text: Vintage Who show with Keith Moon debuts on TV | NJ.com
  Vintage Who show with Keith Moon debuts on TV
  on September 03, 2008 at 5:48 PM, updated September 03, 2008 at 6:17 PM
  THE WHO IN THE 1970s: JOHN ENTWISTLE, ROGER DALTREY, KEITH MOON, PETE TOWNSHEND
  A previously unreleased concert film by the Who from 1977 will make its TV debut in the New York metro area at 9:30 p.m. Sept. 6 via WLIW21, with encores at 10:30 p.m. Sept. 8 on WLIW21 and 10 p.m. Sept. 10 on Thirteen/WNET. "The Who at Kilburn" features Keith Moon in his second-to-last performance before the drummer's death the next year at age 32. The show was filmed in 35mm with six cameras, the audio recorded on 16 tracks. The footage has been digitally restored and the sound remastered, with a DVD release scheduled for Nov. 18 in a double-disc set. The second DVD features a London Coliseum show from 1969 that includes the first-ever performance of the long-form "Tommy."
  The Dec. 15, 1977, show at the Gaumont State Theatre in Kilburn, North London, was shot for Jeff Stein's classic Who documentary "The Kids Are Alright." The footage lay in the band's vaults for 31 years, because the quartet -- especially an out-of-shape Moon -- was obviously rusty after a year off from the road. As a punk-rock version of "I'm Free" from "Tommy" breaks down, guitarist Pete Townshend -- looking juiced -- mutters into the mike, irritably, "Well, this f***ing wasn't worth filming, Stein; might as well send the cameramen home." The film is a gift to Who fans now, of course, with the original incarnation of the band long gone (bassist John Entwistle dying in 2002). It shows the Who in a kind of ragged glory.
  Red-eyed and glowering, Townshend is on fire from the get-go, yielding a serrated howl from his Les Paul in the opening medley of "Can't Explain" and "Substitute." The visuals are dark, but the audio is full-bodied, with Entwistle's jet-engine bass rattling a listener's bones. The versions of "Baba O'Riley" and "Won't Get Fooled Again" that were filmed later at Shepperton Studios for "The Kids Are Alright" document the latter-day Who at its most together and explosive, but the Kilburn performances are still wonderfully exciting (and you can see Townshend turning his amp up to 11 in "Baba").
  Daltrey is in stentorian voice, and Moon looks clear-eyed, even if he's not always in sync with his band mates. The drummer makes a darkly prophetic joke about taking a break to "go backstage and OD." When he returns for the climax of "Behind Blue Eyes," he beats the skins like a beast. After the breakdown in "I'm Free" and Daltrey's plea to skip the "Tommy" sequence for "some rock'n'roll, some oldies," Moon browbeats the rest into letting him have his solo feature in "Uncle Ernie." It's a garage-band shambles and hilarious. The Who get their mojo back in a storming rendition of Eddie Cochran's "Summertime Blues," with a wild, wooly jam on "My Generation"/"Join Together"/"Who Are You" following. Almost out-of-control, Townshend careens around the stage savagely in the closing "Won't Get Fooled Again," making so many subsequent guitar heroes seem safe as milk.
  WLIW broadcast information for "The Who at Kilburn" is here. Info for the DVD is here, with full set lists for the Kilburn '77 and London Coliseum '69 shows. The 21st-century version of the Who -- with Townshend, Daltrey and company still able to raise a ruckus on a good night -- plays the Izod Center in East Rutherford on Oct. 29 and the Borgata in Atlantic City on Oct. 31. Listen to the latest episode of our TV podcast