Of Mods and Rockers

Tonight I’m remembering that one time I saw The Who in concert and how flipping awesome it was. Seriously one of the greatest shows I’ve ever seen and probably ever will see. I’ll never listen to Quadrophenia the same way again.

I’m also remembering the first time I listened to The Who. It was the summer of 2002 and I was sitting in the garage (because that’s where we kept the record player), thumbing through my dad’s records and discovering The Kids Are Alright, the soundtrack album to the documentary made in the 70s.

The vast online Beatles fandom (which probably had a lot to do with my early Internet obsession) had made me familiar with the British Invasion, and I knew this was a band I should listen to. So I put the record on and got my first taste of The Who. And literally the next day (as recorded in my spiral bound journal), I read about John Entwistle’s death in the newspaper.

At the time I wasn’t a big enough fan to be super upset, but I did realize the ironic timing, and made it a point to listen to as much of The Who as I could get my hands on (pre-Youtube = actually finding physical records/CDs to listen to). The result? It took me a while, but by the summer of 2005 I was a full-fledged Who Fanatic. I spent that summer making Mod collages and learning Pinball Wizard on guitar and trying to perfect my windmill. And since then, I’ve never looked back. :)

So it’s no surprise that my recommended film/documentary of the moment is….*ta-da!*: The Kids Are Alright, chronicling The Who’s career up until Keith Moon’s death in 1978. I will never, ever get tired of watching it. Action-packed and full of guitar smashing, all the way to the ending credits.