4 Sep 2025
Saturday 30 August 2025: Madison Square Garden, NYC
Show Report: Aug 30, 2025; Madison Square Garden, New York City
Back in the most-famous venue in the world. Dead center/centre of New York City is a massive train station, Penn Station. On top of that is a medium-sized concert hall, the Felt Forum. On top of that is a huge arena, Madison Square Garden. This venue also happens to be the place where The Who have done the most shows; 35 previous, plus tonight makes 36. (In contrast, the Royal Albert Hall and the old Marquee club in London also were venues with over 30 shows.) In the olden days of not so long ago, they used to play multiple nights here. In order to meet ticket demand, they would have 4 or 5 or 6 shows here, all selling out pretty easily. They used to have 4 or 5, even 6 shows here, which really built up those numbers.
However, promoters have changed the model – fewer shows at higher prices, ouch! Everyone here is constantly aware of the costs of every damn thing in this world, and how nobody in the normal world makes much more than they did. So YOUR significant sacrifices to come to a show are noted and appreciated: We always hope it’s a good one for you all . . . and here is a big sold-out night in New York City
Our VIP ticket folks wandered in at the appointed time. The band usually run through some of the ‘same old things’ that help them know “how is the sound today?” and what needs to be done to adjust for today’s setup. Then, they work out any noted problems from the last show, and often polish up something new/old that hasn’t been played in a while. It’s a fascinating time. Pete and Rog are usually not as-chatty as you might see them onstage; they are here to work, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t jokes and insults and strange bits happening – it’s The Who, after all. At one point, it’s clear the Roger isn’t hitting some notes he wanted on ‘The Song Is Over’, and he starts experimenting with his voice. From out of nowhere, a SUPER-high sound comes up. “What’s feeding back?” says our sound man Robert Collins. It’s Roger, singing a supersonic squeal note up to the rafters. Seriously, it sounds inhuman it’s so high. “That’s actually astonishing, Rog . . .” Pete says, and notes that it’s Mariah Carey stuff he’s hitting. Loren Gold says that he’s hitting a high-D note, which is unbelievable at any age!
Feist opens up again, and this time everybody is here, sitting and listening in the big room. They sound great here (a good sign for us) as well as having a bit more power in the sound. Her voice really shines and carries, and it certainly seems like they’re instantly popular with this crowd. Toward the end, she even teaches the crowd a simple sing-along melody, which they do loudly join in; that’s pretty unusual and cool for a supporting artist to get. It’s been great having them along.
Roger meets up with the legendary Spike Lee, celebrating the 35th anniversary of his movie, Do The Right Thing
Not much too mention about the beginning but the instant vibe in the room. Pete mentions the 36 shows thing, and how it feels to be here, very likely for the last time. (Yeah, it feels truer and truer each night we appear – Sad to say.) People are hanging on every note and word here, and it feels special. ‘Who Are You’ starts with a blast of guitar feedback from Pete’s Strat – he’s wanted me to “go! go! go!” with the backing synth track, but as usual, Roger’s guitar is not on yet, so he wants to fill up the dead air in the room – so “weeeeeeee!!!!!”; that guitar holds out a long high note before the slam into the song.
Video courtesy of LyndaChill
Both of them look cooler than usual: Pete’s wearing sneakers (“trainers” in England) which look like he’s ready to jump around, good. And Roger’s got a dark long sleeve top on, instead of the beach blue t-shirt styles he has had – and it brings something serious and cool/dark to what he’s singing tonight, quite a good look!
