Simon Townshend and The Who

I went to see Simon Townshend at Hugh's Room on Monday, February 29 in Toronto. It was a fantastic show! And a thrill to be so close and intimate.

My friends Troy and Malcolm came as well and we all sat together!

Malcolm bought me a CD and I got it signed! Thanks, Malcolm! Thanks, Simon!

On my way to see The Who at the ACC on Tuesday March 1, 2016. It was Roger Daltrey's birthday! Kylo Ren was pretty stoked to see his first Who concert.

Before the concert, Troy, Malcolm and I grabbed a bite to eat at The Old Spaghetti Factory. It was great!

Then after we walked through the biggest blizzard of the year the few short blocks, we arrived at the ACC!

I ran into Brian Baker who happened to be sitting in the same section as I was but I was up in the thirties and he was closer to the floor. Troy, Malcolm, and Patrick were also in the same section as him and me! It was too funny!

I was too busy dancing to get any good pictures. A phone camera doesn't do these kinds of shows justice. You can see lots of pictures and Youtube videos online! Gotta love the modern age!

This was an amazing Who concert. Roger Daltrey's voice hasn't sounded so fantastic in years. Not that he ever sounds bad. He can out sing most on a bad day. But the clarity and range was all there. He must have gotten rest during his illness. I hope he's healthy enough to be doing this tour and it doesn't kill him. At any rate, he sounded fantastic and I was so thrilled. I was up by the boxes and so could dance without blocking anyone at all. I don't think I've ever stood at a Who concert before. Usually security makes you sit down, even if you're clapping for a song because of the crushing deaths many years ago in the seventies.

As the show rounded the three quarter mark, a couple of people smoked pot. I could smell it from three different spots. So could security. One set of unfortunate people were escorted out by bona fide police people and they never returned so I guess they didn't have their medical cards on them.

Even if pot ever becomes legal, there is no smoking inside any buildings in Toronto. At all. Even  most apartment buildings have a no smoking policy these days. Although there was a lot of talk in the media not long ago about people with medical cards can light up anywhere they desire, even in no smoking zones such as a streetcar. It has to do with being able to take medicine anywhere when it's supposed to be taken. It will be interesting to see how that will all play out as more medical cards are dispensed.

When The Who were last on tour, there were signs everywhere asking people not to smoke anything including pot because it wrecks Roger's voice but to eat a brownie instead or something like that. In both Toronto and Hamilton the signs were up, and most people respected the request.

Anyway, The Who were fantastic. They were really together. Of course there was the odd technical issue but they came and went. It was so fun to be a teenager again for a couple of hours and just rock out and not think about anything but the world's greatest rock and roll band!

Long live Rock!