* before you get into the post below, just know that I've been up for hours working on it and for some reason, there were problems with almost every video I tried to embed. Some I could change to a link, some wouldn't. I will try editing later, but for now, here's what I have:
First, I pick up my wonderful girlfriend, Jenny and we head over to the Pauley Pavillion at UCLA. We got to see VH1 Rock Honors The WHO.
We arrived around 7:30 for an 8pm show. We found our seats (which were up high, but it's a smaller venue and I couldn't really shell out $300/ticket) and soon after, the announcement came over the P.A.: "Ladies and Gentlemen, please take your seats. The show will begin in 3 minutes. Sure enough, three minutes later, The video montage starts up on the monitors. Quick shots of a myriad of Who fans describing why The Who is the Greatest Rock and Roll Band in the World. Dave Navarro, Slash, Joan Jett, Cameron Crowe, Harry Shearer, Billy Bob Thornton (with 2 guys flanking him; maybe his band mates?), Conan O'Brien, 2 guys from Coldplay, Gordon "Sting" Sumner, Billy Idol, Michael J. Fox (without the J.) and Noel Gallagher. Then, our first presenter appeared.
*Now a side note: My girlfriend is a HUGE X-Files fan. She has the entire run of the series on DVD, books about the show, and we're going to see the new movie in Milwaukee because we're going to be there opening weekend and we HAVE to se it as soon as we can.
Why the side note? Because our first presenter was none other than David Duchovny. She quietly freaks and asks, "Did you know about this?" I didn't. She then tries to figure out just what exactly she would need to do to get us backstage. One of the many reasons I love her is she immediately thinks "us backstage" instead of just her. May seem small, but I'm sure we've all dated people that would've thought, "too bad for you, I'm going backstage". Not Jenny.
Anyway, by now, she's all giddy and Mulder introduces the Foo Fighters. Since they can't help but kick serious ass...they kick ass opening with "Young Man Blues
",
as mean and chunky as it should be. Next, they bring out special guest Gaz Coombes - the lead singer from Supergrass - to launch into "Bargain"
The music was better than the vocals, but what the hell. Even Roger Daltrey has said "I'm a huge fan of Dave Grohl. He's got the mentality of a rock God", and, as I said before, they kick serious ass.
Next up, clips from "Amazing Journey: The Story of The Who" documentary (which VH1 has aired a few times already). First, about the early years (Marquee Club; how they "became" Mods) then about Tommy. Included are more interview clips from list of the names above about why Tommy is so incredible. We then see a pinball machine stage right and there's someone playing it. Someone with a brown ski hat with a silver ball on the top, large yellow sunglasses, and giant boots. No it wasn't Elton John, but Rainn Wilson wearing that outfit. Slightly modifying the lyrics to "Pinball Wizard"
he recites how, "From Scranton down to Pittsburgh, I've played the silver ball" and introduces The Flaming Lips. Wayne Coyne began inside a giant plastic bubble that which traveled over the first few rows of the audience. It was a bit awkward and he didn't get more than 3 0r 4 rows away from the stage before he was pushed onto it so he could emerge to perform a medley of songs from "Tommy".
Good stuff; good job.
We go back to the monitor to see more from the Amazing Journey doc, this time about Keith Moon and various interview clips about how Keith Moon was "The Jimi Hendrix of Drums", according to Noel Gallagher.
Now, here's where the show - for me - took a downward slide:
We see Mila Kunis spotlighted, and with microphone, off to the side in the audience. She begins an introduction for the next act by sleep-talking her way through a pre-written paragraph about how it's appropriate to have her there because she was on a show set in the 70s. Get it? Well, she didn't, because she had to stop and start over with about as much enthusiasm as beige. Anyway, she introduces Incubus (ps. Now, I hate them more because their "official" website has an ad for Days Inn at the top. eesh). They get to perform, "I Can See For Miles
and "I Can't Explain"
Now if I could see for miles, I could have easily picked a better group to perform and for the life of me, I Can't Explain why they were there, except for maybe...MAYBE VH1 thought they'd "bring in the kids" or something. Personally, I could have skipped that whole segment of the concert and not batted an eye about it.
and now, the show begins its upward turn:
Back to the monitor for more doc clips. This time it's all about The Who's sound and performance.
