The Prestige TV Podcast - Winners and Losers of the Super Bowl Halftime Show

Episode Date: February 8, 2021

Charles Holmes and Grace Spelman pick out their winners and losers from the Weeknd’s performance at Super Bowl halftime show. Hosts: Charles Holmes and Grace Spelman Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

We're the host of the Ringer music show. But today, we're taking over TV concierge to discuss the winners and losers of the Super Bowl halftime show. Last night, the weekend performed. It was an extravaganza. Maybe for some, it was everything they hoped. For me, it was fine. Before we even get into that, I want Grace, yo, how are you doing? Late night, were you up late?

Were you up late watching the Super Bowl? No. Okay. Want to know what I did is I didn't watch a Super Bowl. I was doing other things. And then I was like, oh shit, I got to watch the weekend. And so, but I was like, but I was, I had been smoking before. And so I was like, so I was like kind of high. And I watched the whole thing high. And not only. Instead of writing notes in my Google Docs, I did a voice memo of me just like narrating what was going on so I could transcribe it the next morning. So this morning I had to listen to. to me being like, whoa, like into my voice. Was it, did you wake up and you're listening to it? You're like, what in the world was I even talking about at this point? I was, I woke up like, not with like, with like a walk of shame, but like I was definitely more pumped about it last night than I was this, rewatching it this morning. So, so, yeah, before we get into like the winners and losers,

can you walk me through maybe your feelings on like your first reaction feelings of watching the show last night, the weekend's performance. Well, okay. So going, like, I know nothing. We had done, we had talked about the weekend briefly on our show in, in an, on an episode. And I have, I thought I only knew one song. Turns that I know more, but like, I'm fresh. Like, I don't know much about the weekend.

I, first impressions were just like, wow, this is, it felt like a music video. It was just so, it was just, their production was just, there's so much of it. Also, I would like to say, and actually not say, I would like to ask, but my first impression was, this was my fixation for the rest of the show was, the audience was there or were they not there? Was there an audience at all? There definitely was an audience. It was, it was, it was weird because generally, uh, Super Bowl halftime performers performed like in the middle of the, field and he did go on the field eventually, but it seemed like he was like up in the stands

and then he was in something when he was performing through the lights. It was for a high person, I would assume you were like, what is going? I was like, what is going on? There was literally, and I had the best part of it was when, so like I, like, I had never seen the weekend. Like, he was performing and it was like close up on his face. And I said, I was like, wow, this is the closest I've ever seen the weekend. I don't think I've ever seen it on his face before.

And then 30 seconds later, he's holding the GoPro in front of his face. And I'm like, wait, no, this is the closest I've ever seen in the weekend's face. He, like, grabs a GoPro and, like, goes inside, like, a hall of mirrors. Yeah, so I would say, I would say on the Ringar Music Show, I'm the resident weekend fan. And the weekend, reportedly, um, spent $7 million on, of his own money on the show. Like, of course, like, Pepsi helps pay for the. production, but he spent seven million of his own dollars to make this performance happen. And I think before this performance, everybody was kind of wondering, how does the weekend take

his very coped out horny vibes and transition it to a, to a family-friendly event, quote-unquote, family-friendly event? So I would say the first winner in my category of last night is Coke anthems. because he had a lot of Coke anthems. I can't feel my face. The hills. He did them. And I was like, oh, wow.

We're thinking about doing cocaine at the Super Bowl. It's lit. Could have faced me. I was just like, ooh, he looks like MJ. And I was just like, I was like, they're wearing masks. Like, if I was not, I think I was a very good stand in for like the average mom, the average dad, the average random person. I was just having fun because I didn't know that.

I couldn't understand. what he was saying, first of all. I was trying, I was like, because I remember our discussion, like, all right, how is he going to make this family friendly? Like, how is he going to desexify this? And I was like trying to hear the lyrics and I could barely. And I was just like a baby who was like had,

my parent was dangling keys in front of my face. And I was just like, ooh. Yeah, it was very funny because one of the first songs he sings, it was that first batch is the hills. And like he gets to the chorus. And one of the famous lyrics on the course, is like, when I'm fucked up, that surreal me. And I'm like, how are they going to do that?

What did he sing? I, he didn't sing fucked up. I think it was either messed up or something. That actually segues into my next loser. The loser of the night was the mixing because there were points where I'm just like, I can't hear the weekend. What is going on? I couldn't hear him either.

