a less-than-stellar review for the Boss from the Times -- by John Caramanica (?? was Pareles unavailable?):
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/02/sports/football/02bruce.html?_r=1&ref=music
Jon Caramanica is the uber-freelancer. I've seen his byline over the years far more than that of any other music journo. He's generally more in his element talking about R&B and hip-hop, I find, though.
kinda weak to complain that Bruce *edited* his songs for the 12 minutes he was performing. True, we all would have preferred the loo-o-o-ong versions, but it's a
halftime show. I mean, there's other stuff to complain abt.
I didn't see the whole thing -- didn't even watch the game, actually, and I only caught Bruce b/c I was walking past an establishment showing the show, so I stopped in -- but I heard a little of
Born To Run and it seemed like there was some lip-synching going on there..was it just me? at times Bruce didn't seem anywhere near the mic when we could hear the words very clearly, a little lacking in enthusiasm, and sung like he was NOT out of breath in the slightest.
But Bruce looked awesome, esp compared to "Not-So-Little Steven" (a punny name I read somewhere -- prob in an sfgate.com snarky headline). I agree that their goofy delay of game/Boss time shtick was a little too much, too forced.