Entwistle's blistering finger work on the Bass, Moon's almost maniacal antithetical-to-the-beat drumming, Pete Townshend's cacophonous power-chords and pick-screeching , Roger Daltrey's vocal power...and a lot of instrument smashing.
Then, the clips focus on John Entwistle, his brilliance and a lead bass guitarist and his role in the band. This leads into our next act: Tenacious D.
KG grins as Jables extols The Who as "the greatest band of all time" (he's correct, btw) and they jump into an acoustic Squeeze Box
,
which was great. Perfect song for them, I think.
When we "come back from commercial", Sean Penn enters the stage. "We know that we're all here tonight because The Who never did sell out, unlike certain music channels," Penn told the crowd, which got a bit of an "oooooh" from the audience. Maybe because it was a dig on VH1. Maybe because - let's face it - play most people "Who Are You" today and they'll say, "Oh yeah. I love CSI!" (Not for nothing, but they did create an album in 1967 called...The Who Sell Out). Anyway, Sean Penn introduces Pearl Jam. Now, for those of you that are unaware, Pearl Jam - Eddie Vedder in particular - are GIANT Who fans. Eddie's performed with Pete at Chicago's House of Blues in 99. Well, easily, the best performance NOT by The Who this evening. We get 2 tracks from Quadrophenia:
"Love, Reign O'er Me"
and "The Real Me"
(personally, I would have switched the order they played them). They had their full band with a string quintet and a small horn section, which worked perfectly for both songs. For me, Pearl Jam wins "Best Covers" of the night (although, Tenacious D is a sentimental fave).
Next, a new set of clips discussing, mainly, Squeeze Box. How it's kinda silly, but still rocks and all. Why they didn't use these clips as an intro to Tenacious D performing "Squeeze Box", I have no idea, but I'm sure they'll fix it in post.
After another "We'll be back in 2 and 2!", we get more Doc clips. This time, about the more recent history of The Who. Basically, how Pete and Roger can still work together. What it's like without Keith and John on stage with them, new music, etc...
Suddenly, a lone electric guitar begins chug-chugging an A chord Bo Diddley style. Yes, it's Magic Bus, but it's Adam Sandler performing it, with newly adapted lyrics for the event.
Mainly, each couple of lines is about each of the band members. The audience joins in until Happy Gilmore say, "Here's they are...THE WHO!!!!!!!!!!!!"
OK, the band comes out to huge applause and immediately dive in.
Here's the setlist:
Baba O'Riley - from Who's Next - 1971
(somebody snuck a camera in so this is actually from the concert).
This one's better quality:
The Seeker - from 1970 (released as a single)
Who Are You - from Who Are You - 1978
Behind Blue Eyes - from Who's Next - 1971
2000 Years - from Endless Wire - 2006
You Better You Bet - from Face Dances - 1981
Now, this one, they had to start over after getting thru about 1/2 of it when Pete called it off after experiencing technical problems. I think a monitor went out.
My Generation - from My Generation - 1964
...that went into a riff from
Old Red Wine - from Then & Now - 2004
Won't Get Fooled Again - from Who's Next - 1971
Tea & Theatre - from Endless Wire - 2006
The entire show lasted about 2 1/2 hours. Apart from The Milincubus (or InKunis, if you like) portion, it was a great show. A once in a lifetime concert. The 1st time My girlfriend got to see The Who Live (although, they just announced Nov. 8-9 at the Nokia Theater so maybe she'll get a chance to see a full Who's Left show after all!).
The concert ended around 10:30, so Jenny and I headed over to our friend Jennifer's place for her Big Lebowski Housewarming Party. Luckily, I was wearing My "ABIDE" t-shirt:
(No, that's not me in the picture)
This next video contains adult language and intended for mature...well, it's not for kids:
We stayed for an hour or so, which was good. A very fun party!
Next, onto Canter's for a bissel nosh, nu?
After that, I took Jenny back to her place, yadda yadda yadda, I got home somewhere around 5am, which is ok for me as I work 9pm-6am, Sunday-Thursday.
So, that's it. Great show; great party; great food and great yadda.
