SUPER BOWL | Hudson anthem outshines Bruce's hokey half

'Tomorrow is Super Bowl XLIII, in which the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Arizona Cardinals will open for [Bruce] Springsteen," Seth Meyers said during "Weekend Update" on "Saturday Night Live."

And that's pretty much the way it played out Sunday evening -- though not even the Boss' time-honored and well-rehearsed feel-good bombast could match the drama of James Harrison's interception and historic 100-yard touchdown return, which immediately preceded it.

The music started in Tampa during the pre-game show as glossy country crooner Faith Hill delivered an unremarkable "America the Beautiful." Then Jennifer Hudson took the field and stepped onto the television screens of an estimated 100 million viewers, struggling to choke back a tear before powering through a bravura performance of "The Star-Spangled Banner."

As if the emotions of singing the national anthem at this point in time, after the inauguration of her fellow Chicagoan Barack Obama as president, weren't overwhelming enough, the Super Bowl also marked the first high-profile appearance by the 27-year-old singer since the killings of her mother, brother and 7-year-old nephew in October. Dressed in a classy but casual black jacket and white top, Hudson seemed to put all of her pent-up feelings into her performance, and the crowd was with her for every soaring note.

As for the Boss, he filled his 12 minutes with vintage E Street Band histrionics.

"I want you to step back from the guacamole dip!" Springsteen said at the start, imitating the cadence of a revival-tent preacher. "I want you to put the chicken fingers down and turn your television all the way up! And what I want to know is: Is there anybody alive out there?"

Actually, a significant portion of the audience probably was not alive when Springsteen first recorded and released three of the hoary oldies that dominated his four-song medley. It opened with "Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out" (during which Bruce slid across the stage on his knees, smashing crotch-first into one of the cameras) and "Born to Run," both of which date back to 1975, and it closed somewhat jarringly (given the tune's subject matter of an aging jock who can't stop reliving the past) with "Glory Days," which was originally released in 1984.

The one tune that was fresher than a quarter-century old was the title track of "Working on a Dream," the album Springsteen released last Tuesday. It got a mere 60 seconds of air time as the Boss, his wife, Patti Scialfa, and the absurdly do-rag-sporting guitarist Steven Van Zandt mugged for the cameras on a platform jutting into the crowd while a gospel choir was marched out behind them in an attempt to add some of the soul the tune otherwise sorely lacks.

Ironically, during a pre-game chat, when Bob Costas asked the Boss why he decided to do the halftime show this year after he'd passed several times before, Springsteen cracked, "I have an album to promote, dummy. It's not rocket science."

Given the staggering cost of advertising time during the Super Bowl, the Boss essentially scored a $36 million commercial for his mediocre new album and his upcoming concert tour. No wonder he closed the set by proclaiming, "I'm going to Disneyland!"

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The Boss Takes Over Halftime, With a Few Edits but Little Imagination

To Bruce Springsteen’s credit, he made it clear from the start that his performance with the E Street Band at the halftime show of Super Bowl XLIII on Sunday night was business, not personal.

“We have a new album coming out,” he said in a news conference Thursday. “We have our mercenary reasons, of course.” That album, “Working on a Dream” (Columbia), was released Tuesday. Presales for Springsteen’s coming tour with the E Street Band begin Monday.

Springsteen, now 59 and for many years the Boss, has had a good deal of face time lately, headlining a pre-inauguration concert last month for President Obama in front of the Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall. But in his news conference, Springsteen seemed far more ambivalent about this performance, an opportunity he said he had passed up in previous years. In part, that’s because accepting the gig comes with built-in boundaries.

Five years have passed since the fateful day in Houston when, with the help of Justin Timberlake, Janet Jackson’s wardrobe malfunctioned, revealing, in part, her nipple and, in whole, a puritan streak that has clouded subsequent Super Bowl halftime affairs.

And so while shilling does not carry the sting it once did, perhaps Springsteen let the weight of responsibility limit his imagination in his 12-minute set.

The Rolling Stones, in 2006, and Prince, in 2007, managed to inject spice and surprise into their performances. But Springsteen’s tweaks were far gentler and safer, poking fun at the event itself, and possibly at himself for participating in it.

He rose to the occasion, but never above it. And Springsteen, a reliable left-winger — when he described his band’s sound as “righteous,” it had a splash of double-meaning grit — didn’t use his platform to advocate for anything more pressing than louder volume.

“I want you to step back from the guacamole dip, I want you to put the chicken fingers down and turn your television all the way up,” he said, pointing into a camera. “And what I want to know is, is there anybody alive out there?”

Or maybe more specifically, is there anyone paying close enough attention to notice that in each of the band’s four songs — “Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out,” “Born to Run,” “Working on a Dream” and “Glory Days” — verses were dropped altogether?

The edits didn’t prove to be a liability. Springsteen appeared in good cheer throughout, sliding across the stage on his knees (and into a camera) at the end of “Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out,” and singing a collegial duet with the guitarist Steven Van Zandt on an ecstatic “Glory Days.”

“Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out” was warm and bluesy, with Springsteen building up energy for “Born to Run,” which concluded with a spectacular burst of fireworks. For the measured “Working on a Dream,” Springsteen was backed, in triangle formation, by Van Zandt and Patti Scialfa (also Springsteen’s wife), all of them flanked by a gospel choir, the set’s most heavy-handed moment. (Springsteen’s performance was as notable for what he didn’t play — the reliable party anthem “Dancing in the Dark,” the cynical but hugely popular “Born in the U.S.A.”)

Lyrically, Springsteen made a couple of concessions to the event. In “Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out” he sang, “I’m going to sit back right easy and laugh, when Scooter and the Big Man” — that’s Springsteen and the saxophonist Clarence Clemons — “bust the Super Bowl in half.” (In the original, “this city” is cleaved.)

And on “Glory Days,” Springsteen changed the antihero of his opening verse from a baseball pitcher to a football quarterback. The “speedball” that could “make you look like a fool, boy,” became a “Hail Mary.”

It turns out the early protestations were overstated; this show wasn’t even close to the worst collision of art and commerce to occur between bursts of pigskin. That would be the Pepsi ad featuring Bob Dylan and the rapper-producer Will.i.am performing Dylan’s “Forever Young” (or the country music star Faith Hill singing, during the show’s introduction, “Super Bowl Sunday on NBC/Al and John” — Michaels and Madden, that is — “are the best on TV”).

But the final discomforts were all Springsteen’s. At the end of the show, he shouted inexplicably, “I’m going to Disneyland!” A moment earlier, a man dressed as a referee appeared on stage, threw a yellow flag and crossed his arms in front of Springsteen, the signal for delay of game. Springsteen mock fretted about the ticking clock, and Van Zandt protested, screaming, “It’s Boss time!” Except that it wasn’t, and everyone knew it.

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