14 Oct 2009

SO FAR, SO VERY GOOD

Howie Edelson at United Stations Radio Network has written enthusisatic reviews of the first two gigs in Roger Daltrey’s ‘Use it or lose it’ solo tour.
 
ROGER DALTREY KICKS OFF ‘USE IT OR LOSE IT’ SOLO TOUR IN VANCOUVER SATURDAY OCTOBER 10th
 
AND DUETS WITH EDDIE VEDDER IN SEATTLE ON THE SECOND STOP OF THE TOUR, MONDAY OCTOBER 12th
 
Late Breaking News: Eddie Vedder surprises Roger Daltrey on stage at the Showbox Music Club in Seattle. The two mega-watt voices came together and sang two songs, leaving audiences in awe and wanting more! “A Better Man” from Pearl Jam’s Vitalogy and “The Real Me” from The Who’s Quadrophenia album.
 
Roger Daltrey blew more than a few minds last Saturday night (October 10th) during the kickoff to his eagerly anticipated Use It Or Lose It solo tour. After opening with the Who’s 1978 classic “Who Are You” Daltrey and his five-piece backing band — which includes Simon Townshend — launched into the Who’s 1967’s single “Pictures Of Lily” which Daltrey and the band haven’t performed in 20 years. Daltrey then did the unthinkable by performing two of Pete Townshend’s best known Who songs for the first time, launching into the 1971 Who’s Next favorite “Going Mobile,” and 1975’s The Who By Numbers standout “Blue, Red & Grey” — which Daltrey performed alone on the ukulele.
 
He went on to break ground by tackling the late John Entwistle’s signature tune “Boris The Spider” along other Who standards including “I Can See For Miles,” “Tattoo,” and “Young Man’s Blues.” The show was light on solo material, featuring only three tracks: “Days Of Light,” “A Second Out,” and “Who’s Gonna Walk On Water.”
 
Daltrey performed a two-song Johnny Cash medley featuring “I Got Stripes” and “Ring Of Fire” along with two songs — “Freedom Ride” and “Gimme A Stone” — from the 1998 concept album Largo which is based around classical composer Antonin Dvorak’s 9th Symphony.
 
During the show Daltrey also played the acoustic-based “2000 Years” — from the Who’s last album Endless Wire, “Squeeze Box,” “Baba O’Riley” — and the live debut of the Who’s “Cache Cache” from 1981’s Face Dances, before wrapping the show with “The Real Me” from Quadrophenia.
 
We asked Daltrey if he conferred with Townshend before deciding on hitting the road on his own: “Of course I did. I always do that. Always do that. My first thing in life has always been the Who. I started that band, so of course I always do that. I said to Pete, ‘I’ve gotta get off my ass and sing, otherwise it’s not gonna be there if we wanna work next year.’ I ran it past him and he said, ‘No, I don’t want to be working in that period — go ahead.’ But I do realize just in these last two weeks in rehearsal, it’s a bloody good job I did this. ‘Cause it would’ve been four times as hard next year.”
 
Although Daltrey has released eight solo albums throughout his career to varying degrees of success, he stresses that a solo career never meant any more to him than a way to bide his time between Who projects: “Well y’know, again, it was a hobby. It’s just because there used to be these huge periods of time where Pete didn’t wanna work. He was writing songs, he didn’t wanna be on the road, he wanted to be with his family — he had a young family. And I used to think ‘I can’t not sing, it’s been the joy of my life.’ It saved my life. I would’ve… probably ended up in jail and I wouldn’t been here if it wasn’t for music. So it was much better than sitting there and watching the TV (laughs).”
 

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