Category: Music

Bad Bunny has rescued the Super Bowl.

The first half of the final game of the NFL season was a low-scoring, nearly lifeless affair, but once Benito Antonio Martinez Ocasio appeared for his much ballyhooed and endlessly analyzed halftime show, Levi’s Stadium came brilliantly to life.

The Latin trap rapper and charismatic entertainer promised that the Benito Bowl would be a proud celebration of his native Puerto Rico, and boy was it ever!

Dressed in white with a football tucked under his arm, Bad Bunny — who became the first-ever Spanish-language Grammy album of the year winner last Sunday — kept up his February winning streak.

His dazzlingly choreographed performance transformed the field into sugarcane fields (actual people dressed as sugarcane plants) with a casita at the center that Bad Bunny danced on top of, before dramatically falling through the roof. An allegedly real wedding was officiated, and Bad Bunny crowd-surfed, carried the Puerto Rican flag, stopped at coco frio and taco stands, said hello to a pair of sparring boxers, paid tribute to reggaeton stars Daddy Yankee and Don Omar, and packed in portions of 12 songs in just under 13 minutes.

The big-name guest performers — the source of much speculation and wagering beforehand — turned out to be Lady Gaga, who sang her hit “Die With a Smile” wearing a traditional Puerto Rican dress complete with a brooch that looked like the national flower, the flor de maga. Then followed a salsa version of “Monaco” and a surprise appearance by Ricky Martin, the “Livin’ La Vida Loca” Puerto Rican crossover star whose success preceded Bad Bunny’s by a generation.

With Bad Bunny, Martin sang “Lo Que Le Pasó a Hawaii,” a powerful protest anthem warning people of Puerto Rico so they don’t suffer the same fate as Hawaii.

Fleeting cameo appearances were made by many others — Cardi B., Karol G., Pedro Pascal, Jessica Alba, Alix Earle, and Young Miko among them. Not to mention a cast of what seemed like hundreds of dancers and bit players.

But the focus was on the artist and global cultural powerhouse who brought together the community in Levi’s Stadium, and the ones watching on TV and phone screens around the world.

The NFL — and Jay-Z’s Roc Nation, which booked the show — was savvy to bring in the most widely streamed musician in the world to attract a youthful, international audience. That, while resisting pressure from the Trump administration and conservative critics who argued that Bad Bunny — an American citizen — was somehow an “un-American choice” to headline the most red, white, and blue sporting event of the year.

As promised, Bad Bunny rapped only in Spanish, so viewers like me who don’t speak the language, were somewhat clueless. But it wasn’t so hard to get the gist of communal solidarity, though. To make it plain for the gringos, a giant video screen spelled out in English the words Bad Bunny used in his Grammy acceptance speech last week: “The only thing more powerful than hate is love,” underscoring the common humanity of immigrants fighting for freedom and respect.

While remaining in constant motion, Bad Bunny addressed the crowd in words that translate as: “You’re listening to music from Puerto Rico, from the neighborhoods, from the slums.”

“The reason I’m here,” the former grocery store bagger said, “is because I never stopped believing in myself.”

To the bomba beat of “El Apagon,” Bad Bunny stood atop a utility pole that rose above the faux sugarcane and palm trees. He rapped about the power failures that have plagued the island and which he has insistently called attention to since Hurricane Maria in 2017.

And in that same song — in Spanish — he put into words an ecstatic celebration of his people and Spanish-language culture that joyfully countered the criticism that his being named Super Bowl halftime headliner initiated.

“Now,” he exulted, with scores of dancers aligned behind him, “everybody wants to be Latino.”

He did, however, say three words in English: “God bless America” before listing the nations that make up the continent, starting with Chile, Argentina, and Uruguay, and ending, of course, with Puerto Rico.

The stadium-sized pop-punk band Green Day, led by Billie Joe Armstrong who hails from Berkeley, Calif., qualifies as a local band for the Super Bowl being played in Santa Clara, Calif. The band played a fast-paced four-song medley before the game.

Green Day has a long history of speaking out against President Donald Trump. Trump, in return, said he is “anti-them” when asked about the Super Bowl entertainment by the New York Post in January.

At the Super Bowl, however, Armstrong did not sing out in protest. With drummer Tre Cool and bassist Mike Dint, Armstrong banged out condensed versions of hits “Good Riddance (Time of Your Life),” “Holiday,” and “Boulevard of Broken Dreams,” before getting to the finale of “American Idiot,” the title song to their 2004 album.

Usually when the band gets to the song’s lyric “I’m not part of a redneck agenda,” Armstrong sings “I’m not part of a MAGA agenda,” and at times, he has tweaked it to target Elon Musk.

On Sunday, however, that verse was left out of the song. Instead of a protest, it became a celebration of the big game, with several former Super Bowl MVP players, including Tom Brady, San Francisco 49er local heroes Joe Montana, Jerry Rice, and Steve Young, and the Eagles’ Jalen Hurts, joining the band at the front of the stage.

Following Green Day — and after actor Chris Pratt introduced the Seahawks and Jon Bon Jovi did the same for the Patriots — Brandi Carlile sang “America the Beautiful.”

The Washington state native accompanied herself on acoustic guitar and was joined by Sista Strings, the sibling duo of Chauntee (violin) and Monique Ross (cello). It was an understated and effective version by the country and rock singer, who opens her “Human” tour in Philadelphia at the Xfinity Mobile Arena on Tuesday.

Earlier in the week at Super Bowl press event, Carlile spoke about being chosen to sing the song. “This is a song about a country, a beautiful country, that ebbs and flows in terms of hope,” she said. “And it’s a work in progress. And the song believes we can get there, and I believe we can get there.”

Central Jersey songwriter and pop star Charlie Puth followed Carlile with a blue-eyed soul version of “The Star-Spangled Banner,” joined by a choir for vocal support. Puth’s approach was low-key and perfectly respectable, and not likely to be the subject of much Monday morning water cooler conversation on a night when Bad Bunny took center stage.

Singer-songwriter Coco Jones got the pregame music started with a version of “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” the song that’s come to be known as the “Black national anthem.” Written first as a poem by James Weldon Johnson in 1900, it was then set to music by his brother John Rosamond Johnson. Jones delivered a powerful, emotionally direct version, joined by a string octet.

It’s a chilly January afternoon and John Waters is on the phone talking about his new one-man show, “Going to Extremes.”

Waters, whose subversive indie films inspired William S. Burroughs to dub him “The Pope of Trash,” is calling from San Francisco, where he has an apartment. He has another one in New York and a place in Provincetown, Mass.

But Waters’ heart — and his home — is in Baltimore.

“That’s where my house is, that’s where my office is, that’s where my studio is,” Waters said. “Baltimore is always where I lived. I never for a moment thought of leaving there.”

Waters’ 1970s queer cult classics like Multiple Maniacs and Pink Flamingos starring iconic drag queen Divine were all made in Baltimore, as were mainstream breakthroughs like Hairspray (1988) and Cry-Baby (1990).

Charm City has always been essential to Waters’ work because, “I knew it well, and I praised a city that, in that time, had an inferiority complex.”

Thanks to his movies and other works, like Barry Levinson’s Diner and David Simon’s The Wire, “Baltimore does not have an inferiority complex anymore because we praised all the things that people used against it.”

“I think Philadelphia has the same issue sometimes, too. And we even have the same accent, though ours is a little weirder.”

That “no one likes us, we don’t care” attitude has always made Waters a natural fit with his Philly fans, many of whom will be in attendance when he comes to the Colonial Theatre in Phoenixville on Saturday.

“Philadelphia was always a good market for me,” he said. “Elizabeth Coffey was from there, a great, great actress who’s in a lot of my films, the first [transperson] I ever worked with… And the TLA cinema was one of the first theaters that made Pink Flamingos famous. It played there forever.”

Waters and Divine made several trips up I-95 for appearances at TLA midnight movie screenings, one of which, from 1974, is immortalized on YouTube.

It shows a lank-haired Waters in trademark shades and a Little Richard-inspired pencil mustache sitting beneath a Citizen Kane poster, and Divine popping out of a cake.

Waters’ early movies can still shock. Watching Divine’s character Babs Johnson eat poo in Pink Flamingos never goes down easy. But over time, Waters has been lauded as a transgressive pioneer of undeniable importance.

Or, as he puts it: “I’m so respectable I could puke!”

In 2023, his oeuvre was celebrated in a retrospective show at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles.

Pink Flamingos was added to the National Film Registry in 2021 and judged to be the 31st best comedy of all time last year by Variety. The publication called it “the cinematic birth of punk.” In the 91st spot on the same list is Waters’ Hairspray, the musical starring Ricki Lake (and Divine as her mother) about an American Bandstand-like 1960s Baltimore TV show’s struggles to integrate its dancers.

