Late Night Performances
Brittany Howard Performs “Short and Sweet” on Kimmel While Michelle Obama Looks On: Watch
On Tuesday night, Brittany Howard stopped by Jimmy Kimmel Live! to perform “Short and Sweet” with her trademark show-stopping skills. However, unlike most musical guests on the show, she had the added pressure of singing in front of the former First Lady Michelle Obama, who was coincidentally a guest on the same episode. Unsurprisingly, Howard is a bonafide show-stopper and she delivered her rendition of the song flawlessly. Watch a replay her performance below. Howard’s late-night performance arrived on the heels of her whirlwind evening at the Grammy Awards this past weekend. She received a total of five nominations, including Best Alternative Music Album for her remarkable album Jaime, and ultimately took home a statue for Best Rock Song thanks to “Stay High”. She also sang the hell out...
Japanese Breakfast Performs “Be Sweet” on Fallon: Watch
Michelle Zauner, aka Japanese Breakfast, served as the musical guest on Monday night’s episode of Jimmy Fallon, where she performed her latest single, “Be Sweet”. Additionally, in a nod to her debut appearance on The Tonight Show, Zauner dusted off “Jimmy Fallon Big!”, from 2017’s Soft Sounds from Another Planet, as a web exclusive. Zauner and her band filmed their mini-set at Brooklyn’s National Sawdust. With the exception of a female patron at the bar and an extraterrestrial bartender, the venue was completely empty. As such, the only way to view both performances is by clicking the play button on the videos embedded below. “Be Sweet” is the lead single from Zauner’s upcoming album, Jubilee, out June 4th via Dead Oceans. The record follows 2016’s Psychopomp and 2017’s...
Julien Baker Performs “Hardline”, “Faith Healer”, and “Heatwave” on CBS This Morning: Watch
Over the weekend, Julien Baker appeared on CBS This Morning to promote her latest album, Little Oblivions, with a three-song set featuring the singles “Hardline”, “Faith Healer”, and “Heatwave”. Backed by a full band, the Tennessee native delivered a typically powerful and stirring performance filmed in Nashville. The Saturday Sessions set follows recent late-night appearances on Seth Meyers and Colbert. During an appearance on Consequence of Sound and Sound Mind Live‘s Going There with Dr. Mike, Baker discussed how music has helped her understand, experience, and express her emotions while coping with depression and obsessive-compulsive disorder. The revealing episode is currently available to stream on all major podcast platforms. Check out all three of Baker’s CBS This Morning perf...
Lil Durk Performs “Stay Down” and “Still Trappin’” on Fallon: Watch
Lil Durk was the musical guest on Friday night’s episode of Jimmy Fallon, performing a medley of his hits “Stay Down” and “Still Trappin’”. Both songs appear on his latest album, December’s The Voice. Atlanta singer 6LACK joined the Chicago rapper for “Stay Down”. After first coming to prominence as part of Chicago’s drill scene in the 2010s, Durk has experienced a career resurgence over the past two years. Since 2019, the 28-year-old rapper-singer has landed three Top 5 albums on the Billboard 200. The Voice has been his most successful album to date, landing atop Billboard’s Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart. Durk has also earned multiple songs on the Billboard Hot 100, including “Stay Down” and “Still Trappin’”. The latter song is a posthumous collaboration with the...
Caroline Polachek Covers The Corrs’ “Breathless” on Corden: Watch
In December, Caroline Polachek recorded a studio version of The Corrs’ iconic 2000 song “Breathless”, and last night, she brought those “Go ons!” to The Late Late Show with James Corden. The set designer apparently took “Breathless” literally, and to watch the performance is to find yourself dead at the gates of hell. But if we have to suffer eternal damnation, we couldn’t ask for better company than Polachek. The former Chairlift singer has the energy of an up-and-comer combined with a veteran’s poise. Wearing a Mad Max twist on a classic black dress, she commands the massive stage while hardly moving a step, using purposeful hand gestures and little shakes of the hip to provide visual interest while still keeping her breath supported for the vocally-challenging tune. ...
