The Who, What, Where, When and …

...No How, Not Even a Chance
By Ken DeLaat

What? The Who? In GR? At the Van? In May?
That Who? 
They were  one of the bands I missed during a rather successful run of seeing some of the top performers during an significantly earlier era.
Fleetwood Mac, Bob Seger, Mountain, James Gang, Rory Gallagher, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Aretha, the Dead,Jethro Tull, BB King, Clapton, Chicago, The Guess Who,Seals and Croft, Joni Mitchell,  Temptations, Ten Years After, Faces, Grand Funk, James Brown,Sha Na Na, Bette Midler, Commander Cody, the Beach Boys (during their very first comeback tour in Grand Haven of all places) the list can go on and on, but I never saw the Who.

My (older and only) sister Sue was there when they came to the Silverdome in December of 1975. It was the first concert held at the dome and  set a record for largest attendance for a one act performance at an indoor concert until Led Zep eclipsed them in April of 77 also at the Silverdome. 
Sue said it was “ loud, crazy, packed and one helluva show”.
She would kow, having begun her concert-going career by twice joining the screaming hordes at Beatle concerts in Detroit and Chicago circa mid 60’s (I was way too young to go). Yes, my big sis was pretty familiar with loud, crazy, and packed venues and this one certainly fit the bill.
And now what remains of the band  is coming to GR on May 7th.

Things have changed since those earlier concert cruising days. I no longer stand the whole time among the rabble with lighter in hand for the encore since everyone seems to use phones anyway and standing for hours isn’t among my favorite things to do. Also, I don’t want to be planted in some nosebleed section or off to the side because ‘I can (no longer) see for miles’ (Lyrical reference for those unfamiliar with their music).
No, if I’m seeing The Who I would want to be as up front as I could. Perhaps the floor seating right at the  center of the stage. After all I’m older and all so I should indulge myself with some prime seating right?
So I checked and there were tickets available right where I wanted to be.  I could have the seat of my dreams to watch the two septuagenarians (Daltry, 75 and Townsend, 74 in May) left from the original four members rocking it out in my home city and quite possibly, to coin an appropriate phrase,  ‘talkin bout my generation’.
How much?
A mere $2786 per ticket was what I saw posted but it said if I didn’t act early the price might be going up.
Yeah.
Unfortunately the Tigers are taking on the Angels that night and I will be tied up watching the game.
No not at the ballpark, at home.
As the band put it so well in 1971.
​"Don’t get fooled again”.