"We were gradually playing larger venues and in the early days PA systems were kind of non-existent. So to play loud, we had to use louder equipment. The PA systems back then didn't mic the instruments - only the vocals"
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Entwistle is smuggling a technical footnote into rock mythology: The Who didn’t just choose to be loud, they were engineered into it. The line has the plainspoken modesty of a working musician explaining logistics, but the subtext is bigger: “volume” wasn’t an aesthetic flex so much as a survival tactic in rooms that kept getting larger while the technology lagged behind the ambition.
His emphasis on early PA limitations (vocals only, no instrument mics) quietly reframes an entire era. Today we take for granted that amplification is a system; then it was a patchwork. If the audience can’t hear the guitar and bass through the house, the band becomes the PA. That necessity nudged rock toward the arms race of stacks, wattage, and overbuilt rigs, and it helps explain why Entwistle and peers became not just players but early adopters of gear culture. The “gradually” matters, too: this isn’t a single breakthrough night, it’s incremental escalation, a touring treadmill where each bigger booking demands a bigger sound, which demands bigger hardware, which reshapes the performance itself.
There’s also an unspoken defense embedded in the matter-of-fact tone. The Who’s thunderous reputation often reads as bravado, even aggression. Entwistle offers a cooler origin story: the band’s extremity as a rational response to inadequate infrastructure. It’s rock’s recurring theme in miniature - art shaped by constraints, then remembered as attitude.
His emphasis on early PA limitations (vocals only, no instrument mics) quietly reframes an entire era. Today we take for granted that amplification is a system; then it was a patchwork. If the audience can’t hear the guitar and bass through the house, the band becomes the PA. That necessity nudged rock toward the arms race of stacks, wattage, and overbuilt rigs, and it helps explain why Entwistle and peers became not just players but early adopters of gear culture. The “gradually” matters, too: this isn’t a single breakthrough night, it’s incremental escalation, a touring treadmill where each bigger booking demands a bigger sound, which demands bigger hardware, which reshapes the performance itself.
There’s also an unspoken defense embedded in the matter-of-fact tone. The Who’s thunderous reputation often reads as bravado, even aggression. Entwistle offers a cooler origin story: the band’s extremity as a rational response to inadequate infrastructure. It’s rock’s recurring theme in miniature - art shaped by constraints, then remembered as attitude.
Quote Details
| Topic | Music |
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