The Who have had a reputation for milking their legend over the past fifteen years or so, a reputation they've worked hard to earn with endless nostalgic farewell tours, numerous reissues and compilations and countless TV commercials and other overtly commercial exploits. Making things even more questionable is the band's continuation after the death of original bassist John Entwistle in 2002.

Without Entwistle and drummer Keith Moon (who died in 1978) on board the Who basically consists of one guitar and one voice: Pete Townshend and Roger Daltrey. Since Townshend wrote the majority of the Who's classic songs he feels comfortable continuing without his original collaborators. While there's nothing really wrong with Townshend and Daltrey taking their music on the road, it feels like they're dragging it along against its will on Live in Boston, a performance culled from the tour that started the day after Entwistle's death. Given that the touring musicians now outnumber actual Who members by double at this point it barely even feels like a Who show. The set list includes music from every era of the Who's long history and is peppered with Townshend's experimental side (he adds lyrics from his recent "Old Red Win" tribute to Entwistle to "The Kids Are Alright") but there isn't a real sense of drama and purpose to the playing.

Daltrey and Townshend have always been terrific but the unique styles of Entwistle and Moon (perhaps the more musically interesting half of the group) really helped establish earlier recordings as something special. I think back to the Who's landmark concert album Live at Leeds (a high standard to be sure) and have to question the necessity of the rote versions of the songs on this disc. The touring musicians are absolutely competent and play with authority, but they do not possess the strange rhythmic qualities of Moon and Entwistle and (to their credit) they don't try to mimic them. Still, this is useless nostalgia. I can see why you might go to a current Who show - it would be fun to jump around to phenomenal songs like "Baba O'Riley" and "Substitute" - but I'm not sure why you'd watch the DVD. With much more vital Who performances already available (like 1970's Isle of Wright Festival) and the Who's raw-but-inspirational miniset from Live Aid coming soon there's no need to pick up this lackluster disc.

Set List:
I Can't Explain
Substitute
Anyway Anyhow Anywhere
Who Are You
Another Tricky Day
Relay
Bargain
Baba O'Riley
Sea and Sand
5.15
Love Reign O'er Me
Eminence Front
Behind Blue Eyes
You Better You Bet
The Kids Are Alright
My Generation
Won't Get Fooled Again
Pinball Wizard
Amazing Journey/Sparks
See Me Feel Me
Listening to You
Note: When choosing an individual song from the chapter settings, the DVD plays just that one song and then returns to the menu. An annoying feature that makes the disc tougher to navigate than it should be.

VIDEO:
The fullscreen video is surprisingly ugly. It's not sharp, displays compression nastiness and just has a general crunchy appearance. Why does this disc not look fantastic? I have no idea. Unpleasant.

AUDIO:
The audio is available in both Dolby Digital 5.1 and PCM stereo. Like the video, there's something lacking here. Even though they sound reasonably clear and dynamic, both audio tracks just somehow don't distinguish themselves. They sound a bit off. It's hard to say why. Maybe it's the venue, maybe the mix, but there's a general lack of life to the soundtrack here. There are subtitles for the stage banter and lyrics, so that's a cool thing.

EXTRAS:
Interviews with Daltrey and Townshend (both in anamorphic widescreen for some reason) show that the musicians seem almost as ambivalent about this current path as me. Townshend almost goes as far as to call the current incarnation a "Who copy band." There is also a gallery of drawings by Entwistle depicting the band and some of their contemporaries (Clapton, Hendrix, Stones...)

FINAL THOUGHTS:
An unexciting concert presented in a pretty unexciting way. While the price may be far less than the band's overpriced concert tickets it doesn't offer anything new or interesting. Fans would be better served seeking out a classic performance and enjoying that instead.