Thanks for reading!
Later
ME
First, I pick up my wonderful girlfriend, Jenny and we head over to the Pauley Pavillion at UCLA. We got to see VH1 Rock Honors The WHO.
We arrived around 7:30 for an 8pm show. We found our seats (which were up high, but it's a smaller venue and I couldn't really shell out $300/ticket) and soon after, the announcement came over the P.A.: "Ladies and Gentlemen, please take your seats. The show will begin in 3 minutes. Sure enough, three minutes later, The video montage starts up on the monitors. Quick shots of a myriad of Who fans describing why The Who is the Greatest Rock and Roll Band in the World. Dave Navarro, Slash, Joan Jett, Cameron Crowe, Harry Shearer, Billy Bob Thornton (with 2 guys flanking him; maybe his band mates?), Conan O'Brien, 2 guys from Coldplay, Gordon "Sting" Sumner, Billy Idol, Michael J. Fox (without the J.) and Noel Gallagher. Then, our first presenter appeared.
*Now a side note: My girlfriend is a HUGE X-Files fan. She has the entire run of the series on DVD, books about the show, and we're going to see the new movie in Milwaukee because we're going to be there opening weekend and we HAVE to se it as soon as we can.
Why the side note? Because our first presenter was none other than David Duchovny. She quietly freaks and asks, "Did you know about this?" I didn't. She then tries to figure out just what exactly she would need to do to get us backstage. One of the many reasons I love her is she immediately thinks "us backstage" instead of just her. May seem small, but I'm sure we've all dated people that would've thought, "too bad for you, I'm going backstage". Not Jenny.
Anyway, by now, she's all giddy and Mulder introduces the Foo Fighters. Since they can't help but kick serious ass...they kick ass opening with "Young Man Blues
",
as mean and chunky as it should be. Next, they bring out special guest Gaz Coombes - the lead singer from Supergrass - to launch into "Bargain"
The music was better than the vocals, but what the hell. Even Roger Daltrey has said "I'm a huge fan of Dave Grohl. He's got the mentality of a rock God", and, as I said before, they kick serious ass.
Next up, clips from "Amazing Journey: The Story of The Who" documentary (which VH1 has aired a few times already). First, about the early years (Marquee Club; how they "became" Mods) then about Tommy. Included are more interview clips from list of the names above about why Tommy is so incredible. We then see a pinball machine stage right and there's someone playing it. Someone with a brown ski hat with a silver ball on the top, large yellow sunglasses, and giant boots. No it wasn't Elton John, but Rainn Wilson wearing that outfit. Slightly modifying the lyrics to "Pinball Wizard"
he recites how, "From Scranton down to Pittsburgh, I've played the silver ball" and introduces The Flaming Lips. Wayne Coyne began inside a giant plastic bubble that which traveled over the first few rows of the audience. It was a bit awkward and he didn't get more than 3 0r 4 rows away from the stage before he was pushed onto it so he could emerge to perform a medley of songs from "Tommy".
Good stuff; good job.
We go back to the monitor to see more from the Amazing Journey doc, this time about Keith Moon and various interview clips about how Keith Moon was "The Jimi Hendrix of Drums", according to Noel Gallagher.
Now, here's where the show - for me - took a downward slide:
We see Mila Kunis spotlighted, and with microphone, off to the side in the audience. She begins an introduction for the next act by sleep-talking her way through a pre-written paragraph about how it's appropriate to have her there because she was on a show set in the 70s. Get it? Well, she didn't, because she had to stop and start over with about as much enthusiasm as beige. Anyway, she introduces Incubus (ps. Now, I hate them more because their "official" website has an ad for Days Inn at the top. eesh). They get to perform, "I Can See For Miles
and "I Can't Explain"
Now if I could see for miles, I could have easily picked a better group to perform and for the life of me, I Can't Explain why they were there, except for maybe...MAYBE VH1 thought they'd "bring in the kids" or something. Personally, I could have skipped that whole segment of the concert and not batted an eye about it.
and now, the show begins its upward turn:
Back to the monitor for more doc clips. This time it's all about The Who's sound and performance.
