Poll: Which Performance of The Who is the Greatest?

I completely "got" Tommy, though an odd story, on first hearing. Before that I had the Lp with A Quick One. I liked the LP but not the song. It just seemed to take room from "real" songs. I've tried to listen to it later with an open mind, but I just do not care for the mini opera. Tommy and Quadrophenia are fine. The best thing about the Circus performance for me is Moon's drumming.

 

***Let me clarify***

For this poll, I meant best FILMED performance.
I'm sure their best performances weren't captured on film (Leeds OBVIOUSLY). Sorry for not being specific.

 

Sadly, the best Who performances weren't fimed.

 

Yeah, I know. But some great moments were captured above!

 

yes, I get that. How I wish there was more from e.g.1968. (voted Isle of Wight btw, a full concert in their prime)

 

You've offered an oddly selective list: what about Tanglewood 1970 (as others have suggested) but also Charlton 1974, Houston 1975, Chicago and Hammersmith 1979 - I won't go into the Kenny Jones years any further than that.

 

My gut says this is the correct answer.

 

Woodstock 1969

 

It's a shame that 2 of their best *recorded* live performances haven't been released in their entirety:

Woodstock 1969
San Francisco 1971

The Stones are digging in their archives and releasing complete concerts. If The Who would do this and make then FLAC, I'd buy those suckers.

 

This.

 

What about Hull?

 

see Tanglewood

 

If we're talking about officially released material, then it's Leeds, 14/2/70 (2/14/70 for Americans).

 

Rock and Roll Circus is amazing, but it's one song. For me, of what's listed, Isle of Wight.

 

no argument here, great choices

 

Yes, but there were tons of great shows that weren't filmed.

 

They're all great, but I remember being so proud of them during the Concert for New York.

 

For me as far as video, I've only seen/heard a few of those listed...

and even though the Isle of Wight 1970 performance is said to be substandard....

That gets my vote ! I love the DVD. And what's funny is...I have the 'earlier' issue that has a full PCM soundtrack, whereas the later issue was only 192 kbps. I also have the 'newer' version I posted here.

Left, the 1990s PCM version (superior), right...the compressed version.

 

not something I disputed

 

Missing the original bass on the first 5 tracks and doesn't quite have the enthusiastic performance that Leeds has.

 

Well I know the shows they did in August 1976 at Largo MD were filmed as I was standing on the movie camera platform shooting and I was prohibited from going in front of PT when I was in the photo pit.

 

yeah it need be said that whatever the fate was the resulted in the Leeds album existing 40 years before the Hull show was indeed fortunate

 

Of what's listed, I went with London Coliseum '69. The Who in their prime and almost all of it caught on film, even though the audio/video quality is bootleg type quality.

 

These were the two that jumped to my mind first also [Leeds, Tanglewood], but they're not on the list.

 

I had to pick "other" because I consider Tanglewood to be superior to everything listed. The Isle of Wight and London Coliseum are both epic performances that suffer from lackluster recordings.