Super Bowl: How Will Bruce Do?

By Mack Rawden: 2009-01-27 19:32:07

We’re less than a week away from the Super Bowl. Can you feel the excitement, the enthusiasm, the wind howling from millions of Terrible Towels menacingly flying in unison? I’m a Bears fan; so, no, no I cannot. But I’ll still watch. It is, after all, the foremost television event of the year. Hilarious commercials, Bruce Springsteen, and Kurt Warner’s aging body--now that’s entertainment, specifically the whole Bruce Springsteen part.

The Super Bowl Halftime Show is the most watched concert of the year, which is sad for anyone who cares about music. Not because of the performers. It’s hard to argue with Tom Petty and Prince, but it just never feels like a real concert. It’s too glitzy, too glamorous. Rock N Roll is dirty, sweaty and even smelly. It hurts your ears, makes you shake your fist and vow never to take it again. The Halftime Show is none of that. It’s staged and heavily choreographed, feeling like one giant thumbs up to selling out. But maybe that’ll all change this year?

I’m not the world’s biggest Bruce Springsteen fan. He’s a talented musician with an arsenal of great songs, but I just never connected with him. I never felt that cohesion you need to love a band, the synchronicity you need to really love a band with undying devotion. But Bruce Springsteen is nothing if not genuine. He’s perhaps more real than any megastar since Bob Newhart, and he’s publicly vowed to play everything live, which should slow the frenetic pace which clutters and muddles the stage each year.

How do you think he’ll do? Will it be the same boring, humdrum affair or the one which finally lives up to all the hype? Tell us by voting in the poll below.

How Will Bruce Do?