Okay, good. I'm glad I wasn't alone. I literally was like, huh? What? What do you say? All right, yeah, because there were, like, there were points where, like, I could hear his voice and I'm like, oh, the weekend sounds pretty good right now. And then there were points where I'm just like, is he singing? Is this?

My girlfriend turns to me and she's just like, is this a backing track? I don't know if I can hear him. What's going on? So I wasn't the only. No, and not only, and another note on production is I couldn't tell, like, when you watch the Super Bowl performances in the past, you get the real feeling that this is a live performance. you know, that Janet Jackson boob pop out, anything could happen thing. But there were times when I was watching the weekend and I was like, is this his third take? Like I couldn't, it just, I couldn't tell.

I was like, did they edit the vocal so that like, because sometimes it seemed really auto tuned. And then sometimes I'd be like, ooh, he's a really good live singer. And then other times I was like, what's going on? So one thing I wanted to talk about is how do we feel about the performance in terms of, like you said, generally, you know, you get a, you want like the Janet Jackson moment or the MIA moment. Oh my gosh. Who's going to say something? Who's going to trip up?

Like, like Katie Perry with the sharks. Like, what's going to happen? You know? We need a memeable moment. Yes. And this performance felt a little bit more calculated and because there was no guess. And there wasn't, this is one of my other losers. Loser, no like choreography really.

Like no dancing choreography. There was like. Literally, no, no, no. Not only was they're not dancing, the, when they go into the fun house for Can't Feel My Face, when the chorus hits, the only thing that happens is they all just start running around.

Yeah, it was. And then at the very end, they're all just like, it's just a bunch of guys in the weekend just running around, like, shoving each out. They're not even dancing at the end. They're just running circles around the weekend. I mean, I was just like,

what is this? You're right. It's like, it's not choreography. Sometimes they would like, there were these choirs, there were these choir singers in this sort of like bleacher background. thing that would like move their hands but other than that they're the loser was definitely the

choreography or lack thereof yeah when this is just me because performing live and performing in like a stadium like that already is i'm already expecting like the vocals and stuff to be hard mixing to be trash just because it's very hard to perform outside and generally how you compensate with that is with like the dancing and the spectacle like jalo shakira doing the mood but blah, blah, blah, blah. But the weekend, A, does not make that music B, the weekend cannot dance. So I was like, the whole time I was like, hmm, I could have used a little bit more choreography, man. They had the whole field. We could have had some dancers or whatever. And then what, here's one of my losers, the masks. The masks, I think I, like, vaguely saw on Twitter. He was like, it's plastic surgery because there's surgery masks because of, like, society and, like, the way we change our faces.

Did I imagine reading that on Twitter? Like, was that something that he had said in an, interview about why he chose those? I have no idea, but it sounds something like Abel would say. That sounds like something the weekend would say. And also, as the resident weekend fan, the weekend has been running around in that same red suit with the bandages for an entire year. So by the time I saw it last night, I'm like, all right, we got to hang this thing. What was that?

Because he had the MJ shoes, he had the gloves. He had the, is it like an ode to MJ? And also is the jacket big on per? It didn't fit. He wears that all the time. Yes. He's worn a jacket or a jacket like that for a full year. If it's supposed to be MJ, like, I don't know.

A lot of people have compared it to like, he's been trying to do this like fear and loathing in Las Vegas thing with the, with the drugs and everything. And I'm like, all right, it was cool for the first like three months. But now, like, it's over a year removed. I'm like, we got a wardrobe. Would we call the wardrobe a loser? It was a little black.

Yes, I would call the wardrobe. I would call that a loser. I, the gloves were weird. I had a lot of things to say about it. It just, I wasn't blown away. You know what I really wanted? I wanted Daft Punk to be there. I'm just going to say that.

Okay. So this is, this is my thing. She bold choice by the weekend. Winner, the weekend's ego for not, for not, for like I'm doing it solo. Loser, though. Come on, we need a guess. If Daft Punk would have come out, I would have, freaked out.

On the audio, I'm like, holy fuck, if that's just like me, and then I was like, no, okay, never mind. I really thought that fuck was coming out. Because it was like, happy to come. There was like all this auto tune. And then like the bleachers came apart. Like someone was going to come out. And then we got nothing. I got, I was, Dap Punk would have been so cool.

