Bowled over in 12 minutes? Won't get fooled again

I don't know much about American football, but I do know this: no country in the world, no alien force from deep space, will ever conquer a nation that has the ingenuity and wherewithal to transform a playing field into a mega-rock stadium and back again in the wink of an eye.

I speak of the Super Bowl match between the New Orleans Saints and the Indianapolis Colts, played in Miami, Florida. These two mini-armies of offensive and defensive battalions tried to smash each other to smithereens while trying to get their man over the enemy's line while carrying a ball. To an outsider, it seemed more akin to a never-ending game of pause and effect. Or to steal Homer Simpson's line about watching baseball sober: "I never realised how boring this game was."

But then the game was only one play of the day. More spectacular, more dazzling, more forceful, (more anything really) than the men and the ball was the time in between the two halves. For it was there that a time-honoured event took place. It is called The Half-Time Entertainment. And in time-honoured tradition, it has to be big. VERY BIG. Companies pay the equivalent of the gross domestic product of small African countries to take out advertising space on it. The audience is massive, and it's really only the television audience that matters here.

Enter The Who, for a time the loudest rock band in the world. But that was 30 years ago, when they were young(ish) and singing, "Hope I die before I get old," and meaning it. Now, they just look old, well two of them do — Roger Daltrey and Pete Townshend; the other two original members, John Entwistle and Keith Moon, are dead.

Before the show, the cheeky Brits opined that America should have used the Super Bowl roadies rather than its soldiers in its overseas military excursions. Such was the roadies' efficiency in erecting and dismantling the stage. It was the biggest stage that Daltrey and Townshend said they'd seen in their lives.

And they were on it for about 12 minutes.

It was long enough. Before the performance, Townshend was asked how he summoned up enough energy so quickly. He didn't know what happened, he replied; really he was just a mild-mannered man, and then there was a trigger, like turning on a switch and away he went.

He and Daltrey sailed through a medley of hits, as if in a dream, occasionally hitting the same note when harmonising, more often not. Pinball Wizard, Baba O'Riley, Who Are You, See Me, Feel Me and Won't Get Fooled Again were all compressed into vignettes. A multitude of lasers criss-crossed the sky, the stage exploded in waterfalls of light, Townshend turned his right arm into a manic windmill, slashing and bashing the strings. It was all vintage stuff from a vintage band. And who could deny them their moment? Take it for what it was: a cartoon, a pastiche of their past glories.

In performing at Super Bowl, the band is only following in the footsteps of other huge names in the industry, such as Prince, U2, Tom Petty and Bruce Springsteen. It is an almost unequalled opportunity for self-advertisement. Although the band do already have a link to Florida: CSI: Miami uses Won't Get Fooled Again as its opening credit.

It's a pity though that in advertisements for their Super Bowl appearance Townshend appears in a few shots playing the guitar left-handed. A pedantic point, it's granted. But really, his right flailing arm is probably the most recognisable whirling arm in music history. Someone wasn't paying attention, or didn't care.

Still, if you were to avail yourself of the download that is scheduled to be available of the 12-minute performance you can see Townshend's guitar in its rightful anatomical position in the video game Rock Band.

Why did they do it? Why did anyone before them do it? An offer too good to refuse? An opportunity that may not come again? A thrill too big to miss? Let's allow the old geezers their moment in the lasered light. After what they've given us, it's fair enough.

However, that doesn't mean one can ignore the wardrobe malfunction. No, Janet Jackson didn't sneak onstage. But, Pete, did you have to wear the hat?

Oh, who won? The Saints, 31-17.

Warwick McFadyen is an Age senior writer.