I noticed this show has been mentioned before on this sub. Just like the other Redditor, March 27 & 28 were my first two Who shows.

By 1976 I had been going to concerts for over 4 years. These two Who shows were my 72nd and 73rd concerts.

$18 was the most I had ever paid to see a concert. $10-$12 was typical for 1976. Most of my earlier shows were $5.50 in advance, $6.50 at the door.

In 1976 I was working as the manager of a movie theater, making like $3.50/hr.

I had to enter a lottery just to get the chance to buy tickets. I applied for both nights but only got picked to purchase tickets for the first show, Saturday night. But since I got two tickets, I had one available to trade.

But none of my friends got picked in the lottery. I had no one to trade with. I decided to call the great San Francisco underground radio station KSAN and ask the DJ to help me out.

Amazingly, the DJ agreed and mentioned on air that a listener had a Saturday ticket he wanted to trade for a Sunday. Within an hour I had the phone number of a guy willing to trade.

The guy came by the theater I was working at to do the trade. We were both super worried we might be getting counterfeit tickets, so we took it nice and slow and really examined the tickets before agreeing to the trade. Thank god they turned out to be bonafide.

I was more excited for these two shows than I had been for any other previous concerts I’d seen, with the possible exception of the 1975 Rolling Stones shows at the Cow Pakace.

The shows were at Winterland, in my estimation the greatest rock and roll venue of all time. The venue, dating back to the beginning of the 20th century was falling apart by the 1970s.

Once home to boxing exhibitions and, later, the Shipstead & Johnson Ice Follies, it became one of the prominent concert venues used by promoter Bill Graham after the closure of his Fillmore West auditorium.

The venue was tiny, with a 5,400 person capacity. Well, that’s what the legal capacity was. In reality at least another thousand or two were regularly crammed inside.

I’ll never forget what happened when I arrived at the Saturday show. I reached in my back pocket to take out my wallet, where I had my ticket. I opened my wallet and there was no ticket. I freaked TF out.

My heart was pounding so hard I couldn’t think. For a moment I stood frozen at the door to the venue. Then I started tearing like a madman into my wallet.

And there was the ticket. I had secreted it away behind the part you carry your bills in. I had totally forgotten I had hidden it. Gave myself a pretty good scare right there.

The show was general admission. There were plenty of seats at Winterland but I almost always stood opted to stand as close the stage as I could get.

For these shows, though I chose to stand further back so I wouldn’t have people right up on me while I was trying to make the most of seeing a really important show. Still, because the venue was so small, I was plenty close enough to really see them play and study their faces.

The shows were loud. So god damn loud. Among the loudest I’ve seen and definitely ones that contributed to my difficulty hearing now. Ear plugs were unknown to anyone I associated with at the time. My ears literally rang after both shows.

And, as if you didn’t know, the shows were well worth their high ticket prices.

Now, 48 years later, I’ve seen 703 concerts by various bands/artists we and I still include those first two Who shows in my Top 50.

I ended up seeing The Who twice more in 1976 (Oakland Coliseum, October 9 & 10) and many more shows over the years.

No subsequent Who shows have topped my first two. The Quadrophenia tour came close though, just because how much I love those songs.

Dig, if you will, the set lists:

https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/the-who/1976/winterland-arena-san-francisco-ca-73d43e01.html

https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/the-who/1976/winterland-arena-san-francisco-ca-7bd43e00.html

Pretty much identical shows. No complaints from me.

Ok, that’s a lie. I bitched about them playing Squeezebox. One of the very few Who songs I’ve never been a fan of.

Needed a place to show off my new cd/record stand to show what I’m playing and got some new Who CDs and figured some of you might appreciate these! M

The chap on the cover of the gatefold album?… it’s not Phil D…. Not one of the band?

So at the beginning of Is It In My Head, there's this song snippet that sounds Beatles-ish/Beach Boys-ish, and I wondered if someone knew what it was.

One week until we get to the “overall” section! Very excited

1984: “I Can’t Explain”

1988: “I Can See For Miles (live)”, “Behind Blue Eyes (live)” [from Join Together]

2004: “Old Red Wine”

2006: “Mirror Door”, “Tea And Theatre”

2012: “Early Morning Cold Taxi” [from 30 Years Of Maximum R&B]

1984: "Twist And Shout (live)" [from Who's Last] 1988: "Join Together (live)" [from Join Together] 1989: “Dig” [from The Iron Man: The Musical] 2004: "Real Good Looking Boy" 2006: "Mirror Door", "Wire And Glass", "It's Not Enough", "Tea And Theatre", "Black Widow's Eyes" [all from Endless Wire] 2012: "Baba O'Riley/See Me, Feel Me/My Generation (live)" [from A Symphony Of British Music] 2014: Be Lucky