14 Sep 2025
Wednesday 10 September 2025: Xfinity Mobile Area, Philadelphia, PA
Show Report: Sept 10, 2025; Xfinity Mobile Arena, Philadelphia
This is the return to Philly, the lost show from a couple of weeks ago (it really seems a long time ago). However, I’m certain of one thing: This will be a BETTER show than if we had done it earlier as the third concert of this tour. Those first two shows were OK, solid enough. But when we had the week break, it really gave everyone a rest and extra energy to re-approach it – and the Boston Fenway show was the best of the tour (so far). Since then, the shows have had a good portion of the old magic that everyone’s coming and hoping to see. In other words, the band is tighter and has learned a lot since this original scheduled date.
For those who can return (I think that’s most people) this will be quite a night. Obviously, the re-scheduling of this caught us all off-guard as there wasn’t much time to prepare. In one way, keeping it closer to the original date makes sense, and with ALL our gear and people on the East Coast/Midwest and a planned break of 10 days (now half gone in making up these two shows) it makes more sense than returning from the West Coast for two shows later. There’s always a win/lose situation, it just is that way. But for so many people (over 10,000 coming tonight; our biggest indoor concert of the tour) it promises to be a strong fulfilment of a previous promise.
We’ve been here so many times before, especially since The Spectrum (the holy grail of Philly concert venues since forever) was torn down. It’s indeed a huge place, and we’re hoping to fill it tonight. Lots of cool stuff, banners backstage welcoming us, huge banners out in the walkways near the concessions – I don’t know who does these; the promoter or the arena or who? We even got free black hoodie sweatshirts from the venue, a very nice gift for our crew.
Two of our guys are seen here: Martin Provost and Simon St. Louis; they were just notified that they are the winners of a Parnelli Award. If you recall, our previous tour manager Roy Lamb was the winner of a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Parnellis. It’s the Grammys or the Oscars for the touring industry, and this is a big field of VERY successful professionals, so for our video team guys to get this is superb news! We flashed a big slide congratulating them for this. And tonight we’ll buy them both dinner! (Oops, it’s free at Catering!)
Our sound mixer, Robert Collins is back. He’s been away mixing his “main gig” for a bit – which is decades doing Eric Clapton concerts. We have loyalty to our people, but I’m pretty sure Eric works more than The Who – so you go where the hand feeds you. “How is Eric?” is the first thing Roger says onstage during soundcheck. “Good!” says Robert. “Well, at least he’s still standing!” Thankful for that, Roger says. The VIP audience is watching, but today there’s no sign of Pete yet – his plane was stuck on a runway for hours, we’re hoping he makes it, but there’s only a bit of time. Everyone else is ready, so Simon Law is given his boss’s guitar. Simon’s not only an expert technician and guitar-maker himself, but he’s been in bands and can handle a guitar well. (And he also just finished fixing Pete’s broken pedalboard that caused so much trouble in Chicago).
Simon Law and the innards of Pete’s pedalboard
They start to work on sounds, as it’s soundcheck, and Roger says “That’s not LOUD enough, that doesn’t sound like Pete!” Simon punches a few pedals of boost and then hits a very loud chord; “Ah – that’s Pete!!” says Rog. Simon plays through ‘Who Are You’ with the whole band, and it’s OK, pretty good solos etc. They start to work on ‘I Can See For Miles’, and Simon is scrambling to learn the complete set of chords in a few seconds. Then Roger tells the audience “Sound checks are never easy. We work for 20 minutes, but then the sound changes by the time the room fills with thousands of people”. He’s right – some of the issues we hear will be gone when people fill the place, some not. However, it’s a very tall ceiling, and something makes a long soft reverb happen in here. I told Simon Law that “Pete will love the sound in here…” as it’s exactly this type of sound that he adores, and a great sound inspires him to play better.
As this show is re-scheduled, we needed an available opening act. At first, we’re trying to think of Philly bands that we know, but no one could come up with a good option on one day’s notice. Instead, we called upon an old friend, Leslie Mendelson, who is a NY-based sing/songwriter. With her musical partner Steve McEwan, we’ve done many shows together. They are great to work with, don’t take up much stage space (whew!) and the audiences seem to really like it. Not heavy in our way, but strong songs and melody – which is the core of the best Who music. Of course, it’s a big room to fill, but they do it well and I’m always happy to see them in our world. In contrast, our sound will probably seem even bigger tonight!
On to The Who show . . .
Roger comes out and looks around the arena, shielding his eyes from the bright lights so he can see out and up into the rafters. He’s waving all around, very welcoming. Then “Sorry we’re late!!” which is a good admission that this was not planned to happen this way . . .
It’s a great room sound as they start into ‘I Can’t Explain’. As predicted, it’s much warmer, less of a bright echo with all these bodies in the room, soaking up the sound. Immediately, we can tell the crowd is pretty great here, noisy and active. For whatever reasons, they are really into this moment. And by the time ‘Substitute’ is halfway through, I can tell that this is our best audience so far on the tour. From the stage, it’s a great view of a huge roomful of people. And one of the best-sounding stages we’ve had, which helps a lot. From a supportive platform like that, I’m suddenly not worried at all now: Even if a show “goes South” with mistakes or sound or tech issues; if you’re in a supportive situation, problems just won’t matter much – if they even happen. Finger crossed…
Pete says that in 1993, he was in town here, and the mayor gave him the keys to the city. Roger yells out “But they don’t fit the lock!” (Laughs) “If anyone can figure out what they go to, I’ll give them to you!”, Pete adds.
