“The band decided to recommence the tour beginning at the Hollywood Bowl (a Monday night show),” according to a message posted on guitarist Pete Townshend’s Web site. “News will be added as and when it becomes available.”

According to the band’s manager, Bill Curbishley, the June 28th show in Las Vegas and the June 29th date in Irvine, Calif., will be rescheduled at a later date.

Accomplished session musician Pino Palladino will reportedly take on the bass responsibilities for the tour. While no one can replace Entwistle, Palladino is certainly familiar with the band members and their material. He has performed with Roger Daltrey and played on Townshend’s White City: A Novel album.

The band’s name will be the same, but it won’t be the same Who.

Whenever the band took the stage, Daltrey provided the sound and Townshend the fury. Off to the side, frozen except for the fingers flying across his fretboard, stood “The Ox” – Entwistle.

Entwistle, a player of restraint in a band of excess, died Thursday of an apparent heart attack at a Las Vegas hotel. An autopsy was scheduled in Las Vegas to determine the exact cause of death.

Entwistle, who was on medication for a heart condition, was 57. Thirty-eight of those years were spent with The Who.

Entwistle was “probably the most influential bassist in rock music,” said rock critic Bruce Eder of the All Music Guide. Total Guitar magazine named him as bassist of the millennium in 2000, selecting Entwistle over contemporaries Paul McCartney of the Beatles, Bill Wyman of the Rolling Stones and John Paul Jones of Led Zeppelin.

“The quietest man in private but the loudest onstage,” Wyman said of his late friend. “He was unique and irreplaceable.”

Entwistle’s death came one day before the band was scheduled to open its tour in Las Vegas. That show was canceled, along with a second show set for Saturday night in Irvine, Calif.

The only other word from surviving bandmates Townshend and Daltrey was a two-sentence statement on the guitarist’s Web site: “The Ox has left the building – we’ve lost another great friend. Thanks for your support and love.”

Karen Dunphy of suburban New York has tickets to see The Who at Jones Beach this summer, but she’s not as excited about seeing the band without its longtime bassist.

“I have tickets, so I would go,” she said. “But it’s kind of different. He’s not as key as Pete Townshend, but still …”

The Who regrouped once before, after the 1978 death of drummer Keith Moon, adding Kenney Jones before calling it quits four years later. But all three surviving members later expressed regrets about the decision to continue, saying the band had died along with Moon.

Those feelings didn’t prevent a 1989 reunion tour and several subsequent big-money regroupings, although those shows focused on old Who material. The band’s last collection of new material was It’s Hard in 1982.

Entwistle had his own solo projects, and began a career as an artist; his works were set to travel to several cities on The Who’s concert itinerary.

The band – which was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1990 – will be hard pressed to match its performance at the “Concert for New York” benefit for Sept. 11 victims.

Before a roaring crowd at Madison Square Garden, The Who pulled out the Townshend anthems – “Won’t Get Fooled Again,” “Baba O’Reilly” and “Who Are You” – that cemented their place in rock and roll history.

On a night where they shared the stage with rock royalty like Billy Joel, Elton John, McCartney, David Bowie and Mick Jagger, The Who dominated the show.