The second time I saw The Who it was 2008 during the annual Electronic Entertainment Expo. Harmonix had found success with the core Rock Band game as well as some downloadable tracks the previous year (though it had created the genre a couple of years earlier with Guitar Hero). While the concept had proven feasible, it wasn’t quite the massive phenomenon as we remember it.
But that was about to change.
While there were individual songs by major acts, even The Who, it was 2008 when full albums by Judas Priest and The Cars were made available. A few band-centric packs were made available as well, but The Who was the first of the major classic, all-time great bands to jump in with a major batch of songs.
To celebrate the release of The Best Of The Who which contained 12 additional songs to those previously available, Harmonix and Electronic Arts threw a party. Well, party is a bit of a misnomer. At the Orpheum theater in Los Angeles on July 16, 2006 The Who took the stage and ripped through several songs. Actually, the audience would have been happy with the band coming out to bang out 3 to 5 songs, but The Who played more than 15 songs and their set lasted about 90 minutes.
Hits like “My Generation” and “Baba O Riley” were highlights of the set, though the band’s rock opera Tommy got quite a bit of play as well, especially during the encore. It was, in so many words, a fantastic set.
Almost exactly 4 years earlier I saw The Who perform and the set list was almost the same. There were some different songs of course, and the set was a few songs shorter, but it was a full set. While I didn’t have the best seats, they were still good and the concert was simply fantastic.
And free.