I'm not a morning person. I realize that's not an uncommon trait but it's one of the reasons I like working third shift. Since my morning is between five and seven in the evening getting out of bed seems easier. Well looky there, I think to myself. I don't have to be at work until midnight and it's five-thirty now. That means I can hit snooze for a bit and still get things accomplished during the next six hours. (Or play video games. Whatever.)
However, sometimes my leisurely mornings (or if you prefer, "mornings") backfire on me and I come close to missing out on something good. That almost happened a few weeks ago. I got up at six-thirty and shuffled to my computer, still barely awake. I checked my email and there was the dreaded message from M. Giant asking if I was going to the movies that night. I had forgotten that it was August 9th.
Under normal circumstances there is no such thing as a dreaded message from M. Giant but that day I had suffered a huge memory lapse. It all started in July when I was reading Billboard. I no longer read Billboard every day because most of the stories that interest me show up on Yahoo! so I only visit Billboard when I am really bored. Lucky for me, I visited in July and saw that The Who Live at the Isle of Wight Festival 1970 was being released on DVD.
The DVD release date was August 10th and on August 9th there was going to be a special one night only showing of the Isle of Wight in theaters. Only fifty theaters across the whole United States! (Or was it forty-nine? Either way, exclusive!) I followed some links and found that there was a theater in my town that would be showing the Isle of Wight. Who movie! Who movie! Alert M. Giant at once!
Long before I actually met M. Giant and was just an avid Velcrometer reader, I knew one sure thing about him. He loves The Who. He is a fanatical Who-meister! I sent him the info and a couple of weeks later he asked me if I was going and I think I coughed up a probably. I can never count on what time I'm waking up and not even the lure of Roger Daltrey could make me issue a definite yes. Then I forgot all about the event until I checked my email that evening. I called LCG all disgruntled because I thought the showtime was 7:00.
Me: The Who movie is tonight and I just got up.
LCG: So?
Me: So I can't go.
LCG: What time is the movie?
Me: Seven.
LCG: Why are we on the phone then? Get going.
Me: I have to shower.
LCG: No, you don't. Do you think anyone there showered?
Me: I don't think The Who movie will attract Who versions of the Comic Book Guy.
LCG: Are you kidding? Who else would go? It's coming out on DVD, right? You don't need to see it in the theater. Now I'm going to hang up and you are going to get ready and call me when you are on your way.
Me: But...
Click.
Then I double checked the email. 7:30! SEVEN-THIRTY! Hooray! I had sent M. Giant a waffling email a few minutes earlier but when I saw 7:30 I called him right up. I gleefully announced I was going and found out when he planned to arrive. Seven. Woo-hoo!
Ring!
LCG: If you aren't calling me from the shower I have nothing to say to you.
Me: But...
LCG: Shower?
Me: Seven-thirty!
LCG: Oh, nice!
Me: I'm still not gonna shower. It's going to take me half an hour to get the tangles out of my hair. Stupid crap wavy sleep hair.
LCG: Bye.
As if my night wasn't turning out excellent enough, the drive from my crummy neighborhood to the crummy neighborhood where the theater is located took less than ten minutes. Not only was I on time, I was a minute early! That is not the natural order of things but I'm not going to complain. I bought my ticket and looked around for M. Giant. No M. Giant! I was that early. He showed up and bought his ticket and outside the auditorium we ran into a crew from the classic rock station and they had free goodies.
"Please take some stuff," they said in a pleading tone. I got a pen because I love pens and a magnet since I felt bad for them because their freebie table was still pretty full. Then the leader of the crew (who was sort of Comic Book Guy-ish) told us they would have posters after the movie. Free! Posters! Of! The Who! We walked in and the place was empty. There were maybe ten other people in the theater and I was shocked. I had been wondering if I should buy a ticket in advance because I was sure it would sell out. (Insert The Who Sell Out joke here.) M. Giant decided it had been poorly advertised because he only knew about it because of me and I only knew about it through luck.
I was pleased to be attending with a Who Authority because my Who phase has never quite taken off and I've been waiting for thirteen years now. I have owned numerous greatest hit collections and the odd album here and there, but I still haven't reached the point where I own every catalog title and know every B-side and have read many Who books. I thought seeing the Isle of Wight with an Authority would help jump start the phase. We visited about things Who and/or cat related and then it was time for the movie! Oh, no. An intro by the director. Well, the director turned out to be a delight. He provided some much-needed setup about the Isle of Wight festival, including the fact that by the time The Who went on it was very late and the 600,000 attendees were getting testy but The Who won them over.
Then they played a snippet of the director interviewing Pete Townsend, being sure to mention that the full interview is a bonus feature on the DVD. Oh, that's right. The screening was probably meant to help sell the DVD. Well, it worked on me. I haven't made the purchase yet but I think it's on my list of things to do. The Who kicked my ass.
