Why The Super Bowl Halftime Show Makes Me Sad

Is there anything safer then the Super Bowl Halftime show now? Thought I thought the Janet Jackson / Justin Timberlake thing was childish and petulant, I am sort of disconcerted at seeing legend after legend take the stage at the Super Bowl each year and produce some toothless version of their live show, proving once again just how irrelevant and sadly ironic they have become. It's like watching an elderly tiger gum on an already-dead piece of store-bought steak.

I'm not saying I want Roger Daltry to get his rocks off on the stage, but it wouldn't hurt to see them do something totally bizarre and off-putting, maybe to cause the organizers of the Super Bowl (and the FCC) to sweat a little bit. Rock and Roll used to entail that some form of rebellion was going to take place. You always had to cheer with one fist and prepare to cover your eyes with the other, in case something totally profane happened. It was just dangerous enough to make people uncomfortable, and I was just elated about that. When Krist Novoselic tossed his bass up in the air during a performance on the MTV Awards and it smashed him right in the face, I lost my mind.



I'm reaching a point in my life where doing something stupid onstage seems overtly childish and self-involved, but sometimes I yearn for it, especially during an event as corporate as the Super Bowl. I'm not looking for something extreme, just...unexpected. Nothing about The Who or Bruce Springsteen (except for perhaps his nut-slide right into the camera, and I love The Boss) is remotely exciting. It's just basically a petting zoo at the retirement home of Rock and Roll. But hey, at least it's not Aerosmith and Britney Spears.