I was given an early Mother’s Day present, the opportunity of a lifetime, when, at 4:30 p.m. on Friday I received four tickets to go see The Who in concert at Sasktel Centre in Saskatoon.
I quickly did the math: Saskatoon is a four-hour drive and the pre-concert show was to start at 6;30 p.m. I was already late! I scurried to grab some bottled water, granola bars, phone charger and a jacket. I left Kamsack at 5:07 p.m. with a full tank of gas.
My efforts to phone a friend in Saskatoon to offer the extra tickets had drawn a blank. When I arrived in Saskatoon and entered SaskTel Center at 9:15 p.m., I was solo. Both, family members and friends had told me I was crazy to drive all that way to be late for a concert, but I was stoked to go see rock legends.
On the drive in, listening to the radio, the announcer at one point said “It’s Friday night. No one ever remembers the nights they got too much sleep, so get out there and have a fun night.”
I took that as a sign that the universe was speaking to me!
One look at the band onstage and I was transported to another dimension. Pete Townshend was talking about having written a particular song when he was 16 years old, and then he admitted his age to now be 71. The audience, myself included, cheered wildly! Wow!
“No one on their deathbed would ever regret not having grown up,” he said, indicating that when he sang certain songs he had to have the mindset of a 17-year-old.
Watching The Who perform live, on stage, was electrifying. The sound, the light show, the timeless rock classics of Pinball Wizard, Behind Blue Eyes, My Generation, You Better You Bet and Won’t Get Fooled Again; songs that never grow old, never sound tired, and in person, sound intense!
This band played in the Saskatoon Arena back in 1968 and has been entertaining people for quite some time. Wikipedia says the band was formed with original members Pete Townshend and Roger Daltrey in 1964. For the countless number of times The Who has performed onstage throughout its stellar career, I’m going to say the band’s fans were never disappointed, and I was certainly not disappointed on Friday night.
Sure, they made some mistakes. At one point, Daltrey brought the music to a complete halt and asked to have the song started again, because, as he put it, his “hearing is shot” and he had missed “the intro cues,” so everyone took it from the top and it was much better.
An incredible light show, undeniably recognizable music that is part of the fabric of rock n’ roll history and seasoned veteran performers were the perfect mix. The time flew by and the show was over when the band exited the stage shortly after 10:30 p.m. Much to my dismay The Who did not do an encore number.
Before heading back to my car I went to the washroom where I struck up a conversation with a woman as we dried our hands. The town of Kamsack was mentioned and the Kamsack connection, which I find to be ubiquitous, surfaced. This gal I was speaking with had attended University in Saskatoon back in the day with one of Kamsack’s own. Again; wow, big small world. She, like me, was still feeling humbled by having just witnessed this performance by rock royalty.
And of course the undeniable highlight of the concert was when Roger Daltrey’s famous “Yeahhhhhhhhhhhhh” reverberated through the building during the song Won’t Get Fooled Again, and it was epic!
