First night: Tom Petty at the Superbowl

Tom Petty was a slightly odd choice for the Superbowl's half-time entertainment - not quite from the top of the tree, where usually such slots are filled from, and probably quirkier than you'd expect the NFL to go for. I mean, you'd have thought Steve Miller or whatever form whoever's still around from The Cars would have been a more obvious choice for a football match which couldn't run to a McCartney.

Still, he doesn't have tits which could have fallen out. Four years on, and they're still haunted by the merest whisper of a nipple. Even the teenage boys who freeze-framed the moment on their parents' TIVOs have got over it, surely?

Tom was at least lucky to be following on from Jordin Sparks' terrible National Anthem at the start of the game. She'd started Houstonesque over-emoting on the second bloody line, a degree of over-early, over-faux-emotional noodling which even a pre-crackpipe Whitney would have thought twice before attmepting; it left her with nowhere to go but to tail off . Viewers were left wondering if they'd got the wrong programme - "did she just mumble something about Canada?"

So, Petty was coming onto a pitch where expectations had been lowered. Carrie Brownstein on NPR thought that Petty's lower profile was suited to the event:

Within this context--a battle between grit and glamor--Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers were the ideal Super Bowl half time performers. There was little that Fox or the producers could do to super size or glamorize the performance. No amount of lights or camera trickery could produce action that wasn't there. Petty is no spectacle. He and his band looked like dads dressed up at their daughter's wedding. Petty played some of his best-known songs, from "American Girl" to "I Won't Back Down". The delivery was staid and earnest, with very little flash.

The Chicagoi Tribune also noted that - a flying V aerial shot apart - there was no spectacle, but also that something else was missing:

Other than a few stray pot-smoking references in some of his biggest songs, Petty has never exactly been a lightning rod for controversy anyway. That meant no chance he'd play "Mary Jane's Last Dance" or "You Don't Know How it Feels" with its "Let's roll another joint" refrain.

"It was strongly hinted" by the NFL not to play those songs, Petty told Rolling Stone recently. "It's a family show."

But is it, really? Wouldn't a 'family' show have got Igglepiggle or Hannah Montana or someone who people under the age of 25 relate to in?

WISN remembers it's a football game, and tries some sport-related metaphor - and then quickly abandons the attempt:

Looking increasingly like the grisly Gregg Allman of the Allman Brothers Band, Petty was the quarterback of the ensemble and directed his boys like the set was a drive down field. Drummer Steve Ferrone kicked off the show by hammering on his snare drum to propel the jangle-pop of "American Girl." Strumming Rickenbacker guitars, Petty and lead guitarist Mike Campbell conjured all the song's Byrds-like charm as the crowd roared like they were seeing the Beatles at Shea Stadium.

Really? Like it was The Beatles at Shea Stadium? Because that's quite a pitch of enthusiasm. One imagines if the Beatles had done four songs at Shea Stadium and then made way for some sports, the audience might have reacted with something other than polite applause.

Ultimately, though, the less-than-memorable half time show lived up to expectations. Ejazz sighs:

So Tom Petty's appearance has been forgotten. Except for the management and concert promoter. Which put tickets on sale in conjunction with his appearance. They call that synergy. People are high-fiving each other on private jets as we speak. But does Tom Petty belong at the Super Bowl? Do you think Tom Petty was a guy who played varsity ball in high school? Did you live through the sixties? People like Petty were outcasts, not BMOCs, never mind athletic heroes.

Petty - who refuses to licence his songs to adverts - wound up at the biggest advert of them all, selling himself for a handful of full auditoriums.