Pete Townshend has always been a musician willing to take risks. Throughout his career he has made a habit of writing intricate, musically complex story-pieces, from The Who's "A Quick One While He's Away" through their epic rock-operas Tommy and Quadrophenia to his own solo concept albums The Iron Man and Psychoderelict. Lifehouse, dubbed "the one that got away" by a BBC documentary, was meant to be Townshend's follow-up to Tommy, an interactive, audience participatory performance that would have developed over time during a long residence by The Who at a theater in London, culminating in a movie. Dubious press reaction to the idea caused backing for the film to dissolve and the music ended up being broken up into individual songs, resulting in one of the most beloved rock albums of all time: Who's Next. Now that Townshend has entered rock elder statesman territory he has revisited the project in a scaled back version, including a radio play, a CD boxed set, performances, and this DVD, Music From the Lifehouse, which is sort of like a grand VH1 Storytellers performance, with Townshend discussing the themes and origins of the music in between numbers.

Some of The Who's most celebrated songs are part of the Lifehouse project: "Bargain", "Behind Blue Eyes", "Baba O'Riley", and "Won't Get Fooled Again" (the final three were also part of the band's immensely powerful set at The Concert for New York) and they really pack a wallop. After years of the songs standing on their own (and, in some cases, being trivialized by TV commercials) it's a little awkward trying to recontextualize them as part of a story cycle, but Townshend's lyrics help. The teenage wasteland of "Baba O'Reily", the seething anger of "Behind Blue Eyes", and the famous cynicism of "Won't Get Fooled Again" do share a rage and Townshend's arrangements, from country inflection in "Time is Passing" to "Baba O'Reily"'s middle eastern coda, all share a sense of frustration with conformity.

The Who used simple instrumentation to create an enormous sound but in Music From the Lifehouse Townshend takes an opposite approach. Even though he plays a simple acoustic guitar (often his weapon of choice since severe tinnitus from years of loud guitars has taken much of his hearing) he is ably backed by a large band, including three vocalists, five bandmembers, and the London Chamber Orchestra. The band doesn't try to emulate The Who's epic noise, but the orchestra adds a grand sound that is able to swoon and soar and then step back when needed. The songs all sound great, with the musicians bringing out every nuance of Townshend's compositions: Violin at the end of "Baba O'Reily", as well as oboe, percussion, and Jew's harp. Townshend's wonderfully rough voice is also a major strength. The Who's vocalist, Roger Daltry, always was able to express both roaring rage and subtle vulnerability while Townshend flailed away on his axe but in his solo work Townshend has always shown that his own voice is a wellspring of power and emotion. He doesn't have a polished, studied sound and he often seems to really be working to get his words out, which adds to the uphill battle many of the songs project emotionally. His battered and worn vocal chords bring extra sadness to "Behind Blue Eyes," making the song especially poignant. Musically it's clear that Townshend is inspired by his collaborators and, even though these songs are thirty years old, they sound fresh and full of life.

Much of the complex story of Lifehouse isn't conveyed in this presentation, although the booklet discusses the concept of "The Grid," a sort of ur-internet that Townshend envisioned in the early Seventies, where individuals use "experience suits" to share virtual experiences over a network without actual human contact. While Townshend didn't invent the internet any more than Al Gore did, he was obviously responding to a sense that individuality was becoming in danger a bit and, in music, he was right. No band out there today has the drive, energy, or depth of The Who at their prime and no pop composer can match Townshend's output for breadth of scope or musical drama. He may have gotten old afterall, but Pete Townshend still knows how to make music that matters.

AUDIO:
The Dolby Digital 5.1 track sounds very nice. While it doesn't have the full boom of some live discs, there is nice separation of instruments and a good sense of tonal range, from the bass to the strings. An uncompressed PCM 2.0 track is also included, but it has nowhere near the energy of the Dolby track.

EXTRAS:
There are no extras. An essay on the origin of Lifehouse is printed in the booklet.

FINAL THOUGHTS:
Who fans may not respond to the lack of Daltry-Entwistle-Moon power playing here, but anyone who recognizes that Townshend's intricate songwriting, far more than sheer volume, is what made stage two Who so powerful will enjoy this performance. Even if you have no desire to delve further into the Lifehouse story the music itself is well worth a listen.