It was like also like I feel like it was a little bit of a fake out because like you said, when like the bleachers kind of like, it's like a parting the red sea moment. I'm like, no, this is like a daft punk thing. Like the little robot heads are going to be in that little thing, like dancing. Honestly, you didn't even need to invite dafunk. You could have just given like two randos the mask. Like, and I would have been fine. I would be like, oh, this is the best thing ever.

They would have found like some guy working at the stadium. Like, just put this on. So winners, though, I want to be positive. Winners, the blogosphere, because a lot of people, the sentiment on Twitter at least was that if you've been in if you've loved music for the last decade or so you've seen the weekend go from like

BlogSpot era like like posting like Drake posting his music on Blog Spot to the Super Bowl and it's it's something that I personally was like if you would have asked me back then when he dropped House of Balloons a decade ago oh is the weekend going to play the Super Bowl? I'm like there's no

there's no way he sings about like like Coke and like not being able to have sex but being addicted to it and all this other stuff there's no way and by some like by some weird way this guy did it so kudos to her kudos to him that's a winner another winner we were talking about this before so

everybody was asking is he gonna play something off house of balloons that's his first mixtape arguably in my opinion wait when you said everyone was talking about it was it really was it just you guys hoping or was there like rumors going around. When I say everyone, I actually mean specifically dumb music

Twitter and dumb music journals and Twitter who still remembers House of Balloons, who still remembers the weekend before 50 Shades of Grey. So it was just like, he's going to do it. And I'm like, there's no way he's going to do it. And he kind of did because one of the most famous songs off House of Balloons

is called House of Balloons. And it samples Susie and the Bansch's Happy House. It's called on the mixtape House of Balloons Glass Table. girls. Geez. When when the sample starts playing, I'm just like, oh, M. G, he's going to do it. For those at home who don't know what I'm talking about, it's when they're all on the field. All the bandage guys are like on the field, like doing the little dancing around thing. And I'm like, oh my gosh, he's finally doing it. And then he just didn't. He just played the instrumental.

He just gave me a little taste. Just like it was a tease. Like the weekend is a tease. but it's a winner for Susie and the Banshees. I hope they got a big ass check for that drop. So honestly, just wrapping up, actually now that we're talking about it, I don't think the weekend did a bad job. I think he did an admirable job. But how do you think this stacked up to other Super Bowl performances

you remember, the iconic ones? What I think, the thing that I, I think this just says like an apples and oranges thing. I don't think it's fair to compare it to a live production thing. I just, I feel like we were, the production level was so high and did not feel alive at all, but I sort of felt like we deserved it just to be like, ooh, ah, go to do that. Like, I just, I wanted to be fed like a baby. I wanted to be a baby and I wanted them to like spoon feed the entertainment to me.

I wanted the weekend to do that. And he did that. And he made me be like, and every, and he did like a nice medley. I didn't get distracted. I didn't get bored or anything. And I'd be like, ooh, that's a nice song. Ooh, is that the weekend? Ooh, I like that one.

So I think he did a good job. It was just like a piece of content for me. I didn't, it just, I don't know, but please also keep in mind. I was high out of my mind. And also, in fairness to the weekend, I think we haven't touched on this yet. But I truly don't know what it is like to produce a Super Bowl halftime show during COVID. Because like, to be fair, a lot of the. the way the stage was designed

and the distance that some of the band had from each other and like the dancers were like technically really wearing masks like all of their mouths were covered it was like it was little things where I'm like I don't know if that was because of COVID but I could expect that there were like challenges that they're like how do we make a spectacle when they're like we're in the middle of a raging pandemic

right and they did a good job so and also the The NFL and I think the Super Bowl halftime show is in this weird place where it's like they're obviously trying to get younger. And I think comparing the weekend's performance to like, I don't know, like a Beyonce or a prince is like unfair. It's just different, you know, like he did what he needed to do. I am sure a lot of people were like you, Grace, they were just like, oh my gosh. I know can't feel my face. I remember this song. You know what I?

And that's all you really need. It's just like, oh, just give me something like cool to look at in between halves. Yeah, I do understand that there can be an art. There probably is an art to that Super Bowl halftime show. But I wasn't expecting it from this. And so the lesson here is to always keep your hopes really low for everything. Wow. What a, what a great.

Sorry, it's 9 a.m. I'm getting sad. What a great way to end this show. Always keep your expectations. low kids. And with that, yo, thanks for listening to TV concierge. You can find me and Grace discussing everything happening in the world of music on the Ringer music show every single Tuesday. And you can find more TV concierge later this.