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HALFTIME IS BOSSTIME

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By CURTIS ROSS

cross@tampatrib.com

Published: February 2, 2009

TAMPA - Wish you'd volunteered to cheer for Bruce Springsteen at the Super Bowl on Sunday night? This might be some consolation: I couldn't tell he was singing "Born to Run" until the woman next to me started screaming the lyrics.

Then again, I was closer to the stage than I've ever been at a Springsteen show. Several green-vested media sorts rushed to the field along with the volunteer fans, only to be tossed back to the sidelines midway through "Born to Run," the second song.

Springsteen's E Street Band was joined by a horn section and plenty of pyrotechnics for the four-song set that began with "Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out."

The fireworks, for there can be no Super Bowl activity lest there be fireworks, punctuated "Born to Run" everywhere you might expect. And then some. The title track to the just-released "Working on a Dream" was next. ("I've got a new album out," Springsteen said at Thursday's news conference when asked why he agreed to perform at the Super Bowl after turning it down in the past.)

Springsteen segued quickly into "Glory Days" (with lyrics reflecting football instead of baseball), and the horn section made something mighty of that Farfisa organ riff.

Springsteen and Steven Van Zandt traded banter about going into overtime and a referee ran on to throw a penalty flag. But Van Zandt declared it Boss Time and the Ray Jay crowd screamed.

Ah, sweet, sweet corn. Still more fun than Janet Jackson's nipple jewelry or Britney Spears' tube sock any day.

Reporter Curtis Ross can be reached at (813) 259-7568.

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