Sat. Dec. 12

 So, there's a band out there called Slip Kid. "Hmmm," you think, "where have I heard that term before? Who put those words together?" That's right! The Who. "Slip Kid" is the kickoff song to "The Who By Numbers," and it's the name of a Who tribute band fronted by singer Gary Cherone (Extreme, ex-Van Halen) and his brother, Markus Cherone. They're playing the Hard Rock Cafe Saturday Dec. 12. Explains Markus: "When Gary and I started kicking around the idea of doing a tribute to The Who, I don't think we realized what we were getting into. It seemed to me like a chance to play with my brother and a nice challenge to learn all this material. It has been more than we bargained for in a good way. The reason we love The Who so much is because their music is not only powerful on the surface, but it is visceral and meaningful. Listening to The Who not only makes you pump your fist in the air, it awakens your spirit. Performing the songs has been just as enlightening. Because The Who were and still are such a great live band, the songs excel on stage. We use live versions as well as studio versions when we are deciding on which arrangement to use for the songs. As far as being in a cover band goes, we all love to perform our own songs, but Slipkid has been such an incredibly edifying experience, that I wouldn't trade it for anything. In fact, it has only raised the bar for me for when I do my original thing again."
Adds Gary (in photo): "This project is not a copy, but a tribute, a labor of love for me and my brother. The Who have been such an incredible influence on us and, it's one thing to hear it but, to actually perform it, it's a whole other level."
And for this show, Slip Kid takes it up one more level up to "Tommy." Now, "Tommy" came out in 1969 and set standards for what rock could do. It wasn't the first rock opera, but it was the most note-worthy and it's stook the test of time. All kinds of themes - celebrity worship, mind control, child abuse, drugs, redemption, disillusion - were played out in some truly great songs: "Pinball Wizard," "Acid Queen," "We're Not Gonna Take It," "Amazing Journey," "See Me, Feel Me."
Of what Slip Kid is doing, Gary says, "We are celebrating a watershed moment in rock ‘n’ roll, and Slip Kid performs it in the spirit of Live at Leeds, the way The Who originally intended, not like some Broadway cast which was doing Annie two weeks earlier."
Actually, I've seen the Who perform this too - they kicked it up in New York in the '80s and I covered it and it was full-on, a reaction, I think, to the Broadway-ification of it.
Slip Kid consists of the brothers Cherone and veterans of the Boston  singer-songwriter Paul Mangone on bass, the manic antics of Moon handled by Dana Spellman on drums, with Jeff Calder taking the Rabbit Bundrick role on keyboards and programming. In addition to "Tommy," the audience will hear the Who's familiar anthems of a g-g-g-generation, along with a few odds and sods in-between. "For my brother Mark and me," says Gary, "Slip Kid is pure and easy a labor of love." It's an autism benefit at the Hard Rock. Tickets: TBA.

22-24 Clinton St., 617-424-ROCK www.hardrockcafe.com