When I wasn't watching the greatest Superbowl ever, I felt I was watching Live Aid 2002.
Artist after artist after artist, an international spread of talent all paying tribute to the same cause. Suddenly, at around 6:30 PM, I remembered there was a football game to be played.
I'm still not sure why they had the mid afternoon marquee with Barenaked Ladies, No Doubt, et al. It wasn't part of the Superbowl agenda per se, it was solely for the TV audience, and therefore probably just an excuse for Fox to rake in a few extra advertising dollars off the names of celebrities.
It went on and on, as the ex-presidents blasted the shlock factor clear through the roof of the Superdome in their opening slot for Mary J. Blige and Marc Anthony. With all the heavy-handed sincerity surrounding Sept. 11, it sure was nice of MJB to wear that frayed black top so that hundreds of millions of people could see her breasts and be reminded of the truly important things in life.
The extravagance was more reminiscent of the Olympic opening ceremonies, and we'll have an appropriate basis for comparison as we are bound to get the exact same tributes and auras four days from now. Paul McCartney's "Freedom" is actually a half-decent song, and Mariah was welcomely non fruitcakey with her National Anthem. Not even a stupid smile and a pixie-ish wave to the crowd. How's that for good fortune? She gets dumped from her contract, but of course, she's got the high profile Superbowl gig to boost her image and convince people that she's still important. If her career resurges in the next couple of months, don't say I didn't warn you. Mariah could be 2002's Queen.
Finally, the show. U2 put on an incendiary performance, effortlessly recreating the intimate vibe of their last tour, complete with heart-shaped stage and screaming fans. The last I'd heard, they were scheduled to perform three songs, with "Walk On" being one of them. Good for whoever put the kibosh on that, because "Walk On" is ten thousand times less poignant than it wants to be, and if this allowed them to stretch out and play an untruncated version of their best song -- "Where the Streets Have No Name" --, then bravo. I'm not sure why the curtain came down toward the end -- there may have been something in the air, as Fox had loads of technical problems with their bad camera angles and non-synchronous video/sound feeds -- but I'm hoping it was an embarrassing error, because watching that curtain fall made me remember ... and that would be extremely tasteless.
