News & Views

Tommy Lee’s wild helicopter ride, Steve Martin’s banjo love, Keith Moon’s plaque and Super Bowl porn in News. Katy Perry, Punch Brothers feat. Chris Thile, Sam Roberts Band, Brad Paisley, America and Springsteen’s Super Bowl halftime appearance in Views.

News …

Helicopter with Motley Crue’s Tommy Lee riding shotgun forced to land by L.A.P.D. – E! Online

Some Arizona Super Bowl fans get more than pigskin with their telecast as porn invades final seconds of the game – Arizona Daily Star

Steve Martin’s banjo love – The New York Times

Photo: AP Photo
Banjo-man Steve Martin during press conference promoting his latest film, "The Pink Panther II."

30 years after his death, Keith Moon to be honored by plaque hung at location of some of The Who’s early gigs – BBC News

Views …

Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band at the Super Bowl – “He promised a 12-minute party, and more than delivered by charming the estimated 100 million television viewers with his opening line: ‘I want you to put the chicken fingers down and turn your television all the way up.'” – Associated Press

Photo: AP Photo
Bruce Springsteen and Steven Van Zandt during halftime at NFL Super Bowl XLIII.

Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band at the Super Bowl – “This was Springsteen as song-and-dance man, an accomplished artist reduced to pandering.” – The Chicago Tribune / Turn It Up

Katy Perry in Los Angeles – “In a surprisingly strong performance, only the fourth date of her just-launched, cutely named Hello Katy Tour, Perry set herself apart from the teeming hordes of pop-tart princesses who have taken over mainstream radio this decade with a show that deftly displayed all of her winning traits.” – The Orange County Register

Punch Brothers feat. Chris Thile in Birmingham, Alabama – “Experimental bluegrass for the brainy set, expertly performed.” – The Birmingham News

Sam Roberts Band in Ottawa – “Roberts’ fluid voice, sometimes a little rough in the live setting, sounded better than ever, a sterling instrument that is his one of his strongest assets and elevates his material beyond the crowded pool of retro-rock bands.” – Ottawa Citizen

America in Ontario – “Bunnell and Beckley still have good voices. If anything, their vocals are a tad lower, less saccharine. Their mature sound is still mellow, but not so cottony soft – in a word, more ballsy.” – The Waterloo Record

Brad Paisley in Omaha – “Paisley proved that he is much more than just a singer. He is an amazing guitar player, too.” – Omaha World-Herald

“Tim and Eric Awesome Tour” in Boston – “In person, it’s all the stranger to see, say, Tim rolling around in a leopard-print Speedo or the bizarrely earnest David Liebe Hart doing his wacked-out ventriloquist act than it is on TV.” – Boston Herald / The Edge

They Say It’s Their Birthday … (Or so says Associated Press)

Tom Smothers is 72
Graham Nash is 67
Howard Bellamy (The Bellamy Brothers) is 63
Ross Valory (Journey) is 60
Robert DeLeo (Army of Anyone; Stone Temple Pilots) is 43
Ben Mize (Counting Crows) is 38
T-Mo is 37
Shakira is 32

Photo: AP Photo

Blaine Larsen is 23.