The Who: Live in Boston

Sadly, you would never know that by looking at this DVD. The blame must fall with the editors. It seems that they were simply not close enough to the material.

For instance, most concert DVDs naturally focus more on the singer than the players. This works for most bands, but not the Who. The excitement of a Who show has always stemmed mainly from Pete Townshend's kinetic performances. Unfortunately, the editors here spend more time on Daltrey.

Indeed, the viewer misses Townshend's grand entrance on "Baba O'Riley," because the camera is busy following Daltrey. Absent as well are Townshend's ferocious windmills at the end of "Who Are You", and his prodigious playing during most of "Relay".

When the editors are finally forced to focus on Townshend - during songs like "Eminence Front", in which he sings the lead lines, and "Sparks", a mostly instrumental number - some incredibly energetic music is captured. The latter includes some very cool ad-lib lyrics, by the guitarist.

In regards to John Entwistle, he is missed greatly, of course, but Pino Palladino is a perfectly competent and even exciting bassist in his own right.

I think the bootleg DVDs of the tour - particularly Candem and the Greek Theatre ultimately hold up better.

It's too bad. This could have been really good.

By the way, for those who may not know the members of the Who so well, do you know how much Pete is older than Roger, or who's older - Roger or Pete?