It definitely wasn't Bruce Springsteen the Indie Rock Icon on display at the halftime show of Super Bowl XLIII: no Suicide covers, nothing from Nebraska, no unreleased deep cuts. And thank god for that. Instead, what we got was a rollicking miniature version of the E Street Band Rock'n'Roll Revue with enough corn to fill every Cracker Jack box in the stadium. An opening silhouette of Springsteen back-to-back with the Clarence "Big Man" Clemons brought to mind the album cover for Born to Run, and then the band kicked off with that record's "Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out", setting the tone for highest-profile bar-band set in the history of the universe. The fireworks were hailin', Springsteen slid the length of the stage and plowed into a cameraman-- what could come next but "Born to Run".It's the only one of the four songs played that could make me cringe a little at the setting. Sure, it's one of the most wide-screen and stadium-ready rock songs of all time, but there's such an intimate sense of desperation to the lyrics, seeing it done up all Vegas was just the tiniest bit disconcerting. But then the energy of everyone involved-- and here Bruce seemed to run out of breath-- made those reservations disappear rather quickly. A choir came out for the title track from the Working on a Dream-- good song, and the previous two from way back made the new one earned. Then Springsteen closed it out with "Glory Days"-- never one of my favorites from Born in the U.S.A. but it worked here-- complete with goofy theatrics involving a Referee (or was he a Back Judge? Whichever official is in charge of calling a delay of game penalty). To a fan with a narrower view of Springsteen this was likely a garish display, but the Boss has always been 50s Elvis and 70s Elvis wrapped into one package. This was the "C.C. Rider" shit, and it was perfect."Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out", "Born to Run", and "Working on a Dream" "Glory Days"