Who are you?

This is The Who, intact and at their height of creative energy and musicianship. Roger Daltrey, John Entwistle, Keith Moon and Pete Townshend -- each rock legends in their own right. Two of the four are dead now. In fact, Moon has been dead for decades. But make no mistake about it, the late Keith Moon (drums) and John Entwistle (bass) were every bit as important to The Who as Daltrey (vocals) and Townshend (guitar). You can't say that about a lot of bands where the rhythm sections can be replaced without much notice from average fans.

Because half the band is six feet under, I hesitate to refer to the group that played at the Super Bowl in Miami yesterday as The Who. When Jimmy Page and Robert Plant briefly toured together after their famed Led Zeppelin days were long over, they simply referred to their new act as Page & Plant. And they picked appropriate venues to play in where they didn't need to fill the room with unbridled energy and laser-like precision. They sounded fine, played in a more subtle manner and connected with audiences. They drew heavily on their Zeppelin roots, performed a lot of the old songs, but updated appropriately to the times and to their latest band configuration and aging vocal cords.

The remaining members of The Who tried to pull off something that doesn't play to their strengths anymore. There is nothing Woodstock-ish about a football game run by corporations. In fact, the Super Bowl halftime show is a tough gig for any musician. The production problems alone are a nightmare. The only truly super Super Bowl musical performance I recall was turned in by Prince a few years ago. And I am not a big Prince fan.

It's tough to make a frantic 15-minute performance into something that is artful and true to the music. Most Super Bowl halftime shows are as much about the eye candy as the songs. That challenge and risk are fine for bands of lesser historic status, but groups like The Who shouldn't open themselves up to all the AARP jokes by being a part of this spectacle, especially with somewhat diminished skills. I still like seeing the old guys playing, and enjoy the old tunes, but in a more appropriate setting The Who would have fared much better. Give me Roger and Pete at Wolf Trap on a summer night in front of a few thousand folks and I am sure I'd have a far different take on their performance.

Of course, if you give me the choice of watching The Who or T-Pain at halftime, I will take The Who every single time. I don't care if Pete and Roger come out in wheel chairs and hearing aids. OK, that would be a little sad, but it would still be music.