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Videos
Overture
1921
Amazing Journey
Pinball Wizard
We're Not Gonna Take It
See Me Feel Me
Who Are You
Eminence Front
Ball and Chain
You Better You Bet
The Seeker
Naked Eye
Naked Eye
Naked Eye
Naked Eye
Another Tricky Day
Won't Get Fooled Again
Won't Get Fooled Again
Behind Blue Eyes
The Real Me
I'm One
5:15
The Rock
Love Reign O'er Me
Love Reign O'er Me
Baba O'Riley
Review by Pat Stanton
The first Las Vegas show was a solid show. Same set list as prior shows on this leg of the tour.
Roger sounded strong and Pete was extra chatty the entire show especially vocal about the crappy sound on stage and his relationship with Roy Dolby. Pete went into a long saga about his dealings with Roy Dolby, the inventor of Dolby sound systems (used in the Vegas venue as well as many theaters worldwide.) He met him in the early 70s while writing Quadrophenia. Apparently, Pete was driving intoxicated on the Thames and was caught. He was banned from driving his boat for a while and used Roy to drive him on the river while composing. This didn't make much sense to me was Roy Dolby was already famous for inventing Dolby sound at that point but that's his story. He mentioned him several times throughout the show after that, grumbling as only Pete can about the shitty sound on stage.
Both Roger and Pete were in high spirits all night. Roger smiled at and pointed to the audience throughout the show, acknowledging many long time fans who came to see what might be the band's last US shows.
As much as I enjoy the orchestra, and this one was quite good, the band only section is excellent. Naked Eye was special tonight, as was Behind Blue Eyes. I am so glad WGFA is back to the entire band and not just Roger and Pete performing it acoustically.
Roger always gets a little political when he introduces Another Tricky Day. Tonight he talked about how he was born during an air raid, which upset his mother, so he came out fast. He was raised among bombed out sites, similar to what he said is happening in Ukraine now, all the result of wars.
The dynamic video for The Rock was back on stage as well as the side screens. The video has been updated significantly, adding references to Obama, Trump, Biden, Queen Elizabeth's death, Putin and Ukraine. Very powerful.
The band intros were heartfelt, especially for Simon and Billy Nicholls. Pete related how his father was a musician and forced his boys to learn to read music because you can't be a musician if you can't read music. He said that he thinks his father would be very happy knowing that his two sons are performing together in a band. Simon was superb all night.
Pete then introduced Billy Nicholls, a performer who has worked with both he and Roger for many years. He said that Billy told him that he wasn't important but Pete reiterated that of course he was important or he wouldn't be there. I know that he was ill during a portion of the spring leg of the tour and I missed him during a couple of the shows that I attended.
At the end of the show Roger didn't say it was the end, just you never know when or if they will return. Personally, I think another Las Vegas residency would suit them in the future if they can still physically perform as it would minimize the strain of a multi city tour. The band is just too good still to stop as long as both Pete and Roger are healthy.
Last show tonight, same venue. The band stopped doing back to back shows a number of years ago to protect Roger's voice, so fingers crossed that all will go well tonight.
Review by Chris Elkins
Vegas night 1 The set list was the same as the previous shows. This band continues to sound great. I’m not sure where Pete and Roger get their energy from, but they continue to give their all. Pete wasn’t satisfied with the sound on stage and went into a story about how when he was making Quadrophenia, he had a boat on the Thames and he frequently saw Ray Dolby. Ray seemed to always hit a log every time he took the boat out. Pete recalled telling him that if he continued to hit logs, he was going to go broke. As he frequently has this tour, at the end of the night, Pete commented that Roger has been singing great this tour.
