Superbowl XLV Halftime Rehearsal Review

The rehearsal for the halftime show for Superbowl XLV was really quite good. It was a full dress rehearsal, complete with lights, dancing, and full sound. Well, not completely full sound. It was clear that the sound booth techs had a few wrinkles to iron out. Fergie's mic wasn't on when she first starting singing, and then she consistently drowned out the other music. The techs will need to make sure they're on their game for the actual performance. Then Slash was painfully quiet - while it was nice to see him, I sure would've liked to actually hear his performance. Fergie did a nice job standing in for Axl Rose - not sure if he was coming later or not. I hope so, because to sing that song using Slash and not Axl is just a little weird. Oh, and I couldn't hear Usher either. I'm sure they had all those little sound kinks worked out by the time of the actual performance.
Moving on, the dancers in their lighted costumes were a very cool effect - kind of like watching Tron Legacy, but live and without light cycles. I especially enjoyed the hearts they formed. Unfortunately, the lights in the letter "V" were not working for the rehearsal - something I assume the techs will fix before the actual performance. It was a little distracting, because it looked like the word was "L O I ' E" rather than "L O V E".
All in all, the dancing was quite good. The singing was quite possibly good, although difficult to hear. Really, a very respectable rehearsal.