There are tours and then there are tours. And then there are tour announcements that are jaw-dropping, mind-blowing, once-in-a-lifetime opportunities you never want to miss. That’s how I felt when I saw the announcement of The Who Hits Back! Tour. Two years after their MOVING ON! Tour, The Who were making their way back to North America on a 28-city tour with a full orchestra accompanying them. Both Roger Daltrey and Pete Townshend have played with orchestras on solo tours, and they included it with the MOVING ON! Tour, but that was cut short due to the pandemic. It was great to hear they were bringing the orchestra back with this tour. This was a show not to be missed by this legendary band and I was elated to be approved to review their show at the Vystar Veterans Memorial Arena in Jacksonville, FL.
It surprisingly took me shorter than I expected to reach the parking garage right around the corner from the venue. I met up with the other media members and the venue manager who got us settled in before we went out to photograph the open artist. When they were ready to take us out I had the chance to look around this beautiful arena. There were food and drink selections all around as one would expect and the arena was larger than I expected and looked wonderful. I’d definitely consider coming back to review other shows at this location in the future.
The opening artist was Leslie Mendelson with Steve McEwen. All Music described her as a “1970s songwriter influences in the vein of Carole King and Carly Simon.” And they are spot on. She released her debut album in 2009 titled Swan Feathers which would receive a Grammy nomination. The Brooklyn-born singer would release her second album in 2017 titled Love & Murder. Leslie has collaborated with the legendary Jackson Browne and The Grateful Dead’s Bob Weir. She also opened for The Who during their MOVING ON! Tour for two nights at Madison Square Garden in 2020. She was supposed to open for three more nights, but the pandemic postponed the tour. Leslie was brought back to perform at our show in Jacksonville.
With nothing more than an acoustic guitar and a harmonica and Steve with an electric guitar, Leslie performed a small set of what I would call soulful music. Leslie’s vocal talents are very impressive. Clear as crystal and full of invoking emotions rang through the arena as she performed. Her second song “Jericho” was just truly touching both musically and lyrically. For such a large arena, Leslie managed to make it feel like such an intimate setting for the crowd. Though media only got to see a short portion of her set that night, I would highly recommend looking up her video for “Hardest Part” that she performed that evening. Also, check out “Medication”, which is such a hauntingly beautiful song, and “All Come Together”. You can find Leslie’s music and merch HERE. Her setlist that night was:
- I Gotta Go
- Jericho
- Rock and Roll on The Radio
- Lay It All on Me
- Medication
- Hardest Part/Yer So Bad
- All Come Together
And then we were ready for the legendary British rock band The Who. Formed back in 1964, The Who has provided fans for years rock music that would influence future rock artists for generations. Their debut album My Generation title track blew away fans and critics minds with their unique writing style and music that just drew people in. That album would go on to sell over 200,000 records in their first two weeks. The single “My Generation” would peak at #2 on the British charts and that was only the beginning. The Who would go on to release eleven more studio albums including the legendary Tommy in 1969 which had one of the most recognized songs “Pinball Wizard”. That album would go on to reach double Platinum status (2,000,000 record sales) in the United States. And even over the years with the loss of founding members John Entwistle and Keith Moon, The Who continued on carrying their spirit throughout countless tours around the world. And while The Who took a break from recording after 1982’s It’s Hard, they still came back to release Endless Wire in 2006 and most recently Who in 2019. And now they were back on the road for The Who Hits Back! Tour.
The lineup on this tour included founding members Roger Daltrey (vocals) and Pete Townshend (guitar). The rest of The Who included Pete’s brother Simon Townshend (guitar/backing vocals), Jon Button (bass), Zak Starkey (drums), Loren Gold (keyboards), and Emily Marshall (second keyboards). They also had Billy Nicholls as a backing vocalist. The 48-member orchestra was led by conductor Keith Levenson.
The Who opened up their show with the instrumental “Overture” from Tommy. A wonderful collaboration with Roger playing tambourines and the orchestra accompanying the rest of The Who on the song. They followed up with “1921” also from Tommy. Roger hit every note with ease, Pete’s guitar notes sounded amazing, and Zak was very impressive on the drumset. They would perform a few more tracks from the album including “Sparks”, “Pinball Wizard”, and “We’re Not Going To Take It”. The crowd was loving it and it was a fantastic start to the show.
And The Who were getting the crowd involved to join in on the fun. Roger walked from side to middle to side to get the crowd to sing along with “Join Together” which was released as a single in 1972. It was great to see Roger having fun with the crowd as he held out the mic towards them to get them to sing. After that song, the orchestra left the stage. Pete jokingly said they needed a break from the orchestra, but really the orchestra needed a break from them. Before they started playing the next song, Pete told the crowd his brother Simon felt Pete never hit the chords right on this song. That song was “Substitute” a single from 1966 that would be later included on the compilation album Meaty Beaty Big and Bouncy in 1971. And Pete threw in some windmills during the performance and asked the crowd after if he hit the chords right. They cheered back in approval.
“I Can See For Miles” was a beautifully done rendition with the band. Simon is a very good guitarist, Jon did a great job with the bass riffs, but I definitely need to call out Zak whose drumming was just superb that night. The passion and intensity of his playstyle fit perfectly. Loren and Emily’s playing was perfectly in key. And of course, we can’t leave out the fantastic guitar playing of Pete hitting every chord perfectly and Roger who vocally was just amazing. I truly enjoyed it when Pete and Roger spoke to the crowd telling the history and stories of these songs. I feel like a tour of storytelling songs for The Who would be an amazing time.
The Who stripped it down to a more intimate setting of just Roger and Pete for an acoustic version of “Won’t Get Fooled Again” from the 1971 album Who’s Next. That was just a chilling and memorable rendition. There’s nothing better than hearing a song stripped down acoustically to truly see its soul. But, it got even better when they brought out Katie Jacoby (violin) and Audrey Synder (cello) to perform “Behind Blue Eyes” from that same album. I was blown away by this version. It’s a track they should record with Katie and Audrey for the world to hear.
The orchestra returned to the stage to close out the performance with the next few songs. “Ball and Chain” from the recent 2019 album Who. “The Rock” was very emotional for me from the 1973 album Quadrophenia. A totally instrumental song where they had video clips playing on the monitor of major events in world history. Included in there was the NYC attack on 9/11, the death of Princess Diana, “Tank Man”, the person who stopped a column of tanks rolling through Tiananmen Square in protest against the Chinese government, and the Columbia and Challenger explosions. These were all things I remember growing up. The Who closed the night with “Love, Reign O’er Me” also from Quadrophenia and with an orchestra it was so powerful and amazing. Roger’s vocals were just so good on this song. And then finished with “Baba O’Reilly” from Who’s Next. Katie Jacoby came out from the orchestra to solo violin.
You can find The Who’s music and merch HERE. Their setlist that night was:
- Overture
- 1921
- Amazing Journey
- Sparks
- Pinball Wizard
- We’re Not Gonna Take It
- Who Are You
- Eminence Front
- Imagine A Man
- Join Together
With Just The Band
- Substitute
- You Better Bet
- I Can See for Miles
- Won’t Get Fooled Again (acoustic Roger and Pete only)
- Behind Blue Eyes (with Katie Jacoby and Audrey Synder)
Orchestra Returns
- Ball and Chain
- The Real Me
- I’m One
- 5:15
- The Rock
- Love, Reign O’er Me
- Baba O-Reilly (with Katie Jacoby)
The Who Hits Back! in Jacksonville, FL was such an amazing show. I highly recommend catching this tour while you can. The Who puts on such a memorable performance with a fantastic selection of songs. This is a tour I’ll remember forever.
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