People occasionally approach me and wonder, "Who gave the best live rock performance you've ever seen?"
The easy answer: "Exactly!"
That could develop into an Abbott and Costello routine but the simple truth is: To this day, nothing has matched the power and the glory of the Who on Nov. 21, 1975, at the LSU Assembly Center in Baton Rouge, La. After all that time has passed, details might be sketchy but the warm afterglow of that sensation forever remains.
Impossible to top? Probably. But that shouldn't stop all the young dudes from trying.
Forty years after that momentous event, can you believe there are some fellas with the pinballs to take on Pete Townshend, Roger Daltrey, John Entwistle and Keith Moon? Want to know who?
The HillBenders, that's who. For a bluegrass quintet based in Springfield, Mo., to dare tackle the Great Brits' rock opera Tommy in a deferential but distinctive way seems as insane as Cousin Kevin.
Yet this fast and furious five that includes Nolan Lawrence (mandolin), Jim Rea (guitar), Gary Rea (standup bass), Chad "Gravyboat" Graves (dobro) and Mark Cassidy (banjo) aren't just pulling it off on a record they cleverly call Tommy: A Bluegrass Opry.
The HillBenders are presenting their inventive Tommy take on the road throughout America with a front-to-back version that surpasses anything seen or heard by this Whoville resident since the original.
Tommy the movie, viewed mere weeks after that invigorating 1975 concert, was amusingly trippy but how much over-the-top excess (Ann-Margret rolling in baked beans, Jack Nicholson as a "singing" doctor) can one take? Years later, the touring company of the Broadway musical was a huge production, but its colorful yet methodical approach left me feeling emotionally empty.
There's much to be said about a little blood, sweat and tears added to your stringband rock 'n' roll. The twang is at the station, and the HillBenders are all aboard.
With musical tastes leaning way more toward rock than bluegrass, I must admit that the HillBenders weren't on my radar until a press release arrived via email from Compass Records on April 24, touting their interpretation of the deaf, dumb and blind boy's story as a "full-length bluegrass tribute."
Following the album's June 2 release, they finally found a prominent place in my CD collection.
Equally dubious and delighted by this massive undertaking, my interest was fully piqued after hearing they would perform a late-night show (11 p.m. start) as a special added attraction at RockyGrass in Lyons, Colorado.
The performance was officially announced only a few days before the opening of the sold-out three-day festival in late July that relies on veteran acts (Del McCoury, Sam Bush, Peter Rowan) while venturing into progressive territory with bands like the Infamous Stringdusters, who have developed into a Planet Bluegrass mainstay.
Winning over admirers of both traditional bluegrass and classic rock assaults had to be a challenge few bands would be willing to accept.
The HillBenders' 37-year-old Lawrence, a former choir boy who once studied opera, and has a mighty fine voice to prove it, probably felt the same way when South by Southwest co-founder and musician/producer Louis Jay Meyers ran his "crazy idea" past him last year -- it's time for a bluegrass recording of Tommy.
"I was like, 'Hmm, that's an interesting concept. Who the hell's gonna do that?' " Lawrence said during an interview in a tent behind the RockyGrass main stage, where McCoury and David Grisman were in the middle of their 75-minute Del & Dawg set on July 25.
"I was thinking you would," Meyers answered, his concept just a 20-year dream until 2015.
Even though the HillBenders were in the process of writing songs for their third album, no one in the band rejected the notion that Tommy was out of their wheelhouse.
I think we were all hungry at the chance to do something, first of all with Louis 'cause he's got tons of cred in the industry, and he wanted to back the project and be a part of it. And then once we started to do a couple of the songs, it just felt good, it felt right.
And I think everybody kind of latched on and said, 'OK, this is real, this could work.'
Offered Lawrence, a late bluegrass bloomer who didn't know what a mandolin was until his roommate at Del Mar College in Corpus Christi, Texas, brought one to their residence.
The massive undertaking of re-creating Tommy included mapping out a strategy at Meyers' Kansas City, Mo., offices in August 2014, then learning the material by listening to the Who's album and watching the wonderfully wacky 1975 film and arranging the music (which longtime Who fanatic Jim Rea lovingly took on).
Before recording the Meyers-produced album in December, they tested songs like "Pinball Wizard" and "The Acid Queen" in their sets before presenting the full version to a discerning audience on Feb. 21 in a Sheraton Hotel room at the Folk Alliance convention in Kansas City.
