The Who
1979-12-13
Washington DC (Landover, MD) The Capitol Centre

Source: Audience
Lineage: Master Cassette>Nakamichi 670 azimuth-adjusted playback deck>Nakamichi outboard Dolby B>Wavelab 96/24 1ch mono>
Taping Gear: Teac M-100>Sony 153SD (mono, Dobly B on)
Taped and transferred by JEMS

1. Substitute
2. I Can’t Explain
3. Baba O’Riley
4. The Punk And The Godfather
5. My Wife
6. Sister Disco
7. Behind Blue Eyes
8. Music Must Change
9. Drowned
10. Who Are You
11. 5:15
12. Pinball Wizard >
13. See Me Feel Me
14. Long Live Rock
15. My Generation
16. I Can See For Miles
17. Sparks
18. Won’t Get Fooled Again
    encore:
19. Summertime Blues
20. Dancing In The Streets
21. Dance It Away
22. How Can You Do It Alone
23. The Real Me

At the 10th show of the Winter ’79 tour Roger greets the audience with ‘It’s been along time’ to which Pete responds ‘Not fucking long enough!’ Despite that, Pete comes out swinging! This might be the best show of tour. Pete starts out the show in punk rock mode, wearing a leopard print t-shirt, which along with his Dr. Martins (from Robot on Chelsea Road, for the fashionable among you…)seems to put him in a more youthful/rebellious frame of mind. This is reflected in his playing, as he is at the top of his game for the entire show. After the first couple of songs, he traded the t-shirt for black jacket with no shirt.
This is the first of two nonconsecutive shows at the Capitol Centre. In response to the deaths at the show in Cincinnati, then-Providence Mayor Vincent ‘”Buddy” Cianci, who oversaw the Providence Civic Center auditorium, canceled the show that was to be held there on December 17th. The Who’s management looked at their options and decided to add a second show at the Capital Centre to make up for the canceled show.
Just as a side note, The Capital Centre, along with The Philadelphia Spectrum, the Chicago International Amphitheater, the Richfield Coliseum, and the Buffalo Memorial Auditorium, have all been torn down as well as the next two dates on this tour, The Veteran’s Memorial New Haven Coliseum and The Boston Garden, and the Pontiac Silverdome, while still there, is no longer in use…time marches on.

The encore here features some of my favorite improvised lyrics of the tour. ‘I listen to all the great thinkers, but I prefer to listen to the great drinkers. I was born in a trunk in Acton, and I like Eric Clapton…just got to be happy and dance it away!’. The version of ‘How Can You Do It Alone’ that follows is a very uptempo ‘punk’ take on it, including a ‘one-two-three-four’ count in.
The tape for this one came out particularly good as we were in the 8th row on the floor in front of Pete, which, were about the same seats we had three years earlier for the Who’s performance here. (Still on the tracker at:http://www.dimeadozen.org/torrents-details.php?id=261431)
Thanks again to Andy for putting these shows up for us.
Others in this series are here: