IIf you’re old enough in America, you know that Bruce Springsteen showing up to perform in a primetime special alongside some politicians means shit is serious.
The Boss hits TV when things got really bad, when there is an intense spiritual and patriotic rebuilding to take place. And so he begins the reconstruction that must be done with a tune that somehow manages to exactly manifest the atmosphere of a time of crisis – no matter how many years or decades before the song was written.
That’s exactly what he did on Wednesday night to open Celebrating America, a 90-minute primetime special honoring the inauguration of Joseph Biden and Kamala Harris, a tribute to Americans who work hard and risk their lives to keep the country going in unprecedented times, and, most importantly, calm an anxious land eager to finally heal.
Springsteen was joined by Bon Jovi, Demi Lovato, Justin Timberlake, Katy Perry and every firework display in North America for the concert, far from the cacophonic tribute to anarchy and carnage on Inauguration Day four years ago, or the closed door splendor and circumstance of the balls and galas that typically occupy the new president’s evening after being sworn in.
Thanks to the pandemic, there was no personal audience. There were no parties. Biden and Harris not only addressed the country again, but also a historic meeting between former Presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama, who together preached the value of a peaceful transfer of power – in other words, a monumental subtweeting of Donald Trump. , which was not called blissful all night.
The whole thing was staged around the Lincoln Memorial, with the National Mall, the reflecting pool, and the Washington Monument as the backdrop. The quintessentially teeming tourist attraction was empty apart from the handful of performers, all romantically lit in free-form staging that was, it must be said, absolutely stunning. Knowing that the grimness was due to the circumstances of the nation’s trauma made it all kind of spooky.
But the mission of preaching innovation and the permission to start feeling good permeated all musical selections – John Legend literally sang “Feelin ‘Good.” By the time Katy Perry in Evita performed drag ‘fireworks’ as the camera caught the Bidens staring out from their White House balcony at the most aggressive fireworks show I’ve ever seen, you’d be the coolest among us have developed goose bumps or, more likely, had a tear. It’s surprising how quickly something that looks so cheesy can sneak up on and affect you.
As much as the special was about entertainment, it was symbolic. Artists love the president again. Celebrities who attend concerts act as if they are saving the world. Nature heals.
If the theme of the day was “everything will be fine”, then no one was more suited to the Smile, the world no longer ends concert than Tom Hanks, our national reassuring laureate.
He was just the right amount of Hanks-ian, teaching the importance of Inauguration Day for “witnessing the endurance of the American ideal” and guiding the performances. With Tom Hanks’s signature soft shoe on the border between gravitas and accessibility for all, he set the tone for the night – one of extreme, inescapable, long-awaited seriousness.
Specials like this one are inherently hokey, but I don’t necessarily understand the impulse to be sneaky about it, which seemed to infect some live tweet comments on social media. Overall, Celebrating America was a pretty standard version of what these things are. And after all everything in recent years that was already quite nice.
To steal a response from a reader on Twitter, I’ll be horrific every day. What a refreshing privilege to enjoy old-fashioned upliftment again. Indulging in some sincerity is not the vice that so many people think it is. In fact, it can even be a necessary medicine to get rid of some of the poison that has made us all sick.
It has been a great 24 hours for many Americans, the first time they have been allowed to grieve, grieve, and embark on a journey other than incessant pain, horror, and frustration.
That’s not to say that someone is deceived into thinking that an uplifting inaugural ceremony and adorable concert means everything is suddenly resolved, or that the crushing devastation on humanity that has befallen us this past year – and much of the past four years – have threatened, are suddenly disappearing. evaporate. But finally there is a chance to breathe. An opportunity for catharsis. Those things feel lighter. It can be felt a lot, especially in such a short time.
Music is a suitable outlet for those enormous, swirling, perhaps even uncontrollable feelings. A poignant performance of a meaningful song is something to be tied to. The melody can break the chaos of those extreme emotions. That’s why we look at things like this. Therefore, there is no temptation to scoff at the desire to host an event like this in the midst of a pandemic, as every selfish Hollywood rise of recent months has seemed brash and tone-deaf.
“Music is a suitable outlet for those enormous, swirling, perhaps even uncontrollable feelings.“
It is the conditions of a pandemic and the threat of violence in the country’s capital that made this concert necessary, but I hope it is a tradition that will remain.
How many of us have tuned in to previous coverage of the inaugural balls? Those celebrations dealt with access, elitism and the worst impulses of Beltway culture. This was for all of us. It was a TV special just for TV viewers, and it was a nice change to be served that way.
The Bruce Springsteen opener was perfect, as thrilling performance as you’d expect when Bruce Springsteen performs an acoustic version of “The Land of Hope and Dreams” on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial on the evening of a new president and the first Black female , South Asian vice president was sworn in. But I noticed how tailor-made the lyrics were up to this point, despite being written in 1999:
‘I’ll take care of you
And I will be by your side
You need a good companion
For this part of the ride
Leave your worries behind
Let this day be the last
Tomorrow there will be sunshine
And all this darkness is over. “
It was followed by Bon Jovi with “Here Comes the Sun” from Miami, pre-recorded at sunrise so the sun could rise while they sang. It was absolutely on the nose and I was absolutely on board.
Justin Timberlake and Ant Clemons performed with “Better Things” from Memphis. The concert’s running theme was hopeful, and this is the rare occasion that its incessant display bypasses the trap of being too raspy. “Better Things” is a light song, but it still managed to be exciting. In these days of such gloom, even a tiny fly offering prayer hands lands like the thunderclap of lofty voices of a gospel choir.
Biden and Harris both spoke separately and provided more platitudes of nothing doing their job. We laughed.
The pre-recorded conversation between Clinton, Bush, and Obama was so casual that it was almost untouched, given how historic such moments are. Again they talked about the peaceful transfer of power and what awaits America, presumably blinking in Morse code, “Eat shit, Cheeto Demon” throughout the whole thing.
Listen, all these things are imperfect. When Clinton said “it’s an exciting time” for the country, I winced so hard my eyes now float into my skull. But that’s a caveat of how simply meaningful it was to watch those three former presidents work together for this message.
I mean, is it so insufferable that my soul tries to scratch its way out of my body like a cat scratching its crate to freedom, when Lin-Manuel Miranda performs a poem by Seamus Heaney to uplift America? Why yes. Did I give out a banshee cry of disbelief when footage of Joe Biden was brought in to top it off with him? Indeed. But is it epically cool to follow that up with astronauts pouring in from the International Space Station to help us cheer up about the future? Always.
“You judge such specials on a bend. In this particular case, that curve is, “I don’t even remember the last moment I felt joy, so just let me appreciate this one thing.”“
You judge such specials on a bend. In this particular case, that curve is, “I don’t even remember the last moment I felt joy, so just let me appreciate this one thing.”
Demi Lovato rocks a Los Angeles soundstage and Justin Timberlake crazy sings on the streets of Memphis to show that we’re MOVING and GOING ABOVE. It’s all a show, of course – this is show business – but it doesn’t hurt to be performative about the steps we need to take to motivate the rest of us to climb them.
We have been conditioned to see these very serious star-studded concerts in a state of despair. We have to raise money! Increase awareness! Increase attendance! Find a solution somehow. But we watched this one from the other side of the turning point. It really is a party. The cheesiness of it all? Well, like the best cheese, I thought it was a deep sense of comfort.
It’s not the first time I’ve sat alone on my sofa crying while Katy Perry sings “Firework” as a grand finale to a historic event, and it won’t be my last. But today is a great day, a day when I – and we all are – are finally in a place that makes me feel good.