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The Who Played the Super Bowl
Music was a big ol’ part of that big ol’ football game. The commercials for the NFL featured Arcade Fire’s song “Wake Up”, and then there was Grizzly Bear’s song “Two Weeks” for a Volkswagen ad. There was Kiss with some midgets for Dr. Pepper, Kia’s Sorrento was bolstered by the sounds of the Heavy and Yo Gaba Gaba, and Cheap Trick soundtracked a commercial for Audi. I think there was also a White Stripes cover being played during an ad for the military? I can’t be sure… was kind of dozing off at that point. The point is, people love music, and more specifically indie rock… apparently even football fans. Yay?
However, the football fan support for the Who’s performance during the halftime show was somewhat unexpected… at parts, the entire stadium sang along to the more well-known lyrics of their chosen medley that featured “Pinball Wizard”, that “teenage wasteland” song, “Who Are You?”, “See Me, Feel Me”, and “We Won’t Get Fooled Again.”
On the whole, my reaction of the performance went like this: Roger Daltrey… mmm, not so much; Pete Townshend… yes, please! The divide that is the range of their talents was never more apparent than right there in the middle of a football field filled with a flashing show, crazy lasers, and pyrotechnics. Daltrey’s good looks now fleeting and his voice a constant strain, it was pretty brutal to get through his performance (although, to be honest, Carrie Underwood’s rendition of the “The Star-Spangled Banner”… oof.) Townshend, on the other hand, windmilled up a storm, sang with relative ease, and moved around on stage with his guitar better than some 19 year olds I see these days. I wish that guy was my uncle.
As far as medleys go, I suppose you got to just give the people want they want… the hits. But I kept thinking (for selfish reasons) how awesome it would’ve been if they had just done “A Quick One While He’s Away”, which has varying parts and could somewhat function as a medley. (That or I’ll look for almost any opportunity to make people watch this video of them performing the song from the Rolling Stone’s Rock and Roll Circus.)
After the jump, if you were one of those people that did something else during the Superbowl, the videos of the Who’s performance is there for you to watch.
19 Comments
To be fair to Carrie Underwood, she wasn’t anywhere near as bad as Queen Latifah. In fact, Carrie Underwood pretty much blew Queen Latifah out of the water. I guess it’s all relative.
As for the Who, Roger’s sounded a lot worse. I think the idea of Daltrey and Townshend playing as the Who in 2010 is more insulting than any performance they could ever give. Is that really what the Ox would have wanted? I bet Johnny E is rolling over in his fringe jacket right now.
P.S. – The commercial with the beaver playing violin was better than every post-Moon Who album.
Truth… Queen Latifah’s performance was not very good. But I did see her rip something from her ear at the beginning of the performance, so I felt like maybe some technical difficulty threw her off her game just a bit?
I laughed out loud at that commercial of the beaver playing violin… almost forgot about that one.
I thought Roger sounded pretty damn good. The trouble was that he was being masked by Pete’s much-louder vocal mic for nearly the entire performance; he’s the one you hear huffing, puffing and flubbing because he’s windmilling all over the stage like he’s supposed to. Townshend is one of my biggest heroes, but he’s never been much of a singer, especially in a live format. Check Daltrey’s scream after the drum break on “Won’t Get Fooled Again.” He’s doing just fine, albeit with a bit of reverb to smooth things over.
For my money (which is none), it was one of the least glitzy, most powerfully rocking halftime shows I’ve seen, obvious set list notwithstanding. It’s the bloody Who!
I think the reason they pulled the camera out for a wide shot during the scream in “Won’t Get Fooled Again” is because the scream was pre-recorded. It doesn’t really make sense that they’d turn on reverb just for that one part. Plus, the stage was mad dark. I call shenanigans.