“C’mon, the 100 best comedies in the history of film, and two of them are mine? We’re talking the Marx Brothers, Charlie Chaplin, everything. When I see that for movies that are probably even more offensive today than they would have been then because of all the things that you wouldn’t have been allowed to do — it’s astounding to me.

“I’m proud,” he said. “I’m amazed by it. I think it’s wonderful. Debbie Harry, who’s a friend” — and hilarious as a scheming stage mom in Hairspray — “and I have talked about that. Aren’t we glad we’re alive to see this? Because many are not.”

For all of his respectability, however, Waters, 79, still finds it hard to get films financed and made.

“The last two movies I was supposed to make never happened. Aubrey Plaza was going to star, and we had a big company buy the rights to my novel Liarmouth. And it fell through.”

Still, Waters says, “I’m busier now than I’ve ever been.”

He’s a host for hire at events like the Mosswood Meltdown, the Oakland punk rock festival with a terrific lineup, where he’ll be serving as emcee for the 12th consecutive year in July.

“I love the punks,” he said. “They’re the only minority who want to be hated.”

He also gathers his flock every September for a long weekend in Connecticut at Camp John Waters, where “people come and live as my characters for four days. We call it Jonestown with a happy ending.”

Every year, he also writes a brand new show and takes it on the road, sometimes with a Christmas theme in holiday season. “Going to Extremes” is billed as “crackpot comedy.”

But don’t call it stand-up, or performance art.

“It’s a sermon,” he said. “It’s a religious gathering.”

And it aims to speak to America’s deep divisions with a tool he finds sorely lacking in the body politic: humor.

“When I was young, the radical left had a sense of humor, with the Yippies and Abbie Hoffman. Today, they have more rules than my parents had.”

Waters is worried about the times, especially about the persecution of trans people in the second Trump administration.

“Of course, I’m worried about all of it, because you can’t embarrass him,” he said about the president. “He’s like the punks — he loves to be hated, too. When I saw him around in the ‘70s, he was a liberal. He was in Studio 54. He hung around with Hillary!”

One of the highlights of “Going to Extremes,” he promised, will be revealing “the only funny thing [Trump] has ever said.”

What is it? “You have to come to the show to hear it.”

Waters is excited to return to the Colonial, where he performed in 2022. “The Blob was filmed there! And I, of course, love The Blob.”

Water doesn’t love everything about barnstorming the country, though.

“I don’t like it when the plane is late,” he quipped. “But I do enjoy it. I do 50 shows a year, so I’m always in motion. I’m a carny. It’s what I do. And I’m in touch with my audience.

“Elton John once said to me, the day you stop touring, it’s over. And that’s true. You have to keep doing it. Somebody’s waiting to take your place the minute you blink.”

“John Waters: Going to Extremes,” Feb. 7, 8 p.m., the Colonial Theatre, 227 Bridge St., Phoenixville. ColonialTheatre.com.

This week in Philly music features a Turnpike Troubadours and Robert Earl Keen double bill, two shows with rising Americana star Kashus Culpepper, a Black History Month celebration of Philly house music, Pulitzer Prize-winning drummer Tyshawn Sorey, and Brandi Carlile in South Philly opening her first-ever arena tour.

Wednesday, Feb. 4.

Mdou Moctar

Nigerian guitarist Mdou Moctar has been a regular in the Philadelphia region, fronting an electric band that showcases his Tuareg guitar music blended with hypnotic modern rock. This show is a rare solo set that will showcase his 2024 album Funeral for Justice in an intimate setting. Philly trumpeter and electronic musician Koof Ibi opens. 8 p.m., Johnny Brenda’s, 1021 N. Frankford Ave., johnnybrendas.com

Thursday, Feb. 5

Turnpike Troubadours / Robert Earl Keen

Oklahoma sextet Turnpike Troubadours sounds as road tested as its band name implies on its seventh album, The Price of Admission. The Shooter Jennings-produced band has steadily risen in popularity with a dependable brand of fiddle- and steel guitar-fueled Red Dirt country.

