining him."
"So we're standing out here on the fire escape of Freedom Palace. And there's all these kids in the parking lot below us and Pete Townshend is standing there with me and my dog playing his guitar. An electric guitar with no electricity - that was funny. They were screaming things up to him and we were kind of yelling back."
"He was very nice to me. He put his arm around me. I remember he was tired. He was polite. You can't do much on a fire escape with a bunch of kids standing below watching."
Bob Moore was sitting in the rear on top of an ice machine when The Who "came crashing out and people's eardrums started to melt."
"The place was a zoo. It was perpetual motion - just jumping, bouncing, crashing, Moon playing."
Bill O'Conner remembers a dramatic incident at the "wild, chaotic" show involving a fan's camera and one of jump-suited Townshend's parachute boots.
"This guy behind me was taking flash photos right over my shoulder," said O'Conner , who rested his elbows on the lip of the stage. " Townshend didn't miss a beat and just came right up to the edge of the stage and kicked the guy's camera right out of his hands."
