Super Bowl XXXVI Ads: Halftime Show

What happened to the halftime show? Seriously. Compared to the three-ring, Beatle-accompanied, laser-decorated circus that preceded kickoff, viewers might have thought the halftime show would have been an event separate from the game itself. Last year's Super Bowl halftime show was a veritable orgy of pop entertainment showcasing just about every musical performer that had graced the top of the charts that year, including Aerosmith, 'NSync, Britney Spears and about 900 other performers. We got dancing, fireworks, boobs and, oh yeah, that knee sock.

Come halftime of the Rams-Patriots game, however, the show was found to be a relatively sober affair, made even more surprising due to the headlining of U2, a musical group known to be just a little indulgent sometimes when it comes to live performance.

This performance featured a mini-concert by the Irish quartet, opening with Bono walking through the cheering crowd on the field (where did those fans come from, anyway? Did they buy tickets? Did they have to go back to their seats afterwards?), singing "Beautiful Day" and maintaining a serious disposition that only Bono can front. An average song performed averagely — definitely worth getting up and hitting the bathroom for, with nary a firework. I don't mean to be crass or coarse, but this was worth hours of features on the security at the Super Bowl?

Then came the truly heart-tugging segment, which is what U2 can excel in, and both band and halftime coordinators alike milked it for all it was worth, featuring a scrolling list of the victims of Sept. 11 behind them as they sang "Where the Streets Have No Name." It was a touching tribute, but it brought of questions of appropriateness: Is this how we honor victims? By an Irish band during the halftime show of the Super Bowl? It's a catch-22, for sure: fail to commemorate the victims of 9/11 and be called callous, indulge and be criticized by snarky critics. But this list was something that we've been seeing, not least of all since the World Series, and thus the effect seemed weak. It seemed that nobody tried very hard at making this a special performance; couldn't they at least have thought of a more appropriate song? U2 has scads of them, not least of which is "Pride."

The half-heartedness was exemplified when the show was "summed up" by Bono flashing his American-flag-lined jacket and accessorized by glow sticks waved by the crowd. It could have been inspirational, but it just seemed weak and even a little tacky.

Even with the Elevation tour's lighted, heart-shaped runway, the U2 show was disappointingly glitzless, especially considering the extent of which U2 has gone over the top in the past (remember Pop Mart?) But, sadly, this year's halftime show was completely tasteful and thus completely boring. The qualities of last year's show pretty much were that it was so bad it was great — "Look! There's 'NSync! There's Britney Spears! Who is that, Nelly? Oh my God!"

The only entertaining part was after the concert, with the complete non sequitur of "Sir" Paul McCartney yukking it up with Terry Bradshaw, commenting upon each others' hair and forgetting the words to "A Hard Day's Night." He commented on U2's performance with, and I quote, "It was great. Fantastic. All the names. Loved it. Good Irish boys." This is the man who wrote "Let it Be," "Yesterday" and "Hey Jude"? Plus, what is a Liverpudlian doing commenting upon football? When Paul commented upon how "nice" it would be if a team called the Patriots won the Super Bowl, I'm glad he wasn't commenting on the the World Series.

While this was dubbed an "unprecedented performance," the video montage preceding the show entertained more than the performance itself. And especially since U2 had a televised concert earlier this year, there was nothing this year that should have held back the average viewer from checking out the Playboy Playmates fighting it out on "Fear Factor" in NBC. I sort of wish I did.

— Claire Zulkey (clairezulkey@hotmail.com)