Blue Rodeo Bomb As Grey Cup Halftime Show

With the Grey Cup halftime show now over, football fans can now remove the earplugs from their ears and listen to the more playful pre-recorded sports tracks like Rock N’ Roll Part 2 or We Will Rock You during lulls in the action in the second half. A mediocre and very somber performance from Canadian country/rock hitmakers Blue Rodeo was the centerpiece of the worst halftime show in modern CFL history.

Blue Rodeo, at best, sounded like a bar band with a bad sound man. At least some of the 40,000+ recognized some of the lyrics from the short three song set, but shots of the whole crowd showed an audience with little to no reaction to the entertainment.
Opening with the rockiest of their songs, Till I AM Myself Again, the band seemed unenthused and not well-rehearsed. The uneventful performance seemed to please only the fans who were allowed to party in front of the stage. The band also performed the Canadian radio hits and slower tracks It Hasn’t Hit Me Yet and Lost Together.

The band can’t be faulted for the choice of songs, which were selected by fans through an online voting system, but then the choice of tracks probably included the best three Blue Rodeo songs. Dressed as they always do in every day clothes, the band looked like they were at a practice and other than a small comment about it being not so cold in the middle of It Hasn’t Hit Me Yet, there was no crowd interaction at all.

With the Superbowl coming up in January, one can’t help but wonder why the CFL has to bow down and offer second rate halftime shows and less flashy broadcasts. The CFL could learn a lesson or two from watching the NFL and how much of a brand the NFL and the Superbowl has become. There hasn't been a bad Superbowl halftime show - ever.

Why wasn’t Canada’s current chart topper and all-around entertainer Michael Bublé or Canadian superstars Nickelback considered as the halftime show? There were many other amazing artists that could have performed at the halftime show, but instead Canada was left feeling “Blue.”

Review by Dan Savoie
RockStar Weekly Executive Producer

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Comments (4)

2010-05-06 14:09:00 |68.149.183.160| ROCK2010 - Real Rock

Blue Rodeo is lame except for maybe a couple songs, Nickelback sucks big time, if they want some REAL Canadian Rock they should have BTO, Steppenwolf, Or Lee Aarron those would be much better half time shows

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2009-12-11 04:28:35 |142.179.122.224| lazerhead - chewing gum on stage

My only crit was Greg Keelor chewing gum on stage.Off to the principals office.These guys write great songs.

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2009-12-03 06:35:42 |70.69.180.193| AWOL - WTF were you watching?

DAN Not only was the sound great (maybe your 19 inch RCA TV speaker was a little off )or you were watching a re run of 90120? These guys are rock in Canada. How many bands sing about snow and Ontario, doesn't get much more Canadian than that. And maybe you forgot the Fergie crap they tryed a couple of years ago CRAP. Big miss, not Canadian and Booo shame on you if you thought the Americanization of are game is good.. Hmmm maybe more American teams should play here again. NOT. So not only did Blue Rodeo Rock it. Jim dancing around the Stage no big light show etc. the fans were dancing around and all in all a Fantastic set and Half time show. I voted and Nope my playlist wasn't the same!These guys have tons of great music to choose from. Get your head out of your a-- and clean your ears out. Or better yet get out of Canada and Go live in the over produced over over over joke of the NFL that you like so much. Bruce, Stones common, you gotta be kidding me. Oh and how about Janets boob. WOW now thats entertainment..........LOL at you. P.S. I have a wonderful 27 inch tv for you and it might even be stereo......

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