Is it the end of the Who? They can't explain

Their maybe-farewell tour visits Hollywood Bowl on Wednesday and Friday nights.

- STUART MILLER

CORTESÍA ÁLEX MÓNICO THE WHO'S singer Roger Daltrey and guitarist Pete Townshend still play- and argue - with each other.

Sixty years ago the British invasion was in full swing-beyond the Beatles and the Rolling Stones, bands like the Kinks, the Dave Clark Five, Herman's Hermits and the Animals were all touring across America.

The Who were a late arrival, not reaching these shores until 1967 despite a slew of destined-to-be-classic singles. But the band despite singing "Hope I die before I get old," being famously fractious and enduring the deaths of two key members is still out there rocking.

More than four decades after its "farewell" tour, the band returns one last (?) time to the Hollywood Bowl on Wednesday and Friday. It's part of their "The Song Is Over" tour, which is an actual farewell tour... kind of...

probably.

Guitarist and songwriter Pete Townshend says that for now he wants to savor the moment. "I want to enjoy doing the best work I can on stage and to celebrate the music." While he and lead singer Roger Daltrey have been discussing this final tour, health issues and potential for future projects in one interview after another, they relished the chance to look back at what America and California have meant to them since that first trip.

"It came quite late for us but it was something we'd longed for and a huge adventure," Townshend said in a recent interview, featuring long, thoughtful and detailed recollections of those early days.

"We were born in the Second World War, 1944 and we had rations we were living on suet and you were living on steak here," Daltrey said in his own interview. "For anyone born in those years, their whole dream was to have success in America. It was our dream world. In our early days, all the music we were playing was coming from America we were mimicking it."