"It was spectacular. Highly recommended, even to the most skeptical of Who fans," wrote Timothy Finn of the Kansas City Star.
Except for an occasional Facebook diss, Lawrence said the highly favorable -- and "very encouraging" -- reviews and feedback keep coming. The HillBenders didn't have to reinvent themselves, though.
The HillBenders at 2015 RockyGrass (from left): Nolan Lawrence, Gary Rea,
Jim Rea, Chad "Gravyboat" Graves and Mark Cassidy.
"I think the Tommy thing is different in material and content but the soul and spirit of what we're playing and how we're playing on the stage is very much what we've always done ...," Lawrence said. "We're still doing the same show, just with different songs."
And after "15, maybe 20" stripped-down but still high-powered performances going into RockyGrass, figuring out Tommy has become "much easier."
"It's just getting comfortable," he added. "It gets to where you've got it under your fingers, you don't have to think about it as much. So we're able to put more into the emotion and the theatrical aspects of it."
Of course, all the pressure is off since the project was blessed by none other than Townshend, who created the concept and composed most of the music for the rock opera that was released in 1969 and included so many orchestral bells and whistles.
"He said he loves it," Lawrence said of rock's windmilling guitarist. "In fact, I think we sent (the album) to their camp and within an hour of sending it to him, he had responded with, 'I love the record. I want to meet the guys.' "
They did just that on May 11 at the Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, where Townshend, a week before his 70th birthday, and the 71-year-old Daltrey brought the "The Who Hits 50 Tour."
A brief synopsis on the band's website noted: "Tommy's 'Amazing Journey' started tonight with an unexpected jolt as Pete played the chord sequence over and over, until Roger (in a true Señor Moment!) started on the wrong part. Almost instantly, the band fell right into step behind the singer."
Of course, many of us experience an occasional senior moment these days, but still relish recalling the exhilaration of our youth.
Standing throughout a two-hour-plus show in Baton Rouge while even lifting your future wife onto your shoulders to give her a better view, you couldn't imagine it ever getting better than this second night of The Who By Numbers tour of America. Thankfully, the Internet's available to refresh one's memory.
With a maniacal Moon (three years before his death) and a sturdy Entwistle (27 years before his) rounding out this magnificent cast of characters, the Who broke into a seven-song mini-Tommy set (that began with "Amazing Journey" and ended with "We're Not Gonna Take It") halfway through the show.
There was always the feeling deep inside that some other group would come along to surpass that "best concert ever" occasion.
The Rolling Stones in 1978 and the Grateful Dead in 1980 (both at Folsom Field in Boulder), the Pretenders in Colorado Springs in 1981, Talking Heads at Red Rocks in 1983, Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band at Mile High Stadium in 1985 and, more recently, the Fleetwood Mac "Reunion Tour" of 1997 were close to epic. But they, and even the Who of 1982, 1989, 2002 and 2006, all without Moon and two without Entwistle, couldn't help but fall short of the Who of 1975.
Without the Who then and now, though, many of us might have missed out on the HillBenders, whose original lineup, intact since their formation in April 2008, won the Telluride Bluegrass Festival band contest in 2009, then released their debut album, Down to My Last Dollar, in 2010.
"They've been hugely supportive," Lawrence said of the Who, which earns royalties through Compass based "mostly" on record sales of the bluegrass opry, he added. "They've been posting our videos for us, posting the links to buy the record all over their Facebook stuff."
Even if that backing is primarily business-motivated, it shouldn't be a surprise that the HillBenders, who have yet to meet Daltrey, found a friend in Townshend.
First of all, his bio on the group's website states, "Pete's first real instrument was the banjo," and that bluegrass component was an essential part of "Squeeze Box," the hit song that appeared on 1975's The Who By Numbers and was included in that 1975 show at LSU.
Mentioning those facts to Lawrence, he said, "Really? I had no idea. I would love to see (him play) that," adding with a laugh that he wouldn't dare assess the banjo-playing skills of one of rock's most renowned musicians.
Also, having been the leader of a frenetic outfit that refused to stick with a tried-and-true formula, Townshend should appreciate the experimentation and energy displayed by the HillBenders, especially the frantic antics on the dobro by Graves (left) that rank with Moon's recklessness on the drum kit.
