Bruno Mars performs at the halftime show during Super Bowl XLVIII at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J., on Feb. 2. Courtesy of MCT.
It must be a performer’s dream: a big-budget lights and pyrotechnics display, a full-capacity crowd and millions more watching live on television.
That’s what you get when you’re the entertainment for a Super Bowl halftime show.
Bruno Mars, whose birth name is Peter Gene Hernandez, and Red Hot Chili Peppers — both pretty big names in the modern music industry — took the stage Sunday to live the dream.
But for all that, what the NFL repeatedly billed as the “biggest concert of the year” left me a little underwhelmed.
That’s not to say the artists didn’t perform well. Bruno Mars (or was that Janelle Monáe?) is certainly a qualified entertainer, and the appearance of the Red Hot Chili Peppers was a welcome addition.
But the whole thing was just … meh.
In any other concert circumstances, I’d have no complaints.
But this particular concert was the halftime show for the Super Bowl XLVIII. The expectation is that I’m going to be blown away. It should have been, well, super.
And though Mars and Red Hot Chili Peppers were entertaining, nothing about their performances was memorable.
There were no nipple flashes. Destiny’s Child didn’t reunite onstage.
And that’s not necessarily a bad thing, but c’mon, give me something more interesting than a standard rock set.
Even something as banal as M.I.A. flipping off the camera would have been nice.
Instead, there was a middle-aged man running around shirtless and a man whose blazer was so sparkly and hair so bouffant it’d probably make the cast of “RuPaul’s Drag Race” envious.
Again … meh.
As it stands, the commercial in which Bono announced one of U2’s songs was free on iTunes to raise money for charity was the more entertaining concert.
This year, it seems the biggest concert of the year turned out to be just another show.
