The Who - Thirty Years of Maximum R&B Live

The songs, culled from sets spanning over two decades, are a good mix of The Who's Mod, Pop Art, and hard rock catalogue, and each performance is riveting.

A sample of my favorite moments show how much the band evolved from their debut in 1964: the anarchic jamming of "Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere" (with screaming teenaged audience), to the overdriven pop of "So Sad About Us" where I could swear John Entwistle's bass sounds like a demonic piano. The best (in my opinion) era is the post-"Tommy"/Woodstock appearances at Tanglewood and Isle of Wight, where the band burns through "Heaven and Hell," "I Can't Explain," "Water" and "I Don't Even Know Myself." The abandon and power in The Who's playing was never equalled and seldom surpassed even by the group's later efforts.

The later years, of course, show the band getting bigger (chalking up a Guiness world record for attendance at Charleton concert in 1974) yet still game, mixing songs from "Quadrophenia" with 60's hits like "Substitute." I was surprised at how powerfully they pulled off the "Quadrophenia" set, loaded as it was with synthesizer tapes and technical booby traps. When The Who rocket through "Drowned " and "Bell Boy" it's clear that their chemistry was partly fired by Moon's mania; when he died, something of the old Who died with him. But "Maximum R&B" is as good as any tribute to this excellent band.


A wonderful peek at rock-n-roll's greatest live band!!   September 17, 1999
9 out of 9 found this review helpful

This video more than adequately convinces the viewer that The Who were, and still are rock-n-roll's GREATEST live band then, now, and forever more, in perpetuity! (a deliberate overusage of grammatical tenses, but what the hell, I enjoyed it immensely!) Whether seeing Keith Moon bash the living hell out of his drumkit to the tune of "So Sad About Us" early on or the entire band playing the hell out of their set at the Tanglewood Music Shed gig or their wonderfully blistering performance at The Isle of Wight Festival attests to The Who's exponential talent for playing live on stage. Pete Townshend's stingingly nasty guitar playing (including a number of trademark windmill guitar chords) is nicely complemented by Roger Daltrey's fearless vocals, John Entwistle's incredibly fluid bass riffs and Moon's maniacally yet timely drum assaults all throughout-and trust me, as an ardently passionate Who fan, this video MORE than cuts it- is someting that even non-Who fans will love! Of special note is the gig at 'The Tanglewood Music Shed' where it all comes together so wonderfully that you'll be left absolutely stunned! And, of course, the interspersed commentary by the three surviving members is also quite interesting; Pete Townshend's mention of the fact that The Who were "..scruffy, ugly , noisy horrible, loud, inconsiderate bunch of ---holes " and that in conclusion, "We became successful because that's what the AUDIENCE were like TOO." adds balance to this more than intriguing video. Do I recommend it? Take a guess.


A Quick One While the Producer Was Away (apparently)   February 7, 2001
Andrew P. Valenti (Arlington, MA)
7 out of 8 found this review helpful

I own the laserdisc version and eagerly anticipated the DVD release. I am sad to say that it falls far below the standards we've come to expect from "fully loaded" DVDs. The video quality and sound, even given the quality of the original source masters, is far below what can be achieved with a proper remastering job. For a comparison with what COULD be achieved from an old Rock 'N' Roll movie, rent or buy the Criterion Collection's DVD release of "Gimme Shelter"; it'll blow you away. Furthermore, although the packaging promises an "eight-page booklet", it is nowhere to be found. I'm glad I have the "Thirty Years" CD box set which came with very thorough and beautifully written reference material. That said, this collection of Moon-era (and dispensible Kenny Jones-era) live performances are sure to make wish you were: a) alive in the mid-seventies, and 2) at a Who concert. They were THAT good!


GREAT LIVE PERFOMANCES BY THE WORLD'S GREATEST BAND!   December 4, 1999
W. Ross (Rhode island)
6 out of 6 found this review helpful

What can I say? The Who turns in one stellar performance after another on this amazing video. This concentrates on The Who's live performances of the 70's-90's, where-as The Kids Are Alright was a melange of a bit of everything.The only complaint I have is that for me(being an avid moon fan), there was a bit too much post-Moon footage. all-in-all I thoroughly enjoyed this, with Keith's performance of Bell boy being a highlight.