The Who wrapped up the first leg of their Moving Up!tour last night(Thursday) in Pittsburgh at the PPG Paints Arena.
Brian Kehew, the band's keyboard tech, continues to add to his Backstage Blog, even talking about a blunder on his part at the May 23rd date outside St. Louis during the Tommy portion of the show.
He writes, "As a metronome sound used to keep orchestra, conductor and band synchronized together, the machine must change from song to song in a few seconds between tunes, and I quickly dialed it to ‘Pinball Wizard’ then hit PLAY without noticing it had crept forward one more track -- to another song! The click track started OK (luckily it was a similar tempo) but seconds into it, I had to stop it mid-intro as it was wrong and could really screw things up later. No one else knew what was happening, just that their click-track was gone. (We do have some songs without click in the show, so it’s likely to be OK and make it to the end, as you normally do -- The Who always forges ahead.) But in this case, despite the screw-up, I thought ‘Pinball Wizard’ tonight came out better than any version yet on the tour -- for feel. Hmmm."
Kehew also posted a reportabout their show in Detroit, where, on the video screen they posted a tribute to Russ Gibb, the Detroit disc jockey and owner of the legendary Grande Ballroom who passed away this month. "The Grande Ballroom was the scene of most rock activity in the area, and became the home of The Who when in the Midwest... This town has a connection to Tommy... The Grande Ballroom was the place where the first live performance of the rock opera was given in the U.S.A. -- May 9th, 1969."
The Who will perform in Wembley Stadium in their native London on July 6th before returning to North America on September 3rd in Toronto.