Super Bowl XLII -- 2008
The team:
Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers
The playbook:
Tom Petty, one of America's greatest artists, is put on the largest stage of his career. Throughout his 30-plus-year career, Petty has resisted corporate sponsorship and has refrained from licensing his songs to advertisers. He's fought record labels and kept his ticket prices down. But here, one of America's most self-effacing rock stars is featured on the largest promotional stage known to man: the Super Bowl halftime show.
The result: Reviewing these kinds of spectacles poses a greater and greater challenge with each passing year. With 12 minutes of hit songs -- and clipped versions of them at that -- the Super Bowl halftime show is far from a re-creation of a stadium concert. It's more akin to the blockbuster commercials that air during the game than it is a musical event, and it'd be easy to dismiss it as grand Las Vegas theatrics.
Indeed, since the national crisis that was the "wardrobe malfunction" of 2004, it's practically guaranteed that there will be no spontaneity at the halftime show. And this year was no exception, with Petty & the Heartbreakers going through four hits with workmanlike efficiency.
But these kinds of spectacles cannot just be written off. I can't help but think of last year's event, when Prince gave a largely entertaining set in the rain. Watching the game at a local bar, it soon became evident that more than a quarter of the crowd in the bar was there solely for Prince. They showed no interest in the first half of the game and cleared out as soon as Prince's mini-set of medleys came to a close.
It seemed odd at first, but placed in the context of what's happened to the U.S. concert market, it really isn't. After all, arena concerts belong to the rich, and we're quickly approaching an age when the closest the common fan can get to a major artist -- a
Tom Petty, a Bono, etc. -- is soon going to be either via Super Bowl halftime shows or 3-D films. This, for better or worse, is essentially what passes for a communal concert experience these days.
Even two tickets to Petty, an artist who deserves plenty of credit for keeping ticket prices down, will run you $140 in Detroit. Again, Petty's ticket prices are on the lower end of the spectrum. Or you can buy a "dream package" for $260 and be guaranteed a seat in the first 15 rows, as well as a coupon for $25 off merch from the Petty store, among other items.
For a large number of Petty fans, this was surely the only Petty show they'll see this year. So how was Petty and team? Taking to a guitar-shaped stage, Petty and the Heartbreakers looked professional in sport coats, and the feel of the 12-minute set was a band going to work, not trying to connect with an audience. The hooks of "American Girl," "I Won't Back Down" and "Runnin' Down a Dream" are downright undeniable, and the nostalgia, romance and classic Byrds-like guitar work in a song like "American Girl" makes it perfect for stadiums.
Yet it never quite connected at Super Bowl XLII. Petty is not a larger-than-life performer. He doesn't ham it up like a Bono or a Mick Jagger, and was out of place on the Super Bowl stage, even in a sing-along like "Free Fallin'." Petty's appeal is in his unassuming nature, a working musician who takes the stage and gets down to business. He's one of the most consistent artists America has to offer, but his appeal sneaks up on you -- it doesn't (thankfully) hit you over the head like a soda commercial featuring Justin Timberlake.
No matter, Petty will be back on the road this spring, where he belongs, and his momentary shilling for the NFL and a tire company, which not-so-subtly sponsored the affair, will be a thing of pop-culture past.
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