Tuesday, November 21, 2006

THE WHO ROCK SUNRISE FLORIDA

November 20th 2006


First of all the Pretenders were an awesome opening.
Chrissie Hynde is a rock star and her stage presence
is huge.The band kicked major ass and most of the
crowd was there to watch.

As for The Who.



What a f*cking show! Meg,Joyce,Marc and I were third row
right in front of Pete,my ears are still humming.Pete had
this angry look on his face for the first three songs bringing
back the memory of the second MSG show in 2000 when
he stayed that way thru the entire show and didnt say
a word to the crowd.But,he cracked a smile all of a
sudden to someone in the crowd and loosened up.


Him and Roger were as playful together as ever.
Roger nixed the glasses and had a tucked in black
shirt,he looked 10 years younger and the shitkicker
of it all was that his voice was perfection tonight.
I mean,absof*ckinglutely perfect!!!!

It was a full house at the Bank Atlantic Arena,but
the crowd sat for the new songs on the most
part except for us crazy f*cks in the front rows,
but the fact that they sat for the new songs
seemed to fire the boys up.Of course,they then
stood and went crazy for the old classics.

Baba stands out as a ripping
version as well as the fiery extended MG/CIYW
jam.The mini-opera fired me up, I just loved
it more than ever tonight.Seeker was in the
second slot,AAA replacing Substitute.No
Black Widow's Eye's which was a slight
disappointement but the overall energy
of the show overpowered that for me.
RGLB was as gorgeous as ever played.


I made up a poster that said:

The Boy Who Heard Music to The Endless Wire
It All Started Here(Florida) September 24th
2000.

(Pete had mentioned on his diary awhile back that he
started writing TBWHM by the Atlantic ocean in
West Palm Beach Florida on September 24th 2000).

Right after Fragments I held it up and Roger
gave me the smile and acknowledgement
but then I was trying to get Pete to read
it but he didnt seem to look at it and that
brought a huge laugh to Roger as brought
to my attention by Meg,Joyce and Marc.

Pete finally read it and announced to the
crowd that there was someone holding
a sign and went onto explain how it was
true that he had started it(TBWHM) in
West Palm Beach.Someone took the sign
from me and had people in the 3 or 4 rows
behind us pass the sign around and each
person held it up It was a trip!!!I didn't
think I was going to get it back because
I really want to bring it to Joe's Pub and
have Pete sign it.Thankfully Meg got it
back for me!Thanks Meg! I'm
emotionally and physically drained.

There's just nothing like being up there in the
front rows.We wound up watching the encore
in the front row with a bunch of rowdy fans.
A couple were talking really loud during
Tea and Theatre and Roger just stared at
them with this wicked glare and I tapped
on there shoulders and told them to please
be quiet for this song and they obliged and
Roger started.Very emotional,really powerful.
We forgot to by the Who tea mugs at the
souvenier stand.We were planning on getting
them after the Pretenders set and holding
them up for Tea and Theatre.We will remember
for the next time hopefully.What can be said
about Tommy encore?It always shreds!


You really get the interaction with
the boys that close.My voice is shot.
Marc brought in a video camera and
got some nice crowd shots and of us.
and some real good close ups of the
band.He also got the Pretenders set
entirely.


Overall,we were more than satisfied,it
was a rip roaring night for sure!

Now on to Atlanta!


ICE
SEEKER
AAA
Fragments
WAY
BBE
RGLB
Sound Round
Pick Up The Peace
Endless Wire
We Got A Hit
They Made My Dream Come True
Mirror Door
Baba O'Riley
EF
MIAPD
Mike Post Theme
YBYB
MG/CIYW
WGFA
Pinball Wizard
AJ/Sparks
See Me,Feel Me
Tea and Theatre


Added Notes from my brother Marc......

Preshow party at TGIF's Restaurant around 6pm:

Joyce & Meg,Mike and I were joined by Scott Pilam & his friend Carlos,Crazy Rob,Jeff Winterich (from Melbourne,fl.)& a couple of his friends.There were some other fans there who joined us,one who was seeing them for the first time, the other who had not seen them since he saw the 1982 JFK show.

The Pretenders came on right at 7:30pm and played their usual 50 minute set.They were as great as everyone was telling us from the prior shows.I decided to go into the stands a bit further back to video tape them.I loved Chrissie Hynde's red boots.She took time out to teach the audience a shimmering english style type of dance that she said "Pete would love".30 minutes later as the show was winding down - she started to do that dance again!

-I have never seen Roger smile so much at any Who show ever..and I've been to 30 of them.He smiled during every song and even invented some really creative dance moves on the stage.As my brother said,his voice was perfect tonight!

-My Generation segued into CIYW, but it was one of the longest versions on the tour,incredibly explosive guitar work by Pete which included him singing "let your tears go,let your past go" several times.And Roger's coolest (and a bit funny) dance moves came during this song.And it wasn't the Chrissie Hynde one!

-The encore as usual was unbelievable.There's nothing more to say about it! Pete actually did a scissor kick leap like the old days.Matter of fact he seemed to jump more than usual.His windmills were infinite it seemed and more ferocious than when I saw him back in Boston and NYC two months ago.

During the start of "Tea & Theater" some people in the front row next to us were talking and yelling loudly at eachother which caused Roger to glare at them.My brother and I quickly told the folks to stop gabbing and pay attention (& respect) and they did immediately and the song was as emotional as ever.

What a night!! We all agreed that it was better than our previous favorite show of the tour in Boston last September.
Oh one more thing.You fuckers in the front row don't belong there.I never saw so many people in the front row who didn't even seem to know what show they were at.They seemed to be waiting for Wayne Newton to show up.It was unbelievable.
Joyce,Meg,Mike and myself stood and sang all the words to W&G and you can see Roger and Pete taking notice while the rest of the crowd sat down.And I mean all of them sat down.I pretty much got all the words right except Pete looked right at me when I sang a line wrong and he did a double take and started laughing at me and shaking his head.We all had some kind of interaction from the band tonight!
As Mike said,we ended up in the front row for the encore.Although the 3rd row at that place was as close as you can get without being front row.The fence was the closest I have seen at a venue.