‘Long Live Rock’ continues to be the unexpected success, but I think it’s because it’s not been heard very often (we have a few of those in each set, which is cool.) And also because Pete sings it and introduces it each night with some variation. Variation – not the “same old”, which wakes people up to enjoy it. And it’s such a familiar song – most people in North American know the words to this one… “The place is really jumping to the HIWATT amps, ’til the 20” cymbal fell and cut the lamps.” Lyrics you’ll never forget.
‘See Me, Feel Me’ appears to be one of the best few that I’ve heard in 2025, with that emotional power that Roger can often deliver, but the smooth transitions of the band parts between the segments makes it flow the way it ought to (but sometimes hasn’t.) This is a strong one. And ‘Love Ain’t For Keeping’ follows, which I’m sure most people know, despite the lack of radio play. It ends so well, the unity of the band tonight is standing out for me. Maybe from the mood, maybe from the sound, or crowd – or all of that. They’re just playing well in general. (Yeah, there’s a good amount of the traditional slop and wrong notes, that IS a Who show and will always be! Hopefully will.)
Video courtesy of Pure and Easy
Video courtesy of Pure and Easy
‘Eminence Front’ – Pete’s got such a good guitar sound, and it’s really inspiring him to take off and Just Do Things. For tonight’s intro moment (before the song), he clangs some huge angular chords that sustain over Jon Button and Loren’s supporting drones. He scrapes his pick on the emery board attached to each guitar – this roughs up the edge of the otherwise-smooth plastic pick so he can “saw” against the strings. This part of the show has gotten rather exciting, a moment that nobody in the building knows what will happen. It’s moody and dark and stunning most nights, and today Pete ends the intro with a rather high feedback note, soaring away – brilliant. He’s pulling hard during the song, too, so instead of singing ANY choruses, he’d rather just solo away while the band do the big chant. At the end, I can hear people in the crowd yelling things: “Play it AGAIN!” and someone’s loud “Goddam!!” gets a laugh out of me.
‘My Generation’: “I really must remember to start this one on the right key…” Pete says. It’s mostly a reference for the band, or anyone who happened to be at the wacky and wild Chicago event. Needless to say, he does start correctly, and then they’re carrying on the musical game of “are we going up or down now” that the band always does when jamming happens. Pete’s playing a lot with his on/off guitar stutter switch, just another dimension in the sound that wasn’t there a year or so ago.
‘You Better You Bet’ – I was chatting to Pete before the show about this one. I was curious how the sequences worked or how he did them. “E70!” A simple answer, his Yamaha E70 organ, NOT a synth or sequencer. We are both keyboard nerds, and he’s said to me that he always writes a good song when he sits down at that instrument. It is basically a home organ, with built in sounds, drum machine, even bass-lines and chord parts it plays along with you. So you don’t have to be a genius (Pete probably is) and it will play along with you. In 1969/70 Pete used his Lowrey organ that did similar tricks; it’s responsible for the ‘Baba O’Riley’ backing track. But ‘You Better You Bet’ is like ‘Eminence Front’, so much of the record comes from him capturing the parts and sounds created by the E70 organ. They’re not very valuable, probably because they are big and heavy – but you can probably find one and try it yourself!
‘Going Mobile’ is again rocking, and Roger is grinning ear-to-ear about it. “How about that! Simon Townshend!” he yells at the end. Roger doesn’t seem to NEED any vocal breaks, but I know the Pete and Simon songs are good variety in the show, and it gets him a chance to play along, sing along and relax a bit.
The Quadrophenia mini-set has exactly four songs in it each night, perfect numerology! I realized tonight that the album lands perfectly in the chronology for both Baby Boomer generation and the Generation X folks: If you were in your teens or 20s for big albums like that (especially in the ‘70s) then you had time and reason to spend months of your life with a big album. It means a lot to people, this one. And it’s Pete favorite too. That mini-set ends with ‘Love Reign O’er Me’ and this gets a full-house standing ovation for Roger. He’s more than pleased, as it goes on and on and one. “Thank you!!!” he yells back.
Video courtesy of Jim Powers
‘Won’t Get Fooled Again’ – huge concert anthem + huge concert = perfect. I sorta wish the lasers would come back someday. Other bands are using them, but it was The Who – who even owned their own laser company back when it was new – who made the most-iconic use of them. Sometimes, I know they don’t like to walk back in the “old shoes” – smashing guitars, fringe vests, lasers, whatever. But it’s still a good thing they could claim – and it’s happened only rarely that they get to use them. But it ALWAYS works wonders. Maybe I can buy some lecture laser-pointers and get the security guards to dance about onstage . . .
‘Baba O’Riley’ ends with the highest peak, when Katie joins in, holding her bow high as she gets out onstage in a quick flash. The audience is roaring. These three songs in a row are just irresistible, and they were already THE crowd we needed.
Video courtesy of Jim Powers
‘The Song Is Over’, and a very warm and intimate ‘Tea and Theatre’ end it all. When Pete starts playing the final song alone, they audience is still yelling stuff; “I’m not gonna sing over that!!” Roger cautions them. Pete jumps up from his chair and yells “MAGIC BUS!!!” making fun of the crowd. Great laughter, and then they do the song properly and with great sentiment. Rog and Pete hug together and certainly some serious memories were made tonight.
What a show. Best audience reaction so far. No mishaps, no tech glitches, no stopping and starting of songs. Such a contrast to the previous one; although I think that both would have been great and memorable show to see. Whatever the outcome, this band is certainly NOT boring or predictable. That’s why I’m happy to be here every night possible; it’s the newness (among all these older songs, moves, humans, buildings) that keeps us all fascinated by this experience.
Onward! . . .
Tonight’s set list follows after this photo. If you don’t wish to know it, stop scrolling!
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
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