Talkin’ ’bout my generation, then and now.
By Rob Hoffman on July 13, 2018 at 6:22 AM
A lot of men who are about to become fathers like to proclaim that they don’t care whether they have a boy or a girl. I was one of those. I just wanted my child to come into this world as healthy as possible. However, once they’re born and they turn out to be a boy, there’s a lot of dads out there who are secretly happy, especially if they have great memories of doing things with their own fathers. They can’t wait to have a catch, go to a ballgame, teach them to drive, and do other so-called “father/son” things with their sons that they recall doing with their own fathers. (Of course, your memories of these “magical” moments tend to ignore all of those times that your dad screamed at you because you were doing something wrong, or made a mess, or had to go to the bathroom at a critical juncture.)
I’m probably no different in regards to this phenomenon, and I have enjoyed doing those “father/son” things with my boys as well. One activity that you might notice that I did not include was going to a rock concert with my children. Well, I finally took that plunge, and while it was certainly fun, it was also interesting to say the least.
When I think of Roger Daltrey, the frontman for the legendary rock ’n’ roll group The Who, this is what I think of. Actually, when I think about any rock star, this is kind of what I think of…in a purely platonic way i assure you. (Getty Images)
I’ve always been one of those guys who gave the proverbial “stink-eye” to those so-called uber-fathers who took their kids to rock concerts. The way I’ve typically seen it is that going to a rock concert is one of those coming of age moments that you do with your friends. When I was 14 years-old, 9th grade mind you, my brother drove myself, along with four of my friends to the Nassau Coliseum in Uniondale, Long Island, from North Massapequa where I grew up, to see Jethro Tull, (On their famed “Stormwatch” tour) and U.K. While it’s only 10 miles away, it might as well have been on Uranus to a 14 year-old. He dropped us off, and when the show was over, we didn’t even have a ride home. We finally stumbled upon a phone-booth, and my friend called his brother, and we eventually got home. There were no cell phones, nobody checked in with their parents, there were people offering us LSD, and it was a school night for goodness sake. (And yes, I went to school the next day. Please!)
The thought of my father, Seymour Hoffman, accountant to the stars, (If the stars included the owner of a laundromat, a man who sold lawnmowers, and a guy who made dental implants) accompanying me and my friends to a rock ’n’ roll show was literally the most abhorrent thought that could have ever crossed my 14 year-old mind. Yet, here I was, literally 40 years later, joyfully going to see Roger Daltrey with my youngest son, who is 20, at Turning Stone Resort and Casino, in beautiful Verona, New York. He bought us tickets for my birthday, and I was truly looking forward to going with him. As I may have mentioned once or twice before, I was a Who fanatic growing up, so the thought of seeing Roger Daltrey was, and is still exciting to me. This would be the third time I would be seeing him perform. The first two times were with The Who, once at the Carrier Dome in Syracuse, New York in 1982, and the other time was when I won a radio trivia contest on WXRK in New York City on the Tony Pigg Show. (I won by correctly identifying Pete Townshend’s middle names; Peter Dennis Blandford Townshend. It’s amazing what you can pick-up when your social life is…limited.) In 1989, The Who would embark on a tour commemorating the 20th anniversary of the Tommy album. Thanks to my creepy knowledge of Pete Townshend, I would be sitting 15th row, dead center. (For what it’s worth, I didn’t bring my father to either of these shows.)
This is what he looked like just a few days ago at Turning Stone. I would say for 74 he looks damn good. He was wearing the same shirt which is kind of interesting. However, when you consider how let’s say Alice Cooper, or Keith Richards have aged, Daltrey looks really good. (Getty Images)
Perhaps it’s not that times and parenting haven’t changed, (They have and for the worse) but rather it’s the genre of concerts I’ve been attending lately that lead to parents bringing their children. For example, the last three concerts that I’ve gone to over the past few years include Paul Simon at Forest Hills Stadium in Queens, New York, James Taylor at Tanglewood just last week, and the aforementioned Mr. Daltrey. All three of these performers are 70 or older, and so they attract a large cross-section of generations. There were a lot of little kids running around at the James Taylor show for example. Did they appreciate his timeless voice, his exquisite guitar playing, or even the pictures painted by a song like Sweet Baby James? Based on what I saw, my answers are as follows; No, no, and hell no!
