A NIGHT OF FAITH

The North Texas Super Bowl XLV Host Committee’s Kick-off Concert Series began last Saturday with Faith Hill in Fort Worth

By Steve Pate

Thursday, July 29, 2010 - 11:20am

FORT WORTH — Faith Hill lit the fuse on the Host Committee’s yearlong countdown to Super Bowl XLV on Saturday night in downtown Fort Worth that included its own share of stars in the Bass Performance Hall audience.

Perhaps most striking were the number of people from outside Fort Worth who made the trek westward and from around North Texas for the first leg of the historic Super Bowl XLV Kick-Off Concert Series.

Some were seeing friendly Bass Hall for the first time. Fort Worth Mayor Mike Moncrief has, on several occasions, referred to it as “blurring the county lines” in a way that will last well beyond Super Bowl XLV next February.

“We are thrilled that so many North Texans descended upon Fort Worth Saturday night,” said Kit Sawers, the Host Committee’s VP of Special Events. “And they made an evening of it — dining at some of the great restaurants nearby, attending the concert, then walking down the street for a nightcap after the show.

“One of the Host Committee’s goals has been to unite this region in truly meaningful ways. Our audience showed that it is fully onboard with that mission, and we expect a great rush from the west when Sting comes to Dallas’ AT&T Performing Arts Center’s Winspear Opera House in May.”

That second concert is set for May 22. The final act will involve a large blowout at Cowboys Stadium in September, the week beginning the NFL season. The performer will be announced soon.

Super Bowl XLV’s game day announcers, Joe Buck and Troy Aikman, are emceeing all three affairs. They formed a surprisingly funny comedy duo onstage before Faith Hill and her band popped and rocked and countrified Bass Hall.

Aikman, bearer of three Dallas Cowboys Super Bowl rings, and his FOX Sports sidekick Buck were first on stage and instilled a light air to the night’s events by poking fun at Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, Hall of Fame quarterback Roger Staubach, themselves and others.

The duo also introduced a very funny video, produced by the Host Committee, that had a number of well-known North Texans singing lines from Faith Hill’s hit song This Kiss. Those so-called singers, many only slightly off-key and others entirely so, included Jones, Staubach, current and former Cowboys Tony Romo, Russell Maryland, Emmitt Smith and more; track star Michael Johnson, Dallas Mavericks star Dirk Nowitzki, and a host of others.

But the concert star, of course, was Hill, who played Fort Worth the night before attending the Academy Awards celebration in Los Angeles.

“Faith was as beautiful and genuine backstage as she was on stage,” Sawers said. “And what a voice. The combination of her hits with some of the greatest songs of all time was the perfect mix for our audience. They were all on their feet at the end of the show!”

As fun as Hill was, the many faces in the crowd added to the show, including mayors and NFL players and socialites. Jeanne Prejean, Sweet Charity blogger extraordinaire for D Magazine’s website dmagazine.com, said she spotted numerous familiar faces around Dallas in Fort Worth’s 1,900-seat venue.

It truly was a Super Bowl kick-off that has lit the fuse for the year ahead.