I was expecting to not know a good portion of the set list, but I didn't think it would make a difference. It didn't. I was mesmerized! I was hypnotized! I was impressed with every single member of The Who. Technically I have always been impressed with each member of The Who but this concert was excellent. First of all, they played to 600,000 people on a stage that could fit in my living room. It is possible that the stage seemed smaller because of their gear, but it was still tiny. Roger Daltrey maybe had four feet between the drum kit and the edge of the stage in which to work.
John Entwistle and Pete were crammed into little nooks on the stage as well. When I think of The Who I think of Pete's windmills and Roger's microphone twirling and those both require more space than they had at the Isle of Wight. Roger was wearing one of his fringed jackets and the fringe kept getting caught on things. He would toss his arm and you would notice his fringe still resting on a mike stand. Sure, he wore some long fringe but that space was cramped. I must say, I have never seen a band that looked so mismatched. Roger had on his fringe and tight pants, Pete was wearing a one piece mechanic-type overall, white, with a flood ankle that showed off his socks and shoes. Keith Moon was wearing a white t-shirt and white shorts, and then we had Entwistle. I remember the John Entwistle of the 1980s and 1990s, the one who wore plastic looking leather jackets pushed up to his elbows. I was not ready for the John Entwistle of 1970.
I have one word for you and that word is jumpsuit. As in, skin-tight full-body jumpsuit. Long sleeved, with, uh, built-in footwear. Apparently. After the movie we decided his outfit could best be described as footie pajamas. Black footie pajamas. Printed with bones. So, he was wearing footie pajamas that depicted the human skeleton. Now, Mr. Giant is both a Who Authority and a bass player and his hero happens to be Mr. Entwistle. It took all the impulse control I have not to point and laugh at both of them when John appeared.
The mismatch was part of the fun. It looked like four different guys were plucked from four different bands and thrown onto a dinky stage to see what happened. The Who kicked my ass, that's what happened. I could see four people playing, and I could hear the end result of their efforts, but I couldn't comprehend how just four people were making that sound. It was tremendous. I would take note of an interesting bass line or something every now and then but for the most part I just sat there while my mind boggled. I don't know how those four parts all come together.
And speaking of four parts, I have always thought of The Who as four individuals who happened to be onstage together (and that was before I saw those outfits). It made me very happy to see the members of The Who grinning at each other and having a laugh together between songs. They were obviously enjoying themselves and I love it when that happens. When I am having a good time watching a band I like to see that they are having a good time too. It makes me think they are playing because they want to and not because they have to. I didn't expect that from The Who and it was fantastic.
I probably don't need to tell you that the vast majority of the grinning came from Keith Moon. The movie had many highlights, but the number one highlight was Keith Moon. Any time he was in the shot, I was watching him. Normally, if you stick young Roger Daltrey on a screen in front of me I'm not going to tear my eyes away. This time I looked at Roger if he was the only one visible. If Keith was onscreen at the same time Roger didn't stand a chance.
Oh, Keith Moon. Always grinning, or puffing out his cheeks and then grinning, or playing a great part and grinning, or watching Pete or John play a great part and grinning. I love the grinning. The movie included my all time favorite view of Keith Moon, which is any shot from Keith's left because that means you see his grinning face hovering over a cymbal. It's the classic Keith Moon angle. Best of all, every time they showed a close-up of Keith grinning I giggled, but so did everyone else. The enthusiasm he had thirty-four years ago is just as infectious today.
And Tommy! Fourteen of the twenty-three songs (twenty-five if you count the early medley as three separate songs) were from Tommy, but I don't think they played a one in its entirety except for maybe the Overture. It was a compressed version of Tommy but The Who took the time they had available and kicked my ass. It was so unbelievably good. Top-notch musicians, all four of them. I watched the crowd whenever there was a crowd shot, trying to see the audience turnaround that the director described at the beginning of the movie. It was definitely there. The Who kicked 600,000 other asses before they kicked mine.
After the movie the free posters were gone by the time we got out of the theater, which is crazy because the crowd was probably a grand total of twenty or thirty people. I was fixing to ask the Comic Book Classic Rock Guy if they had any more but before I had a chance he said, "Oh, I promised you one. I've got one left in the truck." Thank you, Alice Cooper t-shirt, for making me seem like a classic rock geek and causing the classic rock dude to take pity on me. I felt bad that M. Giant was going to get shafted but he graciously informed me that there was a One Who Poster Limit at his house and he was at his Maximum R & B maximum.
If he hadn't said that I would have had to hand the poster over because he is the Who Authority and I am just a Who Trainee. However, now that I have seen the Isle of Wight I'm hoping that my thirteen years as a Who Trainee will finally result in a promotion because The Who kicked my ass.