Totally embarrassing performance by these nitwits at the Super Bowl. Daltrey flat out CANNOT SING anymore, and he looks like a portly Vegas lounge singer with his bad perm. Townshend looks every bit the grizzled old nonce he is. Truly pitiful. And they had to play all their CSI songs on top of it, for the network that airs CSI. Disgraceful. They stink.

Aw, you’re looking at this all wrong. Whatever their performance, we were spared the horrors of Lady GaGa!

rod, I had exactly the same sad thought. So, I watched this.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hKUBTX9kKEo
Its why I don’t listen to classic rock anymore. Give me local new up and coming rockers any day.

Roger Daltry can’t hit the high (or medium) notes anymore but PEte Townsend can still windmill a mean guitar…when his shirt tail was exposing his gut.
STILL … it was kinda cool when the crowd was signing “It’s only teenage wasteland.”
At least they TRIED to bring some energy.
Next year? George Strait in Arlington? Or will Billy Joel crawl out of retirement? Eric Clapton for T-Mobile?
And did anyone here how sour Stevie Winwood sounded in pre-game?

How about U2, Police reunion, REM, but I don’t think they would do the superbowl. BTW the Stones sucked too. I thought Prince was a tiny bit better, but it’s just doesn’t work for me. I can’t stand medleys.
I would have rather watched game highlights and listened to analysis than The Who. It really sucked on so many levels. God Bless America and the National Anthem were much better. They should have had an encore.
I think the bigger question is why do they trot out these old bands for a contemporary event? Wouldn’t the Peas bring a bit more energy? It’s probably because the people with the money only know about the The Who and the Stones. I await a Led Zeppelin reunion for the opening of the 2012 Olympics. Hey while we’re at it why British bands and not American?

Shortly before the performance was a commercial featuring a “Who” song. I commented at the time of the performance the the commercial was better.

Okay, I agree for the most part about geezer rock. But I thought Springsteen was pretty great at last year’s Super Bowl… The Boss hasn’t let me down yet…

How about we stop with the pop music for half-time shows, lets have marching bands again. fifteen minutes or less for a ‘concert’ is a joke

I fully agree with all of the above. It was eminently forgettable and completely unworthy of the Who that was. I’m glad John Entwhistle and Keith Moon didn’t live to see this dreck. I thought it was bad when Nirvana performed on Saturday Night Live a couple decades back, so tanked that they couldn’t even tune their instruments properly. But this… this was worse.
And yet my daughter (21 next April) thought “they were some really cool old guys!”

“How about U2, Police reunion, REM, but I don’t think they would do the superbowl.” Didn’t U2 do the half-time show a few years ago?

My mom liked it. It’s her generation, after all. ) I didn’t think it was all that bad, but I’m not a die-hard music fan, so my standards may be low. We did joke some about their age. It was faintly comical to see these old guys performing music that was written expressly to be by and for young people.

Perspective is everything. My boys (3 and 6) still think Pete Townshend is the coolest guitar player ever. They windmilled right along to “Baba O’Riley.”

The half-time shows are another reason why I never watch that damned thing.

I really enjoyed The Who last night and, like John in Dallas’s kids, I windmilled right along with Townshend. We all thought the stage was pretty cool and the kids couldn’t take their eyes off it. At least there was no foul language or a wardrobe malfunction.

For the record, U2 played the Super Bowl of 2002 (first Patriots’ win) and were brilliant. They rolled the names of the 9/11 victims on a screen while singing “Where the Streets Have No Name,” and the applause lasted 5 minutes.
In fact, Springsteen refused to play the next year’s event because he said no one could top U2′s show … until last year.
Sadly, the Who, although a classic band, couldn’t live up to the hype. They’ll have to roll out someone else from the rock and roll nursing home.
Don’t be surprised if Arlington, Texas unveils a ZZ Top halftime show.

I missed the half-time show, but my wife saw it and said it was pretty bad. According to her, Roger Daltry did not sing very well and Pete Townshend looked out of it. Just as she expected, they played the same songs that are used as the intros to the various CSI programs.
However, I will tell you that ZZ Top is still good. Like a good wine, they definitely improve with age. I saw ZZ Top in concert 2 years ago and thoroughly enjoyed them. If the NFL is intent on classic rock acts, they should bring back ZZ Top to do another half-time show.

Well, I saw ZZ Top last year and unlike The WHO, they are still excellent live. So ZZ Top would be a huge improvement over the WHO.

To me it just exposes the vapidity of the prefab rock and roll rebellion culture. It’s for kids and kids alone, and once you pass 30 years old your career will (or at least should) have the shelf life of bananas if you can’t let your music mature with you.
Watching the Who try to sing these songs at their ages is like seeing a wrinkly old guy at the beach in Speedos. The should have moved on to something better a long time ago. Love those songs, but they are relics of youth and should be left alone there.
Rod, couldn’t post it there for some reason, but thank you very much for your thoughtful and thorough reply to my remarks on the “Information, the basis of reality?” post. Greatly appreciated. I ‘m thinking about it.