Video courtesy of George George
A nice surprise happens pretty early in the set; they’d rehearsed ‘Long Live Rock’ back in London before our Italian tour, and it never made the set. Tonight, in order to be a little special for New York, it’s fifth in the show. Pete tells us that like in old films, where they say “The king is dead, long live the king!” he thought about honoring rock music (as dead) with a similar anthem. He does mention rock has lived on, and says he didn’t hear much of the Feist set, but he knew that people loved it. The song is great tonight, tons of cool piano parts from Loren, who is clearly enjoying it, as are all the band and audience singing along. Pete has re-formed the vocal into a new thing, showing that it needn’t be a clone of the original to be really, really good. The audience noise when it kicked off was amazing – they seemed to know just how special this is. The last time I remember hearing it was? [Editor: Brian, it was December 2, 2014 at First Direct Arena, Leeds, England ]
After a few more tunes, it seems Roger’s voice hasn’t fully recovered from whatever was up at soundcheck, though he’s hitting the parts, it’s not as strong as he’d like. Pete jumps in between songs: “I don’t know how hard you all work for a living. Probably you do work very hard. Well, this is fucking easy, I tell you: I’m surprised we get paid for it!” Then he thinks and says “I’m sure Roger will disagree!” When ‘My Generation’ comes up, Pete says “We probably shouldn’t be singing this at our age . . . Fuck it!!” and launches into that riff. People love it. Tonight, though, ‘My Generation’ doesn’t quite slide into ‘Cry If You Want’. It’s quite a puzzle for them to figure out how it’s supposed to happen; each night is different, and they like it unpredictable and jammy. Sometimes that works great, sometimes not so much.
‘5:15’ takes a re-start as Pete’s not happy with his first few chords. No problem, start again – and it’s strong. Loren Gold sets up the mood, in a deep blue light for the opening of ‘Love Reign O’er Me’; it feels very intimate and yet heavy in this huge place. Roger pushes himself ever-harder, especially tonight as we’re hearing him work on it. He even takes some breaks to grab a drink of water. (This is key, air-conditioning really does evaporate moisture from the air, and it’s been going too strong in here, despite our wishes. We send messages to get it off NOW before we might lose the show . . .) And somehow, it all works out and the air gets warm which, like hot yoga, is good for the muscles, throat or otherwise.
Video courtesy of George George
Another change-up: ‘Won’t Get Fooled Again’ moves before ‘Baba O’Riley’. It’s likely so we can end on the Katie Jacoby section, which is a new big moment, but it feels very strange to have them in this order, just because it’s been the other way ‘round for a while. Each song is a world-class monster, so it’s always a great way to peak-out the show.
Video courtesy of Mark Fintz
Afterward ‘The Song Is Over’ section – thematically ending the show with a message about this tour. And ‘Tea and Theatre’ goes OK, not ideal, but at the end, both stop to talk – a good amount of talking for the close of a show. They discuss that they both met in 1961 (!) and Roger informed Pete “You’re in my band, be there at 7:30pm” and off they went as The Detours. They also talked about their unexpected relationship; how it doesn’t really work in the normal way. Pete tried to show Roger how to golf. “I became a very ‘agricultural’ golfer!” Roger said (hitting up a lot of sod). Then they tried to go fishing together, and Pete wasn’t very good at that either. “Until I got my own big, huge, fuck-off boat!” he laughs. They hug and thank the crowd for the amazing support since they started here on their first-ever North American tour.
Video courtesy of Rathient
It was a long night, lots of ups and exciting things happening, but what a show – full of events and comments and great music. Absolute emotion and power throughout, this is turning out to be such a great tour. Yeah they are a certain age, but maybe that’s even better?! They are stunning over and over each night. And the crowd were really loud in response, which I suppose we should be expecting by now. People are feeling these shows, especially at the end, it feels heavy – but good!
Onward!
Tonight’s Set List follows after the photo. If you don’t wish to know it, look away NOW!
I Can’t Explain
Substitute
Who Are You
The Seeker
Long Live Rock
Pinball Wizard
See Me, Feel Me / Listening to You
Love Ain’t For Keeping
Behind Blue Eyes
Eminence Front
My Generation
Cry If You Want
You Better You Bet
Going Mobile
The Real Me
I’m One
5:15
Love, Reign O’er Me
Won’t Get Fooled Again
Baba O’Riley
The Song Is Over
Tea & Theatre
Check out The Who Store for exclusive tour merchandise including this Limited Edition New York City, NY 2025 Poster