And they get big points for taking Robert Earl Keen out on the road with them on this tour. The wry Texas songwriter, best known for outlaw narratives like “The Road Goes on Forever” and the hard-earned optimism of songs like “Feelin’ Good Again,” retired from touring in 2022 but has thankfully reneged on that vow. 8 p.m., Met Philly, 858 N. Broad St., themetphilly.com

Friday, Feb. 6

Kashus Culpepper

Join the Navy, then become a country and Americana star. That was Zach Bryan’s route to success, and Alabama native Kashus Culpepper has a similar origin story. The soulful singer started getting serious about music during the COVID-19 pandemic, and fronted cover bands before starting to write his own songs in 2023. His new album, Act I, features a guest appearance from Sierra Ferrell and Marcus King. He plays Free at Noon, then heads across town for another gig that night. Noon, World Cafe Live, 3025 Walnut St., xpn.org and 8 p.m., Foundry at the Fillmore, 29 E. Allen St., thefillmorephilly.com

Takuya Nakamura

Japanese pianist, trumpeter, and electronic musician Takuya Nakamura has collaborated with artists like Arto Lindsay and Quincy Jones and brings his space ambient mixture of jazz and jungle to Philly this weekend. 9 p.m., Warehouse on Watts, 923 N. Watts St., wowphilly.com

Tyshawn Sorey

Drummer, composer, and Pulitzer Prize-winning Penn professor Tyshawn Sorey won’t have to travel far from the classroom to his Annenberg Center gig on Friday. He’s paying tribute to jazz giant Max Roach and his 1968 album Members, Don’t Git Weary with a band that includes trumpeter Adam O’Farrill. 7:30 p.m., Zellerbach Theatre, 3680 Walnut St., pennlivearts.org

Saturday, Feb. 7

The Legacy of Philadelphia House Music

This showcase is part of the Black History Month Celebration of Black Excellence at the Fallser Club. Spoken word poet Ursula Rocker will be joined by dance music diva Lady Alma, singer Carla Gamble, and DJ Sylo. A short film, featuring Sylk 130 creator King Britt, will be screened. 5 p.m., the Fallser Club, 3721 Midvale Ave., thefallserclub.org

Tom Mindte & Blue Mountain Boys / Midnight Flyer

A bluegrass double bill spotlighting mandolinist Tom Mindte, a standout of the Washington-Baltimore scene, comes to the Black Squirrel Club, the Fishtown venue that’s also home to a hotly tipped Monday night jazz jam. The night begins with an open-to-all-pickers bluegrass jam. 7 p.m., Black Squirrel Club, 1049 Sarah St., blacksquirrelclub.com.

Red Tailed Rounders / Ramona and the Holy Smokes

Saturday is bluegrass and country night, apparently. Philly’s quick-picking ensemble Red Tailed Rounders will be joined by Virginia honky-tonk band Ramona and the Holy Smokes. 8 p.m., MilkBoy Philly, 1100 Chestnut St., milkboyphilly.com

Antarcigo Vespucci

The side project of prolific punk rock solo artist and former Bombthe Music Industry! leader Jeff Rosenstock and Chris Warren of Fake Problems hasn’t produced any new music since the 2018 album Love in the Time of E-Mail. But after reuniting last year, the duo is about to tour together this winter. Opener is Philly’s Golden Apples, whose latest is last year’s Shooting Star. 8 p.m., First Unitarian Church, 2125 Chestnut St., r5productions.com

Electric Guest / Snacktime

Asa Taccone and Matthew Compton of Electric Guest are in fine funky form on 10K, their first album in six years. Philly’s Snacktime opens the show, so here’s hoping they sit in with the headliners and turn the party up a notch. 8 p.m., Union Transfer, 1026 Spring Garden St., utphilly.com

Denison Witmer

In 2020, the proud Pennsylvanian put out a single called “Lancaster County” about carrying the region with him as he traveled the world. This weekend, the singer-songwriter will be back in his hometown supporting his delicate and dreamy 2025 album Anything at All, which is produced by his old pal Sufjan Stevens. Witmer will play with a full band on Saturday, and a solo show on Sunday. 7:30 p.m. Saturday and 3 p.m. Sunday, West Art, 816 Buchanon Ave., Lancaster, westartlanc.com

Tuesday, Feb. 10

Brandi Carlile

Brandi Carlile will sing ”America the Beautiful” at Super Bowl LX in Santa Clara, Calif., on Sunday, and two days later, she kicks off her “Human Tour” in South Philly. The concert trek is for Returning to Myself, her new album that gets personal after she’s spent much time in recent years working alongside Joni Mitchell and Elton John, the latter of whom she teamed with on last year’s Who Believes in Angels. The Head and the Heart open. 8 p.m., Xfinity Mobile Arena, 3601 S. Broad St., xfinitymobilearena.com