However, while I’m not sure I agree with taking your teenage child to a rock ’n’ roll show, I do applaud those parents who don’t give in to modern parenting trends that demand that everything all the time has to be done for the kids. In other words, I never believed that as a parent, I had to cater to their sophomoric tastes. From the time my children were born, they listened in the car to the music I liked. We weren’t listening to the Barney CD, or The Wiggles in concert, or heaven help me, The Teletubbies. If they were going to gain control of the musical selections being heard on the car stereo, they were going to have to wrestle me to the ground, and forcibly take the keys from my cold dead hands. As somebody who’s seen The Great Santini several times, I know how to fight off a rebellious child. In other words, if you break them in early on what good music is, as opposed to the “flavor of the month” garbage that pollutes the airwaves, you’ll end up imparting your musical wisdom upon your offspring.
Paul Simon put on a great show in Forest Hills, but considering he grew up in the area, he had all of the warmth and sentimentality of a New York City cabbie. Still, most men his age are probably home filling up on their daily fiber supplements, so good for you Paul. (Getty Images)
While some may consider the idea of comparing experiences 36 years apart somewhat silly, I would beg to disagree, since taking note of the march of time gives one an understanding of the world we live in today. (Said every history teacher who hoped to stay gainfully employed.) In 1982, I along with four other friends left the snowy confines of SUNY Oswego on a brutally cold and snowy December night to see The Who on what was announced to be their last tour. (I had every reason to believe them, and I still do, it’s just that the last leg of the tour has lasted 36 years.) We somehow through dumb luck acquired 2nd row seats, right in front of the great “Ox,” John Entwistle, the greatest bass player in rock ’n’ roll history. The audience was loud, rowdy, under the influence, and for the most part, ranged in age from about 14 thorough perhaps 30, but it was decidedly young.
Despite almost being killed performing an illegal u-turn after missing the exit to the Carrier Dome on an icy and treacherous road, the show was epic, and when I waved at Daltrey, I would bet my last 8-track tape that he saw me and waved back. Regardless, I never seriously believed I would ever see them perform live again, but considering we had sat 2nd row, I didn’t think I would have the need.
Fast forward 36 years, and here I am with my son, pulling into the Turning Stone Resort and Casino, getting pumped up for Roger Daltrey. The charismatic singer had been performing for most of the past six weeks, mostly doing the Tommy album. The reviews had been good, not that I cared, and he was playing with several members of The Who’s band. Tommy is not my favorite Who album, and I had already seen them perform it live, but it’s still a great album, and I was looking forward to it all the same.
Not once, not one time did I get as much as a whiff of the foul smell of marijuana being smoked at the Daltrey show at Turning Stone. One possible explanation for this? The hard-core security that they had circling the venue. You mess with the blue shirts at Turning Stone at your own risk. (Hoffman Collection)
Of course, before we could even think about going to the show, we first had to solve the dilemma that was dinner. I gave my son several choices, but like all 20 year olds, he only saw one reasonable course of action, the buffet. We waited on line, marveling at the fact that despite not being small by anybody’s standards, we looked rather slight, and slim compared to most of the heroic gathering who were contemplating how to leverage maximum ingestion so as to leave little doubt that they had eaten every bit of their $21.95 that they had plunked down before entering the arena…of eating. The food ranged from the awful, (The tacos according to my son) to the palatable (The pasta.) to the bizarrely surprising, (Crawfish which my son said were pretty good.) to the awesome. (Ice cream, because, you can’t ruin ice cream.) While my son enjoyed the buffet, he said it did remind him of the dining hall at college. This is interesting since before we drove off to see The Who in 1982, we ate dinner in the Mackin Complex Dining Hall at SUNY Oswego, where it was “Chicken Wing Night.” Tom “Hosebag” Murphy proceeded to eat 100 wings before making his way in to our car. A questionable decision if there ever was. At any rate, we then made the “waddle of shame” to the concert hall to check out the show.
Was she a groupie back in the ’60s? Was she at the Monterrey Music Festival? Was she the one who took the brown acid at Woodstock? Maybe she just got lost looking for her Turning Stone Club Card, and stumbled into a rock show. Either way, if she was looking for a little timeless rock ’n’ roll, she had found the right place. (Hoffman Collection)
People watching is literally my favorite thing to do, and comparing the crowd from when I first saw The Who back in 1982 was amusing to say the least. As a kid going to a concert, you had to worry about not getting ripped off or even getting beaten up. The Rolling Stones infamously had a murder at their Altamont, California show in 1969, committed by a Hell’s Angel who was supposed to be working security. I can’t say I was too concerned about my safety at this show, especially with the Shriners on hand.
