Super Bowling: Guacamole Dip and Backing Tracks

It’s taken me a few days to completely digest the Super Bowl Half Time Show…for a few reasons.

First, I didn’t expect The Boss to tell me to put down the guacamole dip and for him to lay on the cheese so heavy during his extended 12 minute set. I also didn’t expect to see him sliding across the stage and knocking into camera men, like he was auditioning for Flashdance or So You Think You Can Dance, or something.

It was, though, a highly effective (and corny) experiment of how an artist can bring the home audience right into the performance. Something Tom Petty and Prince didn’t do during their Super Bowl performances.

Secondly, as I watched the first half (and immediately after Springsteen’s performance), I was really in awe of how deftly and swiftly Greg Kot of the Chicago Tribune wrote a review of Jennifer Hudson’s Star Spangled Banner performance. And I don’t think I’ve ever read such a compelling and inspiring review of the National Anthem.

But then came the lip-syncing/back tracking of Hudson’s performance. Something I’ve brought up on a previous post. And something I don’t think is a complete live music sin, mainly because backing tracks are used more often than we think, and often without us even knowing, or sometimes, even caring.

In any case, the next time I’m at a game I’ll have to pay more attention to the performance value of the National Anthem and not look at it as just a moment of honored patriotism.

Even if the Bears weren’t in it, the Big Game was still exciting to watch and thanks to Springsteen I never ran out of cheese for my nachos.