It must have been my senior year in high school. One hangout for teenagers that I knew was Paone's Pizza in Nyack. It was at the top of Main Street and an easy walk for me from home. They had a pinball machine with spaceships on it, a jukebox turned up loud, and the best pizza in Nyack.

I stopped by there on my way home from work at night. When I was 17, I had a job as a counter man and short order cook at a coffee shop that closed at 7pm. I used to stop at Paone's, put $2 worth of change on the glass top of the pinball machine and feed the juke box at three songs for a quarter. What did I play? Hendrix, Cream, Temptations, and of course, The Who's Pinball Wizard.

The pinball machine had a forgiving tilt sensor and I learned that making the play last longer was more important than trying for a high score. I could make a quarter last an hour by playing carefully, using my flippers to save rather than attack, and I could get a free game every once in a while. I was a pinball wizard and I remember singing along with the song while I tried to guide the steel ball with just body english and mental concentration.

I wasn't a great Who fan. I remember that I enjoyed many of their first albums, but I bought Happy Jack and it really sucked. When I finally heard Tommy, I was very disappointed and I never could get into Quadraphenia when it came out. The Who was a fun band from childhood with a few great songs. Maybe it's because they are an ensemble group who are known for their arrangements rather than flights of virtuosity. The Who, as a teenage band that was like early Stones or the Kinks, I liked, but the rock opera crap turned me off. Also the stage antics, like smashing guitars and amps was dumb.

I set The Who aside for 35 years.

Lately you hear quite a few good Who songs on TV. CSI type shows use some of the better ones, and a few commercials use them. When Justine asked me if I wanted to see the Who, I said yes. It was a blast from the past. It was a historical perspective on Paone's Pizza in Nyack. I thought that I knew enough Who fans so I got 4 tickets at $91 each.

Last night I had to eat $180 as everyone who had promised to go, backed out.

Larry and I went and tried to sell the two extra tickets on the MSG steps without any luck. We had poor seats up near the ceiling and nobody wanted them. We sat with drunks (I got a quart of beer dumped on my head about half way through). Somebody was smoking some nasty skunky weed. I have the smell of it my head and a noise and smoke hangover this morning.

The opening act, I think, was a kiddy group called Dub Trio, but they never announced themselves, at least not so I could hear. They were just bad, playing rap music to a 50 something crowd who came to hear the Who – a stupid stupid idea by the tour organizers. Larry and I were there at 8:30 PM in time to hear the poor guys get booed off the stage.

Daltry and Townsend played for an uninteresting hour and a half ($3/minute). The high point of the evening was the drummer Zack Starkey – Ringo's kid. He can compete with any of the great rock drummers of the last century. He put heart and soul into the night's performance and I am sure that the Who, as a band, never sounded better due to Zack's performance.

The crowd liked the TV songs and they knew all the words to every song used on every CSI series. They sat quietly through the more obscure songs and the lackluster new material.

Finally, after walking off stage and getting called back, they did Pinball Wizard. It was amazing to hear about 20,000 aged overweight boomers at Madison Square Garden singing “Sure Plays a Mean Pinball” off key. The balcony was shaking as everyone jumped in time to the music, and I was a little worried that the place would come down.

Larry and I left as they started the Tommy medley. It was late and I didn't need to hear that “see me, feel me” crap.

Paone’s Pizza moved downtown when Nyack became a cool place for NYC yuppies to hang out. They sell quiche and brioche and other yuppy food at high prices. They didn’t have a pinball machine the last time I looked and if they have a Juke Box, I doubt that Pinball Wizard is one of the selections.