Joe Biden, Tom Hanks and Bruce Springsteen’s inaugural ‘Celebrating America’ event was so cheesy and healing

Everything was staged around the Lincoln Memorial, with the National Mall, the reflecting pool and the Washington Monument as a backdrop. The typically teeming tourist attraction was empty except for the handful of artists, all romantically lit in alternate staging that was, it must be said, absolutely stunning. Knowing that the harshness was due to the circumstances of the nation’s trauma, everything was rather haunting.

But the mission to preach renewal and the permission to start feeling good permeated every musical selection – John Legend literally sang “Feelin ‘Good”. As Katy Perry in Evita drag performed ‘Firework’ as the camera captured the Bidens watching from their White House balcony the most aggressive fireworks display I’ve ever seen, you’d rank as the most ruthless of us. have goose bumps or, more likely, shed a tear. It’s surprising how quickly something so seemingly cheesy can creep up and affect you.

As much as the special was about entertainment, it was symbolic. Artists love the president again. Celebrities attending concerts act like they’re saving the world. Nature heals.

If the theme for the day was “everything will be fine” then no one was more appropriate to host the Smile, the world doesn’t end anymore concert as Tom Hanks, our national reinsurance winner.

He was the right amount of Hanks-ian, educating on the importance of Inauguration Day to “witness the permanence of the American ideal” and guide performance. Making this Tom Hanks signature soft shoe on the line between gravitas and everyone’s accessibility, he set the tone for the night – extreme seriousness, inescapable and long overdue.

Specials like this are inherently hokey, but I don’t necessarily understand the impulse to be sneaky about them, which seemed to infect some live tweet reactions on social media. In all, Celebrate America was a pretty standard version of what these things are. And after all the all of the last few years, that alone was pretty nice.

To steal a reaction from a reader on Twitter, I will take horrible hokey any day. What a refreshing privilege to enjoy a cheesy uprising again. Indulging in a certain sincerity is not the vice that many people think it is. In fact, it might even be a medicine needed to overcome some of the poison we have all been sickened with.

It’s been 24 hours for many Americans the first time they’ve been allowed to cry, cry, and embark on any journey other than relentless pain, horror, and frustration.

This is not to say that anyone is mistaken in thinking that an uplifting inaugural ceremony and a cute concert means that everything is suddenly fixed, or that the crushing plagues on humanity that have threatened us this year – and much of the four past years – suddenly disappear. Evaporate. But finally, there is a chance to breathe. An opportunity for catharsis. These things seem lighter. It’s a lot to feel, especially in such a short time.

Music is a suitable outlet for these enormous, swirling, perhaps even unmanageable feelings. A poignant rendition of a meaningful song is something to relate to. The melody can blur the chaos of these extreme emotions. This is why we turn to things like this. That’s why there’s no temptation to poke fun at the desire to host an event like this in the midst of a pandemic, the way every interested montage in Hollywood in recent months has seemed misguided and deaf. .

It was the circumstances of a pandemic and the threat of violence in the nation’s capital that made this concert necessary, but I hope it is a tradition that continues.

How many of us listened to the previous coverage of the inaugural balls? These celebrations were about access, elitism and the worst impulses of Beltway culture. It was for all of us. It was a special for viewers, and it was a nice change of pace to deal with that way.

Bruce Springsteen’s opening was perfect, a performance as touching as you’d expect when it’s Bruce Springsteen performing 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. A black vice-president, a South Asian woman, took the oath. But I was struck by how the lyrics were tailored at the moment, despite being written in 1999:

It was followed by Bon Jovi performing Miami’s “Here Comes the Sun”, pre-shot at dawn so the sun could rise as they sang. It was absolutely too much on the nose, and I was absolutely on board.

Justin Timberlake and Ant Clemons performed “Better Things” from Memphis. The theme of the concert was hope, and this is the rare occasion when the relentless display of it sidesteps the trap of being too squeaky. “Better Things” is a light song, but it still manages to be exciting. In these days of such gloom, even a tiny fly offering prayer hands landed like the thunder of high voices from a gospel choir.

Biden and Harris both spoke separately, delivering more nothingness platitudes that did their job. We smiled.

The pre-recorded conversation between Clinton, Bush, and Obama was so informal it was almost unmoored, given the historic nature of those moments. Once again, they talked about the peaceful transition of power and what lies ahead for America, presumably flashing in Morse code, “Eat shit, Cheeto Demon” throughout the whole thing.

Listen, all of these things are imperfect. When Clinton said “these are an exciting times” for the country, I groaned so loudly my eyes now float inside my skull. But it’s a caveat how just how meaningful it was to see these three former presidents teaming up for this message.

I mean, is it so unbearable that my soul tries to make its way out of my body like a cat breaking free from its crate when Lin-Manuel Miranda performs a poem by Seamus Heaney in order to raise America ? Why yes. Did I give a banshee cry of disbelief when footage of Joe Biden was brought in to finish it off with him? Indeed. But is it really cool to follow this with astronauts beaming from the International Space Station just to help cheer us up about the future? Always.

You notice promotions like these on a curve. In this specific case, that curve is, “I can’t even remember the last moment I felt joy, so let me appreciate that one thing.”

Demi Lovato walks on a Los Angeles soundstage and Justin Timberlake awkwardly sings the streets of Memphis to show we go up and up. It’s quite a spectacle, sure – it’s show business – but it doesn’t hurt to be performative about the steps we need to take to motivate the rest of us to start climbing them.

We have been conditioned to watch these very serious star concerts in a state of desperation. We must raise funds! Raise awareness! Increase voter turnout! Find a solution, one way or another. But we were looking at this one from the other side of the bend. It really is a party. The cheese of it all? Well, like the best cheese, I have found it to provide a deep sense of comfort.

This isn’t the first time I’ve sat on my couch all alone crying while Katy Perry sings “Firework” as a grand finale to a historic event, and it won’t be the last. But today is a big day, a day that I am – and we are all – finally in a place where I feel good.