17 Jul 2012
May 9, 1969 – Detroit, MI, US
Show Report
The Who embarked on their first Tommy tour, opening with a three–night stand in Detroit. ; Friday
17 Jul 2012
Show Report
The Who embarked on their first Tommy tour, opening with a three–night stand in Detroit. ; Friday
Who was this Joe Cocker guy, anyways? A few months before Woodstock, Joe and The Grease Band played (yes, they did ‘With a Little Help from my Friends’) on the same bill as The Who at Detroit’s original rock palace. I think Pinball Wizard had aired on the radio for a week or so previous, but nobody had ever heard the rest of Tommy before. This was the first time – at least in the United States – it had ever been performed live. The Who had been to the Grande before, in summer of 1968, but this particular occasion was truly historic due to the rock opera’s on-stage debut. Of course, all four members of the band were fabulous. They would return in October 1969, to perform Tommy (familiar to all by then) again up the street at the Grande Riviera, but to this very day, it was big arenas (in Detroit’s case, Cobo a couple times in the early 70s) from that point on.