Thanks to the Shriners, there were no reports of Hell’s Angels menacing anybody. I actually believe they were there collecting for a cancer charity supported by Daltrey, but you couldn’t help but feel safe. (Hoffman Collection)
As for the show itself, it was most definitely enjoyable. Daltrey not only sounded fine, but his band was tight, and supported him brilliantly. One of his band members was Simon Townshend, youngest brother of Pete. (You know, that guy who jumps around, does the windmills, has been known to write a few songs, etc…) Townshend played a solid rhythm guitar, and really excelled on the acoustic when the band performed the Tommy Overture, as well as Pinball Wizard. Surprisingly, Daltrey did not do the Tommy album, but instead mixed in a few Who epics such as Baba O’Reilly, Who are You, and The Real Me, along with some really fun deeper tracks meant to appeal to the true “Who fanatic,” such as The Punk Meets the Godfather from Quadrophenia, How Many Friends, from the vastly underrated Who by Numbers, and a blistering rendition of Going Mobile, with Simon Townshend sizzling on the acoustic guitar, and handling the vocals as well as his brother ever did.
In addition to the numbers he performed from The Who’s massive catalogue, Daltrey dipped into his own vast repertoire of songs from his various solo albums. Despite the fact that Daltrey’s voice is markedly deeper than it was during The Who’s heyday, he did not shy away from the challenge of singing several songs that required him to reach the higher registers of his voice. He almost pulled it off perfectly…almost. He was far more relaxed and conversational than in the previous times that I have seen him perform with The Who, telling stories behind some of the songs he was performing, discussing what it was like to be an aging rock performer, and even sharing a few life lessons. He was good-natured as well as good-humored, and the crowd ate up the whole thing.
Incredibly, Simon Townshend has been playing with The Who for 22 years, and even longer with Roger Daltrey. Townshend tweeted how much he enjoyed the show in “Aurora, New York,” and I tweeted back at him that he looked a lot like his brother. He answered back saying that he didn’t, and that his brother Paul looked a lot more like Pete. He then mentioned that I probably thought he looked like Pete because I really wanted him to be Pete. That may be true, but while he doesn’t look quite like his much older brother, there is an essence there that reminds one of Pete. Either way, his performance was terrific. (You Tube)
While the show was highly enjoyable, it wasn’t without a few hiccups. At one point, Daltrey announced that they were going to do a song that The Who never did in concert since it was so difficult, particularly because of the complexity of the lyrics. However, the fearless singer proceeded anyway, and the opening chords to Athena, off of the It’s Hard album, began. He did fine at first, but midway through, the words escaped him. The band stopped, and then they started again, and one more time, the words eluded the legendary frontman. He took a seat, both bemused and frustrated over the inability to complete the task successfully. Finally, the third try was the charm, and they finished it sort of triumphantly. The audience applauded generously, and Daltrey went on to explain how tricky the words were, and then spoke them to the crowd to accentuate his point.
After nearly bringing down the house with Baba O’Reilly, Daltrey introduced a slow and gentle song off of his new album that represented his spiritual side. The song required him to sing in the high ranges. His voice cracked however, and he restarted. It cracked again, and once again he restarted the song. On his third attempt, he hit the notes successfully, and the audience responded in kind.
Say what you want, the guy looks great. If I told you he was 54 instead of 74, you wouldn’t bat an eye. Keep rocking Roger! (You Tube)
Grace Slick, the dynamic and often tart-tongued lead singer of the Jefferson Airplane and later, the Jefferson Starship, announced several years ago that she would no longer appear on stage with or without her famous band mates. She said basically that old people performing rock ’n’ roll was kind of pathetic. While some may agree, what is a performer supposed to do? If you can adjust and tinker with your act in such a way that keeps it fresh, and yet still gives the audience what it wants, why should you be forced out to pasture. If I get the chance, I would definitely like to see Elton John and Paul McCartney. They’re not going to be around forever, and they are part of our pop culture history.
Of course, nobody wants to see anybody embarrass themselves. Watching Willie Mays stumble around the outfield in the 1973 World Series wasn’t fun for anybody, but these 70-year-old rockers are still doing it, and still giving their fans something to cheer about. Is Turning Stone the best venue to see a rock show? I’m not sure. In the old days, people were sneaking marijuana into rock shows. Now, my son and I are sneaking in crawfish fresh from the buffet. Long live rock!