The Who
Madison Square Gardens, New York, Saturday August 30, 2025
Words: Alan Light
“This is the 36th time we’ve performed at Madison Square Garden,” said Pete Townshend as The Who took the stage at “The World’s Most Famous Arena” on Saturday night, “and it probably won’t happen again.”
There it was, before we heard a note—probably. This was the New York City stop on the Song Is Over farewell tour, though as we know, The Who first claimed that their touring days were over in 1982, becoming a punch line for every artist who’s announced their retirement ever since. Nor did these dates launch smoothly, from Townshend and Roger Daltrey baiting each other in the press to the still-mysterious sacking of drummer Zak Starkey during rehearsals to two out of the first four shows being postponed for an unexplained illness in the band.
But whatever the future turns out to hold, they rolled into MSG—the site, most memorably, of their stunning, show-stealing performance at the 2001 all-star Concert For New York City following the 9/11 attacks—ready to play. Delivering 22 songs across two hours, Daltrey and Townshend displayed remarkable strength and consistency, not just for two octogenarians but by any standard.
They’re well aware of their own reputation—“When we’re shit, we’re really shit,” Townshend said at one point—and while a Who show sixty-plus years into their career doesn’t offer the explosive chaos of the glory days, Daltrey’s voice was steady and strong and Townshend’s guitar work went for filigree over brute force.
They stuck mostly to the hit-filled setlist from the first few shows; the night’s big news was the inclusion of Long Live Rock for the first time in over a decade, on which Townshend revealed a growly but impressively powerful delivery. NYC local Katie Jacoby, who joined them on several recent tours but not this one, raced onstage to play the violin solo on Baba O’Riley. A bit perversely, the tour’s major nightly addition has been the first-ever live performances of Goin’ Mobile, but with the vocals handled by Pete’s brother, supporting guitarist Simon (which, to be fair, he pulls off nicely).
Daltrey and Townshend don’t move too much—no scissor kicks or knee-slides at this age—but Pete made a point of starting his first solo on the opening I Can’t Explain with some high-speed windmills, and Roger even got in a couple of abbreviated mic swings before the night was done. Most crucially, Daltrey’s sometimes erratic voice has become a bit more declamatory, but it seldom wavered; he hit the big notes in Behind Blue Eyes and Love Reign O’er Me, and when he didn’t quite nail the ending on the latter, Townshend signaled him to do it again and he stuck the landing.
It wouldn’t be a Who show if everything was perfect. Daltrey forgot the words in the middle of Won’t Get Fooled Again and complained about the air conditioning. Cry If You Want from It’s Hard is an odd, meandering addition to the set. Last-minute replacement drummer Scott Devours, from Daltrey’s solo band, plays all the right parts (the crashing re-entry in Who Are You, the thunderous break in Won’t Get Fooled Again), but they felt overly studied and polite.
As the Who seemingly wrap up their work, it’s notable how Quadrophenia has taken the spotlight from Tommy as their great statement. The tragic mod opera got full feature treatment—a four-song mini-set, including a heartfelt I’m One from Townshend and a dazzling 5:15 that offered the night’s most fevered performance—while Tommy was represented only by Pinball Wizard with a See Me, Feel Me coda.
The Song Is Over would be the obvious closer (though they actually left it out of the Boston show earlier in the week and cut it short in this rendition), but things wrapped up with Daltrey and Townshend alone on stage performing Tea & Theatre from 2006’s Endless Wire, the newest song in the set. Pete sat in a chair with an acoustic guitar, and on the final verse, Roger draped his arm around his partner’s shoulder. Maybe a touch hokey, but moving nonetheless, especially when Townshend noted, before leaving the stage, that the pair have been in a band together since 1961. “Whatever it is we have between us,” replied Daltrey, “we connect on a different level and it’s very weird.”
Earlier in the set, Townshend said, “I don’t know how hard you people work for a living, maybe you work very hard, but this job is fucking easy. Roger may disagree with me, but I don’t know why I get paid for this.”
The Who have never been a band that made it look easy. But if this really is the last time New York sees this duo on stage together, they went out on top. As the curtain comes down, there’s still no substitute.
The Who Madison Square Gardens August 30 2025 Set List:
I Can’t Explain
Substitute
Who Are You
The Seeker
Long Live Rock
Pinball Wizard
See Me, Feel Me
Love Ain’t for Keepin’
Behind Blue Eyes
Eminence Front
My Generation
Cry If You Want
You Better You Bet
Going Mobile
The Real Me
I’m One
5:15
Love, Reign O’er Me
Won’t Get Fooled Again
Baba O’Riley
The Song Is Over
Tea & Theatre
Photo: Sarah Waxberg
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‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.mojo4music.com ’
