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Videos
soundcheck Who Are You
soundcheck Another Tricky Day
soundcheck I'm One
Full show
Who Are You
Long Live Rock
My Generation
The Real Me
I'm One
Won't Get Fooled Again
Baba O'Riley
The Song is Over
Joe Perry Project with Slash and Steven Tyler
Press
Hollywood Reporter
Los Angeles Daily News
Orange County Register
Review by Tim Ballou
I saw my first Hollywood Bowl WHO show in 2000. If the internet isn’t lying to me, the 9/17/25 appearance was the 10th post-2000 WHO-Bowl show. If I’m not lying to myself, I’ve been to all of them. If I AM lying to myself, I was at the only other WHO-Bowl show in 1967.
If I manage to go to the 9/19/25 show, my metaphorical WHO-amp will go all the way to 11 and my amygdala will be overflowing with euphoric memories, some of them tragic (the 2002 first show without John E.) but most of them divine. I have a love/hate thing going on with the Bowl, but when it comes to Who shows, it’s all love. This show did not disappoint.
What separates it from the others? Of course, it’s the song is (or maybe will be?) over (sort of?) and this may possibly be (or maybe not?) the last time we get the privilege of spending hundreds (or more) dollars to relive our childhood soundtrack, vs dollar-cost investing that same money in a good index mutual fund so we can eat food and maintain housing into our geriatric years. (Insert your own over-used reference to MY GENERATION/getting old here.)
I was present at the Royal Albert Hall Zak-gate shows and my initial take-away was it was over then. Not because of Zak. Because Pete apparently forgot how to play guitar and/or manage his knee-surgery meds. Apparently a few refresher courses, and some rehearsals (not a bad idea for a band in my opinion) were calendared between then and now, because there was a Pete rebirth. This, combined with Roger’s hardy vocals, created an amazing show.
Hard to complain about the setlist when you concede they must play the hits to make sure the casual fans put butts in seats. So I will not. I’ve learned to keep my expectations low on this topic. I will instead give credit to the inclusion of some rarely played oldies, including THE SONG IS OVER and LONG LIVE ROCK. I was personally validated to see how well GOING MOBILE was received with Simon lead-singing. It’s something I suggested out loud (to no one in particular) after hearing how amazing this sounded on Roger’s solo tours. And, thank you Roger, for putting TEA AND THEATRE back as a goosebump-inducing closer.