The Who's Roger Daltrey and Pete Townshend at Bridgestone Arena in 2012
The Who — famous for the lyric “I hope I die before I get hold,” revered for taking mod urgency to stadium-sized heights, beloved for channeling the angst of disaffected youth on Quadrophenia and singing sagas on behalf of deaf, dumb and blind child-prodigy pinball champions the world over on Tommy — is embarking on a 50th anniversary farewell tour. You can cut the irony with a fucking a knife.
The tour, which Who frontman Roger Daltrey called “the beginning of the long goodbye” in an announcement this morning, hits Bridgestone Arena May 11. According to basic arithmetic, that means it only took two-and-a-half years to return to Nashville after what’s left of The Who made their (regrettably rather tepid) 47-years-in-the-making Nashville debut at the ‘Stone on a 2012 repertory tour of Quadrophenia.
Not unlike the band’s first farewell tour in 1982 — when they’d only been together a mere 17 years, and which featured openers The Clash, a band that actually did proceed to burn out instead of fade away — the band’s benevolent dictator/guitarist Pete Townshend promises the upcoming outing will be a mix of “hits, picks, mixes and misses.” Tickets are $35-$135 and go on sale Friday, Oct. 17, at 10 a.m. here.
In similar news: Yesterday Daltrey and Townshend’s fellow sexagenarian stadium gladiators Fleetwood Mac announced a Nashville date on their own 2015 Golden Years Revived Not Necessarily Relived Tour (unofficial title).
The Mac makes way to Bridgestone March 18, where they last played in 2009, during the arena’s Sommet Center days. It was, despite a solid-as-fuck set list and Lindsey Buckingham’s awesomely uncomfortable guitargasm faces, a plodding, lackluster show that made The Spin feel, “like we were 15 again, bored and squirming in our seats.” But this time around, ringer singer Christine McVie is, following a 16-year furlough, back in the band. So maybe that’ll make all the difference. Tickets for that rock ’n’ roll celebration of social security cost $45-$175 and go on sale Oct. 27 at 10 a.m. here.
To be clear, there’s nothing wrong with still rocking into old age (case in point: Bruce Springsteen, who as of last month, is eligible for social security); but let’s put into perspective just how fucking old these bands are.
This week, The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame announced nominees for its class of 2015. Among newly induction-eligible artists are pop-punk revivalists turned Who-style rock-opera opiners Green Day, industrial goth-rock superstars Nine Inch Nails and Morrissey-esque architects of mid-‘80s Manchester mope-jangle The Smiths. Three bands that formed within either a few years before or a few years after The Who’s first reunion tour.
Also nominated are Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, Lou Reed, The Spinners, Sting, Chic, Kraftwerk, The Marvelettes, Bill Withers, War, Stevie Ray Vaughan and The Paul Butterfield Blues Band. You can vote for who you think should get the rock honor over at Rolling Stone.
