Evening With the Other Townshend

It wasn’t until the tail end of Simon Townshend’s acoustic set at Largo on Thursday night that someone in the genial crowd jokingly shouted, “How about something by the Who?”

Townshend, brother of the Who’s Pete Townshend, jovially retorted: “That’s not my scene, actually.”

With son Ben accompanying him on tambourine, Townshend then plowed through a few rowdy bars of the Who classic “My Generation.”

His quip might have been facetious--he has been adeptly handling most of the lead guitar work for his older brother during the Who’s current “Quadrophenia” tour--but there was a grain of truth in it. As difficult as it was to ignore certain uncanny stylistic similarities between the two musicians, the songs Simon shared were more coffeehouse than opera house in scale, and a good portion of the audience that packed into the cozy supper club appeared to be there because of his music, not his family ties.

For the most part, the songs focused on the varied facets of love (lost, found, transformed, etc.) and Townshend frequently introduced them with personal anecdotes about their origins. Though the tunes occasionally rambled, his intensity never wavered and he negotiated melancholy ballads such as “Cold Water” as vigorously as rousing affirmations such as “The Way It Is.”

If the music lacked the grandeur of his brother’s work, it’s because he seemed content conveying a more low-key brand of catharsis.