Townshend's defense of Ken Russell's wildly uneven film version of Tommy, which Lawrence said he first saw at the age of 14 or 15 with his dad, can only help the HillBenders stay determined while looking for ways to up the ante during future stage performances.
"If I had ever dug my heels in about Tommy and said no one has the right to change my conception, it would have killed Tommy dead as a concept," Townshend is quoted as saying in the book Anyway Anyhow Anywhere: The Complete Chronicle of The Who 1958-78.
While staying true to the bluegrass tradition of playing without drums, Lawrence said the HillBenders plan to add a light director and a sound engineer, along with a backdrop and/or a video screen "and potentially other stage effects, props," while shopping the show to performing arts center and theaters in the coming months. Percussion remains a possibility, though Lawrence maintained, "it's really not necessary." And other than Moon's brilliant bashing on "Amazing Journey" and "Eyesight to the Blind," he's probably right.
The goal is 200 rowdy shows in two years ("Whew!" Lawrence exclaimed), along with one dream date -- the HillBenders' debut at the Ryman (the Mother Church of Country Music) for a made-for-DVD Tommy show.
With that mindset, the 2010 National Single Microphone Champions undoubtedly will continue bringing their boisterous act and gorgeous harmonies to life for as long as they want -- or until Lawrence (right) collapses from exhaustion.
The music, he said, "sits at the very, very top of my register, so it gets, by the end of it -- it's getting easier now -- but by the end of it, it's like pushing everything you've got just to get finished with the last song."
Splendidly but calmly taking it to the limit with Tommy numbers like Sonny Boy Williamson's "Eyesight to the Blind," then "The Acid Queen" and "I'm Free" before a standing-room-only RockyGrass crowd in the 4,800 square-foot Wildflower Pavilion hours after the interview, Lawrence was the bold counterpart to Jim Rea's hearty, animated interpreter of novelty numbers such as "Fiddle About" and "Tommy's Holiday Camp."
The acoustic guitarist, who gave the band a few well-deserved breaks by explaining Tommy's story to the audience, was a Jack Black-like man in perpetual motion, kicking, careening (and even windmilling at one point) like he was the American son Townshend could have learned to love.
The audience willingly played along, enthusiastically completing the "sure plays a mean pinball" line on "Pinball Wizard," clapping rhythmically to "Tommy Can You Hear Me?" (side note: the HillBenders' second album, released in 2012, is titled Can You Hear Me?) and voluntarily on cue becoming the cheering section during "Sally Simpson," when Jim Rea & Co. sang "The crowd went crazy / As Tommy hit the stage!"
Rea's formidable cousin, Gary Rea, stood stoically but solidly behind the pounding bass, his firmly implanted presence reminiscent of the dearly departed Entwistle. And the boyishly handsome Cassidy, the Californian who indirectly started the HIllBenders after he, Graves and the Reas were in a band -- the Arkamo Rangers -- that broke up, remained a constant and charming force on the banjo.
A former South Plains College roommate of Lawrence's in Levelland, Texas, they reunited in Springfield when Cassidy invited him to start a new group. Now Lawrence is in the process of following him to California. Despite the relocation, "Everything's staying the same" with the band, Lawrence promised.
After the Tommy set concluded with a glorious version of "We're Not Gonna Take It," they returned for three more songs including another Who classic, "I Can See for Miles," with Cassidy singing lead, and Lawrence hitting all the right, powerful notes on the Beatles' "Oh! Darling." A great finish for sure, but Cassidy and his banjo might want to consider finding a way to work "Squeeze Box" into the act.
As far as what the HillBenders can do for their next figurative encore, Lawrence already is getting requests.
Yes, everybody asks, 'So, is Quadrophenia next?' " he said with a laugh of Townshend's 1973 conceptual follow-up. "You know, there's no plans for anything like that at this point. Since we've had such close contact with Townshend and the Who camp, we do want to continue working that angle of things. So there's talk of maybe approaching Pete and seeing if he's got some stuff that he wants to throw out there or a project he wants to work on.
Who knows? Since Whograss is the next-best thing to the Who today and Townshend has recently released Classic Quadrophenia, why can't his next touring band kick a little bluegrass to the tune of "Love Reign O'er Me"?
Deliriously embracing this deja vu moment like it's 1975 again, there's still hope Townshend -- pulling some strings with the HillBenders -- will top himself.
Photos by Michael Bialas. See more of the HillBenders and other 2015 RockyGrass acts.