The Halftime Show

Well, since I'm still living the Springsteen high-life, I couldn't let last night's Super Bowl halftime show pass without a few comments.

As a hard-core Bruce fan ... what did I think?

First off, the opening shot ... Bruce and Clarence back to back basically doing a re-creation of the Born To Run cover sent chills up my spine.

Otherwise, Springsteen tossed everything but the kitchen sink in there. He really did try to condense the energy of a 3-hour show down into 12 minutes.

We got concert staples like the guitar toss, the stage slide (which he overshot!), the piano jump, and even the guitar twirl ...

Springsteen was quoted as saying he wanted to turn the Halftime Show into a 12-minute party ... and I think he succeeded ... even though he didn't play a full version of any single one of the 4 songs.

However, I almost think he tried too hard to get all the concert bits in there ... the show could have used a little more breathing room.

Bruce's voice also didn't sound "tour ready" ... as it was a bit weak on Born To Run and Working On A Dream.

And, while adding Working On A Dream was done for a mercenary reason (to sell records, dummy!) it did feel a little flat after Born To Run.

The typical Bruce humor was there ... c'mon, who else would have the guts to tell viewers to "step away from the guacamole and put down the chicken fingers."

All in all, to this fan, it was a fun performance ... that had a few missteps.

But, I'm certainly ready for him to bring a tour stop to Cleveland! (Please?)

(By the way, I loved the idea of the taped intro with the players/coaches announcing the band as Bruce usually does. Especially Ken Whisenhunt saying "booty shaking".)