• Rock

    Super Bowl Sunday 2010 – Geaux Saints, Who Are You, hey it’s the theme song from CSI!

    Happy Super Bowl Sunday everyone! I’ve donned my Cafe du Monde t-shirt and am ready to cheer on the New Orleans Saints later this afternoon. I’ll be thrilled if they win, but something tells me Peyton and the his Colts are going to come out on top. I hope I’m wrong.

    Of course, I’ll be paying close attention to the halftime entertainment, which this year comes in the form of The Who. Original members Pete Townshend and Roger Daltrey are joined by drummer (and Ringo’s son) Zak Starkey and bass player Pino Palladino. The spectacle and scale of Super Bowl Halftime is always interesting – and having some of my musical heroes involved the past few years – Bruce, Prince, Petty – has made it even more surreal. This year, a generation of younger people will collectively say: “Dude! These guys are doing the song from CSI!!”

    You won’t be hearing “Eminence Front” today, but I have to say – it’s my favorite Who song. Enjoy yourselves today, don’t drink too much, yada yada yada…

    Go Saints!

  • Bruce Springsteen

    Super Bowl Boss: Half Time

    Photo Credit: David J. Phillip (AP Photo)
    Photo Credit: David J. Phillip (AP Photo)

    First of all, may I take a moment for a self-congratulatory look at my set list prediction for Bruce’s half-time show? This was my Twitter to the world at 8:42am yesterday morning:

    I called 3 out of 4, in the correct order, mind you (and no, I didn’t have any advance notice!). He didn’t end with “Twist & Shout”. Instead, he opened with “Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out”. But golly, that’s a mighty fine prediction…

    So, my hometown Arizona Cardinals couldn’t pull it off against the Steelers, though they sure made it close. Thanks to Kurt Warner and Larry Fitzgerald for giving us an opportunity to jump up and down for a few minutes in the second half. By that time, the Fat Tire had run dry, and we had raided the ladies supply of Strawberry Daiquiris. We were convinced that the red drink was the good luck charm. Turns out we were wrong.

    Bruce and the band’s half-time performance was as intense as I expected. It was fun to see Bruce pull out all the tricks from an E Street Show and condense them into a dozen minutes: Working the crowd. The running stage slide. Right into the camera. We saw Bruce hang on to the mic stand for one of his lean-backs (a move that had a co-worker of mine wondering for a moment if he was stuck, and needed the Big Man to help him back up). We got the leap on to the piano and the guitar swing-around. And how about the opening silhouette shot, as Bruce and Clarence brought the Born to Run era back to life? Nice.

    Sure, I enjoyed the hell out of seeing Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band perform at the Super Bowl. How could I not? But at the same time, a lot of my focus was spent wondering how others might be perceiving the performance – sort of how I felt the last couple years watching Petty and Prince. These are three of my absolute favorites, after all. Each of them legendary live performers whom I’ve had the privilege of seeing many many times. I know what to expect.  So most of my energy is spent thinking about how they’re playing out to the biggest audience of their careers. What Joe Six-Pack is thinking… What the people around me in the room are thinking. It doesn’t make a difference, of course, but that’s how I’m wired to watch my favorites at the Super Bowl.

    What it also did was get me even more pumped for 10am this morning, when tickets went on sale for the Boss’s Phoenix date – Friday, April 3rd at Jobing.com Arena in Glendale. I secured my GA-Floor ticket, and will be taking a vacation day, planting my butt out at the arena nice and early, and working my way into the pit, as close to the stage as I can get.

    It was a thrill watching the Boss give it to the world for 12 minutes. But it’ll be even better watching 160-180 minutes in person. There’s nothing like it, people. If you’re one of the people who was intrigued and entertained by the E Street Band: Super Bowl Edition, do yourself a very big favor and catch them in your town on this tour.

    Life’s too short not to.

    Bruce Springsteen.net

    See some other Super Bowl thoughts from some friend of Ickmusic:

    And this just in…

    The Boss and Phish to headline Bonnaroo in June. Looks like it’s time for that RV trip to Tennessee… Holy flippin’ poopy pants.

  • Rock

    Super Bowl Weekend

    It’s Super Bowl weekend, folks. Who else out there thinks that either Monday should be a national “recovery” holiday, or the big game should be moved to Saturday to allow for one day of rest before returning to work. More people would show up to work on Monday, productivity would increase, yada yada…

    So it’ll be a surprise to no one that, for the second year running, I’m more looking forward to the Half Time Show than the game itself. Last year, Prince bathed in the Purple Rain at Dolphin Stadium to rave reviews, and this year, Tom Petty and his Heartbreakers will get their chance to wow the millions upon millions of viewers right across town from me in Glendale, Arizona. I’ve seen TP about a half dozen times over the years, and have never been disappointed. I’m glad he’ll have his moment in the spotlight, he deserves it.

    Predictions: “Free Falling” opener, “American Girl”, “Shout”, and “Running Down a Dream”.

    And look for a Benmont Tench nip-slip at 2:23 of “Running Down a Dream”.

    To get us psyched up for Super Bowl weekend, let’s take a trip back to last year’s amazing half-time show, courtesy of our purple friend…..

    Part 2 is here.

  • Prince

    Prince at the Super Bowl

    It’s official. The NFL has locked down Prince as this year’s halftime entertainment at the Super Bowl in Miami (Feb. 4th). In one year’s time, Prince will have appeared on American Idol, set up a regular gig in Vegas, and performed at the Super Bowl. Not something I could have predicted.

    Thanks to Janet Jackson’s “wardrobe malfunction”, I guess Prince will probably keep his ass-less pants in a Minneapolis closet. Not that he would ever shock on that level again. The raunchy Prince is a thing of the past. “Sexuality”, one of his great early songs from 1981’s Controversy, is being performed these days as “Spirituality”. And I’m not kidding. But that’s not to imply that the man can’t rock and funk the shit out of a place. He can still do that like no other. But damn dang, sometimes I miss Prince “I sincerely wanna fu-k the taste out of your mouth” Rogers Nelson.

    Ah well, I’ll be watching. Here’s the commercial…