Entwistle's blistering finger work on the Bass, Moon's almost maniacal antithetical-to-the-beat drumming, Pete Townshend's cacophonous power-chords and pick-screeching , Roger Daltrey's vocal power...and a lot of instrument smashing.
Then, the clips focus on John Entwistle, his brilliance and a lead bass guitarist and his role in the band. This leads into our next act: Tenacious D.
KG grins as Jables extols The Who as "the greatest band of all time" (he's correct, btw) and they jump into an acoustic Squeeze Box
,
which was great. Perfect song for them, I think.
When we "come back from commercial", Sean Penn enters the stage. "We know that we're all here tonight because The Who never did sell out, unlike certain music channels," Penn told the crowd, which got a bit of an "oooooh" from the audience. Maybe because it was a dig on VH1. Maybe because - let's face it - play most people "Who Are You" today and they'll say, "Oh yeah. I love CSI!" (Not for nothing, but they did create an album in 1967 called...The Who Sell Out). Anyway, Sean Penn introduces Pearl Jam. Now, for those of you that are unaware, Pearl Jam - Eddie Vedder in particular - are GIANT Who fans. Eddie's performed with Pete at Chicago's House of Blues in 99. Well, easily, the best performance NOT by The Who this evening. We get 2 tracks from Quadrophenia:
"Love, Reign O'er Me"
and "The Real Me"
(personally, I would have switched the order they played them). They had their full band with a string quintet and a small horn section, which worked perfectly for both songs. For me, Pearl Jam wins "Best Covers" of the night (although, Tenacious D is a sentimental fave).
Next, a new set of clips discussing, mainly, Squeeze Box. How it's kinda silly, but still rocks and all. Why they didn't use these clips as an intro to Tenacious D performing "Squeeze Box", I have no idea, but I'm sure they'll fix it in post.
After another "We'll be back in 2 and 2!", we get more Doc clips. This time, about the more recent history of The Who. Basically, how Pete and Roger can still work together. What it's like without Keith and John on stage with them, new music, etc...
Suddenly, a lone electric guitar begins chug-chugging an A chord Bo Diddley style. Yes, it's Magic Bus, but it's Adam Sandler performing it, with newly adapted lyrics for the event.
Mainly, each couple of lines is about each of the band members. The audience joins in until Happy Gilmore say, "Here's they are...THE WHO!!!!!!!!!!!!"
OK, the band comes out to huge applause and immediately dive in.
Here's the setlist:
Baba O'Riley - from Who's Next - 1971
(somebody snuck a camera in so this is actually from the concert).
This one's better quality:
The Seeker - from 1970 (released as a single)
Who Are You - from Who Are You - 1978
Behind Blue Eyes - from Who's Next - 1971
2000 Years - from Endless Wire - 2006
You Better You Bet - from Face Dances - 1981
Now, this one, they had to start over after getting thru about 1/2 of it when Pete called it off after experiencing technical problems. I think a monitor went out.
My Generation - from My Generation - 1964
...that went into a riff from
Old Red Wine - from Then & Now - 2004
Won't Get Fooled Again - from Who's Next - 1971
Tea & Theatre - from Endless Wire - 2006
The entire show lasted about 2 1/2 hours. Apart from The Milincubus (or InKunis, if you like) portion, it was a great show. A once in a lifetime concert. The 1st time My girlfriend got to see The Who Live (although, they just announced Nov. 8-9 at the Nokia Theater so maybe she'll get a chance to see a full Who's Left show after all!).
The concert ended around 10:30, so Jenny and I headed over to our friend Jennifer's place for her Big Lebowski Housewarming Party. Luckily, I was wearing My "ABIDE" t-shirt:
(No, that's not me in the picture)
This next video contains adult language and intended for mature...well, it's not for kids:
We stayed for an hour or so, which was good. A very fun party!
Next, onto Canter's for a bissel nosh, nu?
After that, I took Jenny back to her place, yadda yadda yadda, I got home somewhere around 5am, which is ok for me as I work 9pm-6am, Sunday-Thursday.
So, that's it. Great show; great party; great food and great yadda.
Thanks for reading!
Later
ME
Comments
Rock on!
I hate Seinfeld. But I love you.
Yay! It was fun!