{"id":6215,"date":"2025-08-18T02:44:09","date_gmt":"2025-08-18T02:44:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/6215\/"},"modified":"2025-08-18T02:44:09","modified_gmt":"2025-08-18T02:44:09","slug":"the-who-farewell-tour-mixes-hits-with-rarities-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/6215\/","title":{"rendered":"The Who farewell tour mixes hits with rarities \u2013 Review"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"play\"<\/p>\n

The Who announces final American tour ‘The Song is Over’<\/p>\n

‘The Song is Over’ for legendary British rock band The Who. The band is saying goodbye to fans with their final North American tour.<\/p>\n

SUNRISE, Fla. \u2013 A mere 42 years ago, The Who<\/a> played what it called The Final Concert<\/a> in Toronto.<\/p>\n

That, of course, turned out to be false advertising.<\/p>\n

But this time, it really is the end<\/a>. Fini. Ciao. Au revoir.<\/p>\n

The Who \u2013 Roger Daltrey<\/a> and Pete Townshend and a coterie of top flight musicians \u2013 kicked off the fittingly named\u00a0The Song Is Over North American Farewell Tour<\/a>\u00a0at Amerant Bank Arena in suburban Fort Lauderdale on Saturday, Aug. 16. The band will play 16 more concert<\/a>s through September before Daltrey unfurls his \u201cWon\u2019t Get Fooled Again\u201d bellow and Townshend windmills on his guitar during \u201cMy Generation\u201d for the final time.<\/p>\n

Though a few technical glitches and sound problems visibly irritated Daltrey, the pair appeared in good spirits throughout the 23-song, two-hour-ish show.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor those with deep pockets, Roger and I are available for private parties,\u201d Townshend told the full arena following a declaration that this is truly the The Who\u2019s<\/a> swan song.<\/p>\n

The Who setlist: <\/strong>All the songs on the iconic band’s farewell tour<\/a><\/p>\n

What songs does The Who play on its farewell tour?<\/p>\n

Prior to this North American tour<\/a>, named for a song on The Who’s 1971 “Who’s Next” album, the band played a pair of concerts in Italy in July. While they retained the obvious staples<\/a> of any Who show \u2013 \u201cBaba O\u2019Riley,\u201d \u201cPinball Wizard\u201d and set opener \u201cI Can\u2019t Explain\u201d among them \u2013 for this run, they also chucked a few curveballs.<\/p>\n

A pair of songs from that landmark \u201cWho\u2019s Next\u201d release incited cheers from hardcore fans who haven\u2019t had many opportunities to hear \u201cBargain,\u201d its romantic message buried inside a swish of psychedelic rock, and \u201cGoing Mobile,\u201d<\/a> a Townshend-penned song being played for the first time as The Who.<\/p>\n

Toward the end of the show, Townshend sat with an acoustic guitar while Daltrey emoted during \u201cTea & Theatre,\u201d an infrequently played cut from 2006\u2019s mini opera \u201cEndless Wire\u201d that showed how dedicated the band is to mixing up its setlist for this final run.<\/p>\n

How did Roger Daltrey sound on The Who farewell tour?<\/p>\n

Given his own admissions<\/a> about vocal struggles and hearing loss, it\u2019s fair to wonder if Daltrey, at 81, still possesses a modicum of the robust voice associated with one of the greatest rock singers in history.<\/p>\n

The answer would be mostly.<\/p>\n

After a raspy few opening songs, Daltrey, a silver fox in tinted glasses, a long-sleeve T-shirt and practical sneakers, found his comfort zone on \u201cThe Seeker.\u201d Though three band members \u2013 guitarist Simon Townshend, keyboardist Loren Gold and backing vocalist John Hogg \u2013 routinely handled the heavy lifting on the harmonies, especially during the ping-pong vocals that form the coda of \u201cWho Are You,\u201d Daltrey found the notes<\/a> when he needed them most.<\/p>\n

For every strained vocal, such as on \u201cBehind Blue Eyes,\u201d which the band restarted after technical difficulties, there was a visceral \u201cSee Me, Feel Me,\u201d the insistent \u201cTommy\u201d overture that Daltrey poured his soul into.<\/p>\n

At song\u2019s end, Daltrey grinned at Townshend with a look that said, \u201cSomehow I got through it.\u201d Townshend clapped Daltrey\u2019s shoulder in affirmation, a show of affection between two very different personalities who nonetheless created 60 years of memories.<\/p>\n

‘You’ll never remember the perfect show,’ The Who’s Roger Daltrey says<\/p>\n

Throughout the show, Townshend, 80, the black-clad guitar architect, shredded riffs and nimbly raced his fingers down the fretboard.<\/p>\n

While he acknowledged his own vocal shortcomings and turned the mic over to brother Simon for \u201cGoing Mobile,\u201d he steered \u201cEminence Front\u201d with barked lyrics over the song\u2019s metronomic cadence.<\/p>\n

The Who was also joined by longtime collaborators Jon Button on bass, Jody Linscott on percussion, and, sliding onto the throne occupied by Zak Starkey<\/a> for nearly 30 years, drummer Scott Devours.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have no idea who he is,\u201d Townshend joked when introducing the band.<\/p>\n

Devours is a veteran of Daltrey\u2019s solo band<\/a>, and he exhausted himself with The Who\u2019s hard-hitting tom-tom fills and snare slaps immortalized by original drummer Keith Moon.<\/p>\n

Though the song is soon-to-be over for The Who, they\u2019ve orchestrated a concert that wraps their legacy with pride.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019ll never remember the perfect show,\u201d Daltrey said after another technical issue paused the start of the sprightly \u201cYou Better You Bet.\u201d \u201cYou\u2019ll remember the (screw)-ups.\u201d<\/p>\n

So was this show “perfect”? No. But that was never the point of rock \u2018n\u2019 roll.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Who announces final American tour ‘The Song is Over’ ‘The Song is Over’ for legendary British rock…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6216,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[264],"tags":[840,365,5020,6322,18,117,6319,19,17,526,5718,337,1221,5,713,1234,1142,6318,6321,1214,6320,716,4082],"class_list":{"0":"post-6215","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-affiliate","9":"tag-arts","10":"tag-concerts","11":"tag-concerts-u0026-music-festivals","12":"tag-eire","13":"tag-entertainment","14":"tag-festivals","15":"tag-ie","16":"tag-ireland","17":"tag-local","18":"tag-local-affiliate-arts-u0026-entertainment","19":"tag-music","20":"tag-neutral","21":"tag-news","22":"tag-overall","23":"tag-overall-neutral","24":"tag-review","25":"tag-rock","26":"tag-rock-music","27":"tag-the","28":"tag-the-who","29":"tag-u0026","30":"tag-who"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6215","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6215"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6215\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6216"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6215"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6215"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6215"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}