| The Who Tour 2008-2009 | ||||
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Roger Daltrey and Pete Townshend at the Wachovia Center in Philadelphia, 26 October 2008 |
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| Tour by The Who | ||||
| Start date | 13 April 2008 | |||
| End date | 17 December 2008 | |||
| Legs | 6 | |||
| Shows | 31 | |||
| The Who tour chronology | ||||
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The Who Tour 2008-2009 was The Who's first "greatest hits" concert tour since their successful world tour for their Endless Wire album.
Contents |
Roger Daltrey and Pete Townshend began performing again on 13 April 2008 at the Royal Albert Hall in London, closing the week of Teenage Cancer Trust benefit concerts with a six-song acoustic set in a rare Who performance that did not include a full band. On 12 July, The Who were honored by the VH1 Rock Honors, where they played a brief set after tribute performances by several bands, namely the Foo Fighters, Incubus, the Flaming Lips, Tenacious D and Pearl Jam; four days later the group played a private show at the Orpheum Theater in Los Angeles for a party celebrating the launch of the music video game Rock Band 2. The group returned to North America in October for another short tour, also playing a private event for a 50th birthday and a benefit gig for the Michael J. Fox Foundation For Parkinson's Research; five more shows in Japan immediately followed. They closed the year with three Christmas concerts at the indigO2 in London in December.
2009 saw the band’s second short trip to Australia of the decade, preceded by their first appearance in New Zealand since 1968. This was the band’s last tour to date.
The band’s short acoustic set on 13 April was the last performance of the 2008 Teenage Cancer Trust benefit concerts at the Royal Albert Hall in London. Set list (all songs written by Pete Townshend unless otherwise specified):
This was the only time that "Let's See Action" was used to open a Who concert. "Two Thousand Years" from the album Endless Wire made its debut appearance here as well, with Simon Townshend on mandolin.
The Who played a short set on 12 July 2008 at the Pauley Pavilion in Los Angeles following tributes from several different bands and performers. Set list (all songs written by Pete Townshend unless otherwise specified):
Encore:
Part of the band’s set was broadcast on VH1.
The band played a private show on 16 July 2008 at the Orpheum Theater in Los Angeles for the Rock Band 2 launch party. Set list (all songs written by Pete Townshend unless otherwise specified):
Encore:
This leg started on 21 October 2008 at The Palace of Auburn Hills in Auburn Hills, Michigan and ended on 9 November at the Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles, California. These shows saw the added of "Sister Disco", which hadn't been played since the 1989 tour; "Getting in Tune" was also reintroduced after a fairly long absence. Here is a fairly typical set list for the tour (all songs written by Pete Townshend unless otherwise specified):
Encore
There were some set list substitutions, variations, and order switches during the tour. The third song slot rotated between "The Relay", "Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere", "Getting in Tune", "Substitute" and "The Kids Are Alright" throughout the leg, although the first two were played as the third song most often. The set lists were also very different at the two private shows. Other songs which were played on the tour and are not in the above list are:
This leg started on 13 November 2008 at the Castle Hall in Osaka and ended on 19 November at the Nippon Budokan in Tokyo. Here is a fairly typical set list for the tour (all songs written by Pete Townshend unless otherwise specified):
Encore
There were some set list substitutions, variations, and order switches during the tour. "Naked Eye" was sometimes played after "My Generation" as the set closer. Other songs which were played on the tour and are not in the above list are:
This short leg started on 14 December 2008 at the indigO2 in London and ended on 17 December at the same venue. The show on the 15th had the band leave the stage after "I Can't Explain" because of an inner ear problem suffered by Townshend, but they returned shortly afterwards and played it again, following with the rest of the set; a loose and problematic version of "Slip Kid" was performed by Townshend and Daltrey at the start of the encore during the same show, the first attempt at the song since 1976. Here is a fairly typical set list for the tour (all songs written by Pete Townshend unless otherwise specified):
Encore
There were some set list substitutions, variations, and order switches during the tour. Other songs which were played on the tour and are not in the above list are:
This leg started on 21 March 2009 at North Harbour Stadium in Auckland, New Zealand and ended on 4 April at Members Equity Stadium in Perth, Australia. Here is a fairly typical set list for the tour (all songs written by Pete Townshend unless otherwise specified):
Encore
There were some set list substitutions, variations, and order switches during the tour. Other songs which were played on the tour and are not in the above list are: