From Page B-1

Through the 22 doors opened for them at 6:20 p.m. (more than 90 minutes before the concert was scheduled to begin).

The Who seemed unaware of the memory that sparked all the precautions, the memory that just 85 miles north of where they sang, 11 people were trampled and suffocated to death while trying to hear them.

Roger Daltry filled the arena with his energy, pounding out the beat of the music visually with his body.

The lights, the electric instruments all vibrated with the power that seems to be a trademark of this group.

It was rock ’n’ roll and songs more than 10 years old. It made the crowd of mostly teen-agers and people in their early 20s shout, dance and jump up and down in the aisle.

The band came on stage to a standing ovation and opened with “Substitute,” a 1966 song that has started other concerts in this tour.

After a few numbers, it softened the blaring hardness of its numbers with “Behind Blue Eyes,” then brought the crowd, shouting, to its feet with the grinding “Who Are You.”

In a Who concert I attended in 1975, dramatic light displays seemed a more prominent feature of the band’s style, seeming to add to a feeling of modernized, electronic power.

Last night, there was less reliance on lighting, but the audience still responded to twirling lights and still rose as a flood of light bathed the audience floor.

Perhaps the high point of the evening came when the Who broke into “Tommy” and “Pinball Wizard.”

The songs reflected the style of a group that’s been around long enough to challenge The Rolling Stones for longevity.

“Peter Townshend should be the king of rock,” one concertgoer proclaimed. “They (the Stones) don’t deserve to be called the greatest in rock ’n’ roll.”