The sound was much worse (mixing) than Roger’s vocals. It’s as if they didn’t even bother to do a sound check. I’ve seen them three times in the last 10 yrs, and Roger sounds just fine (not like the 70’s, but fine). Entwhistle would of been happy to play the SB…..he needed all the cash he could get to pay his coke bill. Pino Palladino is a fine bassist, but the Ox will surely be missed. Nothing like him on bass. A Quick One While he’s Away would of been epic, but nobody would have known what they were playing………
“But I kept thinking (for selfish reasons) how awesome it would’ve been if they had just done “A Quick One While He’s Away”, which has varying parts and could somewhat function as a medley.”
Yes! Yes! A million times, yes!
The Who was pathetic. The mix was worse. Hopefully somebody got fired over that. Why the superbowl continues to resurrect these has-beens defies good answers…..and they are from my generation! Queen L. was horrible and Carrie was nearly as bad. Thank goodness the football game was good and this was a better year for commercials.
Roger’s voice sounded pretty good compared to other times I’ve heard him lately, the issue is that Pete and Roger aren’t in key with each other.
I agree the mix wasn’t the best, but it’s a freakin’ stadium! Also, no need for fireworks. They aren’t KISS and don’t need gimmicks for their music to speak.
The Who are “has-beens?” Are you kidding me? These guys are Rock n’ Roll ROYALTY. They are the best live band … ever.
If you prefer to watch some lip-synching teeny bopper, maybe you should be watching figure skating instead.
The task of putting 12 minutes of music out , after loading in a full stage & lighting rig in the middle of a football stadium, and sounding perfect is about as likely as…
I thought they did pretty well, all things considered. No lipsynchs, besides maybe the enhanced wail. Zack was slammin’ his kit, Pete got his Tone, Rog sounded fine, and…they covered all the CSI theme songs! lol
Brilliant!
Frankly, looked to me like Roger’s vocals were prerecorded for the most part, while Pete was singing live.
No lip sync? Mmmm – unfortunately I don’t think that’s the case…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L9wkO14gSwQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-RdEB_g9sU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zK7_Hr6JhP8
However, I don’t hold this against them considering your point about the venue and setup limitations…..every artist has done it since they started trotting out the monster halftime shows….
I thought the Who were great and giant.
Daltrey has now joined Jimmy Page in the Bea Arthur look-alike club.
Pretty damn terrible.
When will Roger and Pete stop pretending to be The Who? Probably not soon, since there’s too much licensing money to be had milking the legacy for all it’s worth. This band had integrity at one time. Now they a sad shell of a once phenomenal band and all the flash and spectacle won’t hide that fact. And it ain’t the soundman’s fault, either.
Face it, The Who are over, have been over for almost three decades now.
Just what the heck is wrong with a band getting old and still playing? Like you’re never going to get old? The Who are living legends, and if they want to jam their songs, freakin let them. No, it wasn’t perfect and it never is, but I sure enjoyed it.
Fans of Blue Oyster Cult had the pleasure of hiring them for a show recently. The rule was, no Reaper, no Cities on Flame, no Burnin’ for You and no Godzilla.
That’s the only way to get your favs to play the most obscure songs, hire them :-)
Lighten up some of you people. Sure the Who is old, no kidding but they are living legends and are a hell of alot more interesting than any of the so-called bands these days that can’t write 2 decent songs if their lives depended on it. Rogers voice is shot but who cares, thats rock n roll where you don’t need a perfect voice ala, Dylan, Hendrix, Neil Young…
The whole issue about the supposed decay of Roger’s voice reminds me of those endless discussions about old vinyl records sounding better than CDs, because they allow this and that pitch blablabla. It makes one appears special, more sensitive, brighter than the rest of us poor mortals who can’t hear any big difference, apart from the relieving fact that CDs and MP3s spare us from the annoying scratches between songs. Actually I was impressed with the great shape of Roger’s voice at his age. It made me wonder about how this is a feature that lasts longer than others in the human body. Another issue that came up to me was that, despite Moon and Entwistle having been the best drummer and bassist ever (and that’s something we can’t even get close to saying about the two remaining members as singer and guitar player), Pete Townshend and Roger Daltrey are the only irreplaceable members for obvious reasons: the first is the content and the latter is the voice. I’m really glad they haven’t died before they got old, as they hoped. The old men are alright.