2008 Superbowl halftime show

[chris]

the halftime shows during the superbowl of late have been much better. we have had the stones, mccartney, prince and (this year) tom petty. a huge step up in quality...i say. but some comments for this years show...

his set was great...he has so many great songs...and he showed them off well. good performances by everyone in the band.

american girl
won't back down
freefalling
running down a dream

started out ...no lights in the staduim at all. then, the stage would pulse with light (along with an heartbeat). was it me or was the audio and the visual out of sync?

then a huge guitar was lit...circling the stage, until it "penetrated" the stage and became one with it. and they said prince's show may have been phallic...

whats up with the obviously asked to raise your hands in celebration, young-uns pretending to be fans. i know its important to the networks to seem like everyone is having fun...but this seems fake.

speaking of fake...did tom petty seem bored? his performance was fine...great even (was always a fan) but he seemed uninterested.

i liked the show. again, i like petty. but it seemed so prefabricated...so artificial.

[2 of 3]

whats up with the obviously asked to raise your hands in celebration, young-uns pretending to be fans. i know its important to the networks to seem like everyone is having fun...but this seems fake.

Macca had that too as I remember....didnt see the stones or prince...were they there for them too?

[RickStark79]

Great show by Tom! I'm way overdue to see him in concert!

[james1985]

didn't make it to halftime - went to bed when Patriots scored the first touchdown - thought game was over

[A.]

just saw that on youtube - had say I had the same impression as chris - it looked like he didn't care

still good to see him in good form - his vocal performance in american girl was almost like on the original record.

[EddieV]

Last time I saw Tom Petty he looked like George in 1969

[lampie1970]

the young 'uns are especially picked to be in that section. So yeah, they are coached. I only know this cause i wanted to be one of the ones screaming and yelling for Paul when he was here in Jax...My screaming and yelling would have been genuine, but i dont think i am considered a young 'un anymore

[gfgb123]

Still no uniform malfunction but they did focus on one female showing cleavage. It's Fox's and the NFL's limit I guess. Maybe Tom Petty was bored from seeing a commercial break after nearly every down played.

[mageestout]

Love Tom but as many have said, he looked a bit bored. He needs to cut the whiskers. Our local paper said it should have been "Tom Petty and the Hipbreakers"

I'm sure the NFL looked at Tom as a "safe act" to have. Tom appeals to people who have good taste in music & to the heartland of America. No Janet wardrobe malfunctions or gyrations of Prince. Once again it's the whole commercial aspect of it, not the music.

Plus, I shutter to think of a Tom Petty wardrobe malfunction. (perhaps that would be considered Full MOON fever)

I agree, the kids by the stage had to be coached to feign excitement.

American Girl & Running were good choices but he needed some more "peppier" tunes to get the crowd honestly excited.

[Scott Dossett]

Tom is one of my all time favorites...but did they have to "varnish" his beard...He's supposed to be grizzled gray and not varnished dark brown.

p.s. Show was great !