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Who . . .  is relevant?

from who dat to the who we give you our outsider perspective to the biggest insider event of the year, the superbowl.

 

Being at the Superbowl was a thrill for a number of reasons and was definitely something we'll remember for a long time, in no small part thanks to one of the greatest rock bands of all time, The Who.

A lot of the buzz I read on Facebook threads and random outlets on the web was that The Who are not "relevant" and are too old etc... as an act for the biggest TV event of the year. It makes me wonder if in fact, the kids are alright?

This being our first experience (and probably last) at the actual game versus in front of a TV, I'm left to ponder whether the CBS broadcast just couldn't possibly capture the electricity of the live performance. I know in years past I felt ambivalent about performances by Paul McCartney, Aerosmith, Springsteen and other such mega-acts who phoned in halftime show performances.

From where we we're sitting (section 403, third row from the top of the stadium) the aged Pete Townshend and Roger Daltrey rocked as hard as two social security aged people could or should. Sure there wasn't the same fire as the "Magic Bus" days and no Les Paul's were smashed (admittedly a disappointment), but to the best of what I could tell, the few missed notes sung by Daltrey or maybe a muffed chord from Pete meant that these guys were actually playing their instruments and singing - NOT lip syncing. If you want to rag on them for anything, it could be the choice to play a set consisting of mostly songs that have been absconded by CBS' CSI franchise; but for the godfathers of heavy metal I'll let that slide.

Back to the whole "relevant" thing. Who would you consider to fit that bill? Would you rather have empty party anthem singers Black Eyed Peas take the stage and sing the most overplayed, uninteresting song of all time "I Gotta Feelin'"? And when I say "play" is there any doubt at all that it would just be a recorded track that Fergie and the boys would hop around to? Or the American Idol of the moment? If that's the case then I guess I'd rather not be part of "My Generation."

SB44 - Live at Super Clematis - We Built This City

Our first official "super" activity took place last night as part of Super Clematis Live - a football-themed version of the weekly nightlife activity in West Palm Beach. Now for all of you fame watchers waiting to be regaled with tales of shoulder rubbing with the Jonas Brothers, you may want to skip this post.

Clematis by Night an outdoor street fair with food, drinks and some live music acts who work tirelessly to cover every cheesy pop song ever written. They nailed it by going from "Don't Stop Believin'" right into "I Gotta Feelin'" - The dynamic duo of overplayed karaoke fare. Now what made this particular night "super" were the few non-descript former NFL players signing autographs and a couple of inflatable games with football logos. Oh, and we think we saw Freddie Falcon and Bobby Bronco running around the place too.

The Evening's headliners were none other than soft-rock legends Starship Featuring Mickey Thomas, not to be confused with Jefferson Starship. Mickey and a group of musicians half his age trotted out all the classics you know and love (and Elise REALLY loved a little too much for comfort).

For your viewing and listening pleasure here are a few of them captured with our new Kodak zx1 camera.

We Built This City - Encore style (listen closely, at one point it sounds like "live goes to tape)

Just when you thought you had been soft-rocked to the fullest, they encored with the classic "We Built This City." For one brief moment West Palm Beach was indeed built on (soft) rock & roll.

Super soft rock ballad - Sarah

Dedicated to our intrepid sports reporter chum  Sarah Spain, who has been covering media week here in So Fla., by request.

For those still wishing to know about the Jonas Brothers, take solace in the fact that in another 30 years, they will be Starship.

Back for more later, in the meantime, you can follow along with some photos we've added on flickr.

Super Bowl from the outside in

 

A series of blogs from our experience winning two tickets to the 2010 Superbowl in Miami

West Palm Beach, FL - I'm pretty sure there's a football game taking place on Sunday, and a pretty big one. As a matter of fact it's arguably the biggest sporting event on the American calendar. Yet it seems that all anyone wants to talk about is what celebrities will be on hand (Saints & Colts & Kardashians, oh my) and what party can you get in to, and not who has the better o-line, but who's o-line can sing better at Media Day's none-too subtle tie-in with "American Idol."

So rather than provide another insider report on whether Peyton Manning will root for the team he plays for or the one he rooted for as a child, we've decided to provide the complete outsider's perspective to Super Bowl madness. Throughout our week in Florida we'll make our way to a few of the coveted activities, but overall, let us be your eyes and ears at Society Ground Zero.

Notes from the Almost Front lines...

As noted above, we are not the media elite, we don't have a reality show on E! (yet) and have no discernible ties to the cash-heavy Mafia, so rather than a shimmering ocean view from a South Beach hotel, we're staying in nearby West Palm Beach. I say this not as a complaint, but as statement of fact. The takeaway from this is that we were fortunate to win two tickets to the hottest event and plan on taking full advantage of that - which means spending a week in intermittently sunny Florida during the worst weather month of the year in Chicago. If that wasn't good enough we were handed the keys to a shiny new silver Mustang as our official wheels of the Gregg & Elise adventure. A Super Bowl miracle.

 

Other things:

- Perhaps the two most coveted parties to attend before the Superbowl are put on by Playboy and Maxim magazines. Remember magazines? Those were the paper things that have all but been replaced by the Internet. If I were a more suspicious person I might surmise that these publications have stayed in business past their relevancy just to host the yearly bout of bacchanalia.

- The stories not involving the parties and celebrities are all about the advertisements during the game. Are these not the very same 30- and 60-second bits of cleverness that we go out of our way to DVR right past the other 364 days a year? The Superbowl spot seems to be the Betamax in a Blu Ray world. Do these ads bring a return anywhere near what it costs to air them?

- Why does politics ruin EVERYTHING? The Superbowl and its sideshow are beloved for the unnecessary excess, over the top half time and anything else that amounts to no actual substance. Now we have to tread out the abortion debate in between quarters of the Bud Bowl? What a downer!

Stay with us as the game approaches and we take you to all the places that you want to be.... when you couldn't afford the places you actually wanted to be.