Going to Pennsylvania

The year 2002 marked the 40th anniversary of the Who, the British rock band whose reputation is on the same level as bands such as the Beatles and Led Zeppelin. Even after the death of their legendary drummer Keith Moon in 1978, and after the recent death of their bassist John Entwistle on June 27th (the day before the first concert of the 2002 tour), the Who have remained unstoppable. They quickly found a substitute for the late Entwistle, who, as the dubbed “Bass Player of the Millennium” was not easy to replace, and their current drummer is Zak Starkey, son of Richard Starkey, better known to the world as Ringo Starr. As the opening act of the Eastern leg of the tour, Led Zeppelin vocalist Robert Plant performed both his recent songs, and Zeppelin classics.

Unfortunately, no date was scheduled in the immediate Washington D.C. area. Since I am a huge Led Zeppelin fan and a huge Who fan, I bought tickets to see them perform at the closest location, and also reserved a hotel room in order to have extra time just to be a tourist. So, on July 29th my friend, Sarah, and I went to Hershey, Pennsylvania, equipped with two section A tickets.

We arrived at the stadium as the gates were opening. The crowd was huge! We had to part the swarm to get to our seats, which were only twenty rows from the stage. Since the stadium is usually used for sports, the stage was placed on one end of the field, and a few hundred seats had been set in front of the stage. Approximately 28,000 people filled the stadium, and the majority of them had to sit in the bleacher seating. At first I felt really sorry for those people who had spent $70 to sit on a hard bleacher so far from the stage, but then I remembered that the Who are, according to the Guinness Book of World Records, the loudest band in history. At that point I started wondering if I would ever be able to hear again.

Onstage

Finally at around seven thirty Robert Plant and his band came on stage. He played a short set, but included both new songs and some Led Zeppelin classics like “Going to California,” and “Babe, I’m Gonna Leave You.” I was so thrilled to be seeing him that I was almost in a state of shock. I could not believe that everyone was not as attentive as I, but sadly, the audience only responded to the Zeppelin songs. They hardly even clapped for the non-Zeppelin pieces, and my friend actually got yelled at for standing, because everyone else was sitting out of boredom. It was the first concert I have ever been to where nobody stood.

I honestly wondered what was wrong with the audience, especially when I realized that even more people showed up after Plant’s concert. I realize that the Who was the main attraction, but most people that like the Who also like Led Zeppelin, so I did not expect them to actually avoid Plant’s concert.

After Plant left the stage, the crowd actually began cheering and calling for more. Plant came back for an encore. To appease the Zeppelin fans, he played an extremely lengthy version of “Whole Lotta Love,” which included bits of other songs as well.

Once stagehands started changing the instruments, we knew that the Who would not be on for another thirty minutes. We started talking to the people around us. One boy next to me was dressed in a British flag and he kept trying to get backstage. I thought it was amusing, especially since the guards would not let him, but at least he gave it a shot.

There was a guy standing in front of me talking to his friend (beside me), and when I saw his face I thought to myself, “I know that man. He looks so familiar.” Then I realized that he could have been the twin brother of the Who’s Pete Townshend. We talked for a bit, and uncannily, his birthday is the same day as Townshend’s, only he is twenty one years younger. I thought it was completely bizarre, especially since Townshend has such a unique appearance.

Suddenly, the lights went out and all that was left was a dim purple light onstage. “Fake Pete Townshend” told Sarah and I that there were a few empty seats near him, and that we could watch the Who from those seats, which were about nine rows closer to the stage than ours. We ran down the aisle and found the seats just as the Who walked onstage.

Pete Townshend came onstage and greeted the crowd with some rather colorful language, which was expected of him, and apologized sarcastically. Then, the loudest band in history began their set with “I Can’t Explain,” one of their first hits from the early 60s. They followed it with some of their best songs: “Anyway, Anywhere, Anyhow,” “Substitute,” “Baba O’Reilly,” “Who Are You,” “My Generation, “Won’t Get Fooled Again,” “5:15,” “Bargain,” “Love Reign Over Me,” and so many others that it is impossible to name them all. In the middle of the set, they left the stag and projected pictures of John Entwistle on the large screens. Afterwards, they played a song in his honor, and finished up with “Listening to You,” but came back onstage for an encore. They played for over two hours, and at their age I thought that was amazing.

In between songs there were a few seconds of relative quiet, so the guy next to me started talking to me. I was so jealous when he told me that it was his 300th Who concert. His parents were rich, so he’d never had to work, and actually took off several years in the seventies to follow the Who. I think it would be great to be able to do things like that, but there must also be a certain element of dissatisfaction involved as well. If one never has to do anything, then one does not accomplish things, unless one counts the 300th concert as an accomplishment. Nevertheless, I was mainly jealous because he had gotten the chance to see the Who while Keith Moon was still alive, and I always kick myself for being born after he died.

Getting 28,000 people out of two entrances is not easy, so we were stuck in the crowd for quite some time. We finally got through and navigated our way to my car, where we were stuck once again as people tried to get out of the lot. Finally we were free and luckily the hotel was less than a mile away. I honestly have not slept so well in a long time.

The Who was definitely one of the best concerts I have been to. After over forty years, they are still so popular that the day after the concert a saw a six-year old boy wearing a

“the Who” shirt. Not only are they popular, but as senior citizens, they still sound great, even without two of their original members. Before the concert, I told myself that I had to see the Who once before they stop being the Who, but now I have another problem: Since I have seen them once, I want to see them again and again.