The Who makes third attempt at its final Kentucky performance

The Who

It’s taken a trio of attempts, but it seems that all is in place for The Who to bid farewell to Kentucky this weekend.

The vanguard British band plans on making good on its third bookingin less than a year at the KFC Yum Center. The performance, part of The Who Hits 50! Tour, was originally scheduled for May 9 last year but was postponed because of singer Roger Daltrey’s vocal cord infection. Then the rescheduled Dec. 4 date was called off when Daltrey was diagnosed with viral meningitis, thus halting the entire tour. So Saturday’s third and seemingly final attempt to give Kentucky one final live look and listen to a pivotal piece of rock history comes to us as less of a goodbye and more as a footnote.

The Who performed in Louisville as recently as February 2013 with an expanded lineup that beefed its core roster — Daltrey (who turned 72 last week); guitarist, co-founder, composer, co-vocalist Pete Townshend (who turns 71 in May), sibling and rhythm guitarist Simon Townshend, bassist Pino Palladino and drummer Zak Starkey (Ringo Starr’s son) — with an arsenal of keyboardists and brass players to bring all of the band’s epic 1973 album Quadrophenia to life in its entirety.

Saturday’s show, designed to honor the release of the first Who album in 1965, is very much a hit parade, focusing on music from the first two decades of the band’s career — from 1965’s My Generation to 1982’s Eminence Front. Looking for obscurities? You will probably be disappointed, although a few slightly unobvious works, including the gem Bargain from Who’s Next have been popping up. The Quadrophenia tour was likely your best chance of catching anything from the outer edges of The Who’s repertoire.

Anyone looking for a more tangible and considerably less expensive glimpse of The Who’s current tour are recommended to check out Live at Hyde Park, a double-CD, single-DVD chronicle of a massive homecoming concert that the band performed last summer in London that was released in late November.

It is well worth mentioning that The Who is one of two key acts featured at the famed Woodstock festival in August 1969 that will perform in Kentucky on Saturday evening. Here in Lexington, folk matriarch Joan Baez (Story, Page 4), who headlined the event’s folk-leaning first evening, will play at the Opera House. The Who, which had released its landmark album Tommy just three months before its Woodstock appearance, technically headlined the Saturday bill at Woodstock but didn’t perform until the wee hours of Sunday.

If you’re going to Louisville, try and make it to the Yum Center early to catch opening act Tal Wilkenfeld, a young New York fusion bass guitarist transitioning into a savagely electric singer-songwriter. Wilkenfeld’s muscular instrumental work has been on display over the past decade with The Allman Brothers Band, Jeff Beck, Chick Corea, Sting, Herbie Hancock, Buddy Guy, Eric Clapton and many others. She is currently on a solo headlining tour woven among tour dates.

Lonely night

Get set to let the Texas blues, boogie and Tejano rock roar with the return of the sibling trio Los Lonely Boys at Monday’s taping of the WoodSongs Old-Time Radio Hour at the Lyric Theatre and Cultural Arts Center, 300 East Third Street (6:45 p.m., $20).

The band — guitarist/vocalist Henry Garza, bassist Jojo Garza and drummer Ringo Garza — have meshed Lone Star rock and soul with generous doses of 1960s-style psychedelia and experimentation for two decades. Los Lonely Boys is touring behind its 2014 album, Revelation. For reservations, 859-252-8888. Woodsongs.com.

This story was originally published March 9, 2016 at 4:11 PM with the headline "The Who makes third attempt at its final Kentucky performance."