DISC ONE: I Can't Explain, Substitute, Squeeze Box, Baba O'Riley, My Wife, Behind Blue Eyes, Dreaming From The Waist, Magic Bus

DISC TWO: Amazing Journey, Sparks, The Acid Queen, Fiddle About, Pinball Wizard, I'm Free, Tommy's Holiday Camp, We're Not Gonna Take It, Summertime Blues, My Generation/ Join Together/ My Generation Blues, Roadrunner, Won't Get Fooled Again

A relatively exhausting fall touring schedule for the Who By Numbers tour had carried the ‘oo across the UK and Europe in Oct/Nov, then over to the States during the tail end of November and for half of December. By and large, setlists remained static during this time, with only a few occasional variations (for example, the inclusion of “Boris The Spider,” or the shuffling of “Magic Bus” to last encore position – and, in Chicago on Dec. 4, the wholly unexpected addition of “Drowned”). Given that the bulk of these shows were performed in cavernous arenas and stadiums, audio documents of the tour have tended to be underwhelming at best. That, coupled with the unchanging setlists, probably makes the WBN one of the least interesting tours to revisit – not that it hasn’t kept bootleggers from foisting any and all tapes they can dig up upon the long-suffering Who collector’s market.

Going To Kansas City won’t necessarily alter the WBN track record, and it’s actually kind of a sloppy show, with Townshend sounding like he’s already down a quart of brandy before the band can get to the sixth song (listen to his wobbly announcement about needing to go off and have a smoke after “My Wife” concludes, or note how he rushes the intro of “Magic Bus”). However, the show is a notch above in terms of sound quality: it’s a fairly clean audience recording with very little distortion and only some moderate hiss as a real flaw, and it doesn’t sound particularly distant either – the vocals are outstanding -- suggesting the taper was well-positioned. Soundwise, then, this gets a moderately enthusiastic recommendation.

Given the fact that the whole show only runs about 91 minutes, however, it would have been nice if some bonus material had been added.

Standard Main Stream artwork: 2-sided insert, 2-sided tray panel, all color, tastefully designed. --OSWALD