Member Review: Roger Daltrey

BPD member JoanRandall sent this to us:

His voice was rough, but his spirit was quite willing.

Roger Daltrey's Use It or Lose It solo tour is supposed to be about keeping his voice in shape should The Who go out on the road next year.

But even the 65-year-old singer admitted he was sounding mighty hoarse. He told me before he took the stage, "Every time we're coming through here, I get a cold. We'll get through it. I take breaks to let the pipes cool down a bit."

I asked why, at age 65, he was doing this. He said "The No. 1 reason is to get my ass off the sofa. I don't know ... singers with fat asses, ugh!"

And so he and his five-man band, which included Who guitarist Pete Townshend's young brother Simon on guitar and Frank Simes on lead guitar - valiantly soldiered on for the next hour-and-45-minutes. Daltry was having so much fun up on stage, his enthusiasm and playfulness was infectious.

Clad in a white shirt, blue jeans, blue-tinted glasses, and looking a decade and a half younger than his actual age, the singer was in a chatty, story-and-joke-telling mood between songs.

The set list was made up of Who classics, some of his solo work and covers (Taj Mahal's Freedom Ride, Levon Helm's Gimme A Stone, Bo Diddley's I'm A Man, Johnny Cash's I Got Stripes, Ring Of Fire, etc).

Daltrey eventually broke out his signature microphone twirling moves during Young Man's Blues - which featured some stellar playing from Simes - and the show standout, Baba O' Riley (even unbuttoning his shirt for this one), but otherwise maintained an acoustic folk-rootsy vibe throughout the show.

He even turned The Who classic My Generation into a blues number.

Interestingly, Daltrey chose to close the show with a never performed, Townshend-sung Who number, Blue, Red and Gray, with just him alone on stage and playing a ukele .

"Pete - he would never sing it on stage," explained the singer before mimicking Townshend's voice: "I'd look f---ing stupid standing up there with a f---ing ukelele."

"Well, here I am," concluded Daltrey to cheers from the audience. "And do I give a sh--?"

SET LIST:

Who Are You

Pictures Of Lily

Tattoo

Behind Blue Eyes

Days Of Light

The Kids Are Alright

Freedom Ride

Gimme A Stone

Going Mobile

Who's Gonna Walk On Water

Squeezebox

I Can See For Miles

My Generation

I'm A Man

Young Man Blues

Baba O'Riley

Johnny Cash Medley

Blue, Red and Grey

There are no words to express what it feels like to spend even 30 seconds with a giant like Daltrey. BPD, if I never get another pass from you, I don't care. This was IT!

Happy to hear you enjoyed IT, JoanRandall.

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