Didn’t see the Who last night, but I remember Paul McCartney’s halftime show a couple of years ago being pretty good. That guy can still bring it. Must be the vegetarian diet.

I have heard it postulated that they purposely skewed older with the entertainment after the “wardrobe malfunction.” Even Prince is old now.
U2 was THE standard for the decade but the Boss kicked it last year. McCartney was also really good if I recall.
I couldn’t help but comment to my husband that was curious if any of the 20-year-olds watching wondered why these old men were playing all the theme songs to the CSI shows.

they’ve gotten more with so little material than anyone. i’ll never forget some reunion tour many years ago and pete t actually was caught YAWNING before starting wont get fooled again.

Best take on The Who’s halftime show: Dave Berry, of course.
The halftime show was spectacular. They wheeled out a really elaborate portable stage, then they turned out the lights, so the stadium went dark. And then, in one of the evening’s most dramatic moments, the spotlights came on to reveal, in the middle of a swirling cloud of smoke . . .Janet Jackson’s right nipple.No, sorry, that was Pete Townshend; from a distance, he bears a certain resemblance. Townshend is of course the guitarist for the legendary rock band The Who, which performed a medley of its greatest hits, which have been electrifying the world since they first came out during the Spanish-American War. The crowd went crazy, especially when Roger Daltrey, in the climactic finale of Won’t Get Fooled Again, ejected his dentures all the way into the upper deck.

I thought the Who were alright last night. I didn’t expect greatness, and the clips posted here of earlier performances are much better. But Daltrey’s voice had character even when he was hoarse, and the whole band had the spirit.

I found it ironic to listen to WHO songs about revolution – and the crowd shouting out “won’t get fooled again” at the ultimate establishment consumerist spectacle.
As someone approaching geezerhood myself and a huge WHO fan – it was fun to see the lads again and great to hear the songs. I thought Daltry did ok but Pete really looked every inch the dirty old man. And yeah – my thought was -probably Eric Clapton next year – although having seen Clapton lately in concert – he holds up a lot better.
These were the guys who sang “hope I die before I get old”. I kept having flashbacks during the performance of The Who in their legendary prime – one of the great rock films – Live at Leeds. Ah well – sweet bird of youth.

I saw them in 2002. And yeah, they were a completely different band back then. They were incredible.
Townsend is 67. I think people really age between 60-70.

I’m not a fan of Kurt Cobain, but he did write the infamous line in his diary, “I hope I die before I turn into Pete Townshend.”

I’m 55 and loved the Who back in the day. But really, there is something deeply distasteful about a geezer singing teen-age angst songs. Especially when there are so many elder-angst songs just waiting to be written.

John Entwistle is still alive in the clip- that makes a difference.

Been a Who fan since the early ’70s, but had to laugh today when I heard on the radio that “The Who” should be called “The Was”.

Saw them last night, and I was appalled. Reason # 1,001 not to do drugs.

‘Embarrassing geezer spectacle’ describes it well and I’m part of that g-g-generation. Why not get Otis Day and the Nights next year? Otis’s voice is broken too.

One of the reasons why ZZ Top is still good is that their music is not really a youth-oriented rock style. Their’s is more of a West-Texas blues-style, and blues is one music style that is actually more relevant to older rather than younger people.

Actually, this rotting band I never cared for beat the Super Bowl performance by the geriactric Paul McCartney 2 years back playing ‘Band on the Run’. (And God knows beat the hell out of the Kathi Lee Gifford ‘Star Spangled banner’ Super Bowel warble.)

Hector, Townshend, to his credit, has been clean from drugs and alcohol for well over 30 years.

Re: Hector, Townshend, to his credit, has been clean from drugs and alcohol for well over 30 years.
Wow. Sorry about my last statement then. I knew that he had done a lot of drugs in the late ’70s, but wasn’t aware that he had been clean/sober for 30 years.

Hector, actually, I was off. He’s been sober than 1982. Yeah, that makes more sense chronologically. I don’t know if it’s a coincidence, but that’s about when they stopped writing original music.
It’s sort of amazing. If I traveled as much as The Who did and still do, I have no doubt in my mind that I would be an alcoholic.

At least we didn’t have to see Pete Townshed’s t*ts.

During the performance I got a text from my little sister wondering “why the old guy from the Saw movies” was performing at the Superbowl halftime show.

I was in front of the TV but I happened to have slept through the whole halftime show! Didn’t hear a note. Perhaps it was for the better.
In other signs of “gee-time-has-flown-by”, my daughter posted a photo of Olivia Hussey from a scene in the Franco Zefferelli movie version of Romeo and Juliet. Her very intelligent but still only 20-yrs-old friend responded “Olivia Hussey? Who is she and what movie was she in?”
Oye.

Next time get the New York Dolls. They can still cut it.