ANAHEIM, Calif. — Let’s start at the end, as the Who wrapped up its main set with “The Song Is Over,” a classic song by this British rock band, and the name of its farewell tour, too.

“I’ll sing my song to the wide open spaces,” vocalist Roger Daltrey belted as the tune reached the chorus on Wednesday at the Hollywood Bowl. “I’ll sing my heart out to the infinite sea.”

Then Pete Townshend, the Who‘s chief songwriter, guitarist and second vocalist, returned for the final verse.

“The song is over, I’m left with only tears,” he gently sang. “I must remember, even if it takes a million years.”

So, is this really it? The final farewell tour of the mod rockers of Swinging London in the ’60s, creators of the rock opera “Tommy,” hard rock gods from the ’70s on?

It sure sounds like it, and this is coming from someone who saw the Who‘s first farewell tour in Seattle in 1982 and doesn’t want to be fooled again.

Daltrey, 81, and Townshend, 80, had never played “The Song Is Over” before the current tour. Though it was written about the end of an affair, it fits perfectly at the end of a different kind of relationship, between band and audience, musicians and fans. Surely that means something.

Whether or not we see the Who again after a final performance at the Acrisure Arena in Palm Desert on Oct. 1, the band sounded fantastic on Wednesday in a show that dropped 22 songs into two hours.

Daltrey’s voice is stronger than it’s been in years. Townshend’s guitar solos still slice through the songs like a hot wire. And the current lineup of the band is as powerful as any they’ve had since the deaths of the Who’s cofounders, bassist John Entwistle and Keith Moon, in 2002 and 1978, respectively.

After a career retrospective video filled with archival quotes and images raced the history of the Who, the show kicked off with “I Can’t Explain,” a song from band’s 1965 debut album “My Generation,” and “Substitute,” a single from the following year, a period when the Who were still baby faced 20-somethings raising an unholy racket in small London clubs.

“Who Are You” followed with the crowd joining Daltrey to sing the choruses as Townshend earned cheers with the windmilling guitar stroke he unleashed. “Long Live Rock,” Townshend told the audience, was inspired by the Shakespearean tales of kings which he didn’t fully get at the time. He did, however, like the phrase “Long live the king!” which led to this tune.

The set seemed built to satisfy the fans’ need for hits from all eras of the band, but also drop a few rarities into the mix, too.

A pair of songs from the rock opera “Tommy” appeared early on: “Pinball Wizard” instantly identifiable from the moment Townshend and his brother Simon Townshend struck the opening guitar notes of the number and Daltrey started to whip the microphone around in circles over his head. That led without pause into “See Me, Feel Me.”

Townshend announced at one point that their set would include a few songs from the signature album “Who’s Next,” which the band hadn’t played much at all. “Love Ain’t For Keepin” showed up first of those, with its place in the tour this year it’s first consistent performance by the band since “Who’s Next” was released in 1971.

“Going Mobile,” another track off “Who’s Next,” had never been performed live by the Who before this year, and its presence a little later in the set was a highlight sung by Simon Townshend, Pete’s brother and longtime bandmate.

The band’s early ’80s albums “Face Dances” and “It’s Hard” featured the Who’s embrace of electronics beyond the juice powering their guitars and amps. “You Better You Bet” floated lightly atop the gentler musical arrangement. “Eminence Front” laid down a bed of synth melodies over which Townshend soloed fiercely on guitar.

“Quadrophenia,” the 1973 concept album that became a 1979 musical film, got the biggest spotlight of the night, with four songs mostly clustered served as a spotlight at different points in the set contributing “The Real Me,” I’m One,” “5:15,” and “Love, Reign O’er Me” played as a mini-suite in latter half of the set.

All of them received big responses from the audience, but none was bigger than that which greeted “Love, Reign O’er Me,” which built from the shimmering bed of synths that open the number to Townshend’s soaring guitar solos and finally a huge series of wails or screams from Daltrey that carried the kind of power you might not expect an 81-year-old man to muster.

“Baba O’Riley,” the last of six songs from “Who’s Next,” saw Daltrey serve up another huge scream as it peaked with those of fans singing along to its choruses of “teenage wasteland.”

And then, after “The Song Is Over,” Daltrey and Townshend dismissed the band from the stage, and with Townshend seated to play an acoustic guitar and Daltrey standing next to him with a cup of tea, they finished the show with “Tea & Theatre,” a song from 2006’s “Endless Wire.” Definitely the least-known number in the set, their meaning for choosing it became clear as they performed it.

“Lean on my shoulder now, this story is done,” Daltrey sang. “It’s getting colder now, a thousand songs, still smoulder now, we play them as one.”

And if that’s not clear enough?

“We’re older now, all of us sad, all of us free,” he continued. “Before we walk from this stage, two of us, will you have some tea at the theatre with me?”

So yeah, it kinda feels like they mean it this time, though in a few final words with the crowd, Townshend said he and Daltrey might show up at a charity concert here and there, and they will work together on something again.

So who knows where the Who goes next? Just be glad for the times we had them.

The Joe Perry Project opened the show for the Who, with Aerosmith guitarist Joe Perry’s current band, including Chris Robinson of the Black Crowes on vocals, Aerosmith guitarist Brad Whitford, and Stone Temple Pilots bassist Robert DeLeo.

Robinson promised a rock show several times throughout the set, and that’s what fans got as the band played songs from the bands of each of its well-known members, bringing out Guns N’ Roses guitarist Slash to trade licks with Perry and Whitford on Aerosmith’s “Mama Kin.”

But the biggest highlight of their set came at the end when Aerosmith singer Steven Tyler strolled out wearing his signature kimono-style coat and carrying a mic stand bedecked in colorful ribbons. They tore through the Aerosmith classic “Walk This Way” with Tyler and Perry striking poses next to each other as they’ve done for years in their band, and then finished with “The Train Kept A-Rollin’,” the hard rock standard they helped popularize in the early ’70s.

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