By The Beachwood Fooled Again Affairs Desk
Wow, that was brutal.
Let’s take a look.
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Jim DeRogatis: Super Bowl XLIV gave us the saddest, most tired musical spectacle yet: the band that pretends to be the Who . . . The newest song on that set list was 32 years old; the oldest was 41. But it wasn’t even the tunes’ over-familiarity that was the biggest problem.
Townshend (64) and Daltrey (65) were woefully flat and way out of sync during the unison vocal parts, and they relied on empty theatrics to convey the musical energy of the Who when the Who really were the Who. But the lasers, fireworks, geysers of flame and an elaborate illuminated stage that put U2’s current tour setup to shame couldn’t disguise the fact that these were two grizzled old pros going through the motions for a high-profile payday, with barely a hint of the powers they possessed at their peak.
Greg Kot: The Who’s Roger Daltrey and Pete Townshend huffed and puffed as they tried to match the energy and bravado of songs originally recorded more than 30 years ago Sunday in their showcase slot as Super Bowl halftime headliners . . . Daltrey and Townshend keep pushing the brand and have licensed their music to countless advertisers to keep it alive. Their set list played like a compendium of TV commercials from the last decade as much as a classic-rock primer.
Dave Reardon: Having The Who play the Super Bowl is like staging a slow-pitch softball game featuring Willie Mays and Carl Yastrzemski between sets of a Kanye West concert.
Dave Zirin: From the military cheerleading, to Tim and Pam Tebow’s vapid Focus on the Family ad, to the Who’s halftime act which clearly violated the Geneva accords: None of it matters now. We’ll go back to building resistance to Obama’s wars. Tim Tebow will go back to being the next Eric Crouch. And the Who will go back to Madame Tussaud’s. For right now, it just doesn’t matter because the New Orleans Saints won the damn Super Bowl.
David Schultz: SO WHAT DID WE LEARN from The Who’s performance at the Super Bowl? 1) The Who Sell Out wasn’t irony; it was foreshadowing. 2) Roger Daltrey can no longer belt out “Baba O’Riley” like he did 35 years ago . . . or any other song for that matter. 3) Who medleys are unsatisfying. 4) CBS knew not to put a fake crowd near Pete Townshend. 5) None of the above was as surreal as Grizzly Bear scoring a Volkswagen ad that features Stevie Wonder playing Slug Bug with Tracy Jordan.
YOU HEARD IT HERE FIRST: Super Bowl 45 Halftime show = Billy Joel.
The Ad Contrarian: Glad to see the old formula still holding up – the bigger the laser show, the worse the music.
Football Fanatics: Reebok Super Bowl XLIV Cream Explosion The Who Super Soft Premium T-shirt
Price: $39.95
Get ready to rock with The Who during the Super Bowl XLIV halftime show with this stylish Explosion super soft premium tee from Reebok’s Retro Sport Collection featuring a customized print on the front!
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Playing to the Press: Embarrassing, but still better than the real thing.
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The promo:
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The performance (part one):
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The performance (part two):
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Comments welcome.
Posted on February 8, 2010