Julien Baker Gives Stirring Performance of “Hardline” on Seth Meyers: Watch
Julien Baker supported the release of her brilliant new solo album Little Oblivions with an appearance on Monday’s edition of Late Night with Seth Meyers. Accompanied by a full band, Baker delivered a stirring performance of the album’s opening track, “Hardline”. Catch the replay below. Little Oblivions, Baker’s third solo album to date, was released last Friday. In her review of the album for Consequence, Natalia Barr called Little Oblivions a remarkable and devastatingly honest listen that finds Baker searching for answers that refuse to come easily. Also revisit Baker’s recent appearance on Going There with Dr. Mike, where she spoke candidly about her history with depression and OCD. [embedded content] Related You Deserve to Make Money Even When you are looking for Dates Onlin...
The Network Perform “Threat Level Midnight” on Fallon: Watch
Last month, Green Day revived their secret new wave side-project The Network for the release of a brand new album. Entitled Money Money 2020 Part II: Told Ya So!, it marked their first new album under the moniker in some 17 years. On Friday night, the group supported its release with a late-night TV appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. Part of The Network’s bit is that they refuse to acknowledge themselves as Green Day, and any insinuation that they are is met with am explicit rebuttal from both the band and their fans. (This post, for example, will no doubt generate a litany of comments from Green Day fans informing us that The Network is not Green Day). To add their mythology, The Network’s members use aliases — Fink, Van Gough, The Snoo, and Bal...
Foo Fighters Perform “Waiting on a War” on Fallon: Watch
Foo Fighters were guests on Monday night’s edition Jimmy Fallon, promoting their new album, Medicine at Midnight. After frontman Dave Grohl chatted it up with the Tonight Show host, the band performed their single “Waiting on a War”. The track is a stirring piece of a hopeful anxiety, with low synths and bass underscoring a tension that waits until the very end to break. As such, this wasn’t a face-melting rock show of a late night performance, with Foo Fighters instead delivering a relatively simple run-through of the song in a purple-lit set. That said, it’s a powerful enough song to still grab you even in such a straightforward set up — especially once Taylor Hawkins and the band got to rip into it during the outro. Prior to taking the remote stage with the rest of the Fighters, Gr...
Metallica Perform “Enter Sandman” on Super Bowl Edition of Colbert: Watch
Metallica rocked a special Super Bowl edition of The Late Show With Stephen Colbert on Sunday night. The metal masters offered up a rousing rendition of “Enter Sandman”, set against a special backdrop that paid homage to the band’s recent concert history. Entering their 40th year as a band, Metallica sounded as strong as ever on the late-night performance, with frontman James Hetfield delivering a powerful vocal. The metal icons played in front of a stack of speaker cabinets from various tours and special concerts of the past 20 years, including shows at Yankee Stadium (“Mariano Rivera Day”), Oracle Park (San Francisco Giants “Metallica Night”), and the band’s own 2013 Orion Music + More Festival in Detroit, among others. The pandemic forced Metallica off the road in 2020, but the metal le...
Phoebe Bridgers Guitar Smashes Her Way Into SNL Lore With Epic Two Song Performance: Watch
Phoebe Bridgers proved to be one of the few bright spots of 2020, as the talented Los Angeles-based songwriter managed to become a full-blown superstar while hunkered down in quarantine. She released one of the year’s best albums with Punisher. She then proceeded to deliver memorable covers of Radiohead, John Prine, and Goo Goo Dolls; launched her very own record label; made a music video with Phoebe Waller-Bridge; and recorded and released another collection of music with Copycat Killer EP. All the while, she masterfully navigated the limitations of performing remotely, setting a standard that few have been able to match (see: her bathtub performance on Kimmel, her karaoke rendition of “Kyoto” on Colbert, and her NPR Tiny Desk set, to name just a few). For her efforts, Bridgers was honore...
Amanda Shires and Jason Isbell Perform Pro-Choice Song “The Problem” on Fallon: Watch
Amanda Shires and Jason Isbell have become the premier power couple in country rock, not just by releasing great music, but also by speaking their minds even as it alienated some parts of their fanbase. Now, the dynamic duo have taken their convictions to a national late-night audience, inviting The Tonight Show into their stained-glass studio for a performance of their new abortion-rights single “The Problem”. The song originally dropped in September with intimate lyrics that explored the dizzying headspace of a young woman who sees her life spinning out of control. Then on January 22nd, which also happened to be the 48th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, Shires reworked the track with a star-studded crew of women into “Our Problem”. But for her appearance on Fallon, Shires reverted b...
Pa Salieu Makes US TV Debut Performing “Frontline” on Fallon: Watch
British-Gambian rapper Pa Salieu has crossed the Atlantic to make his US TV debut with a performance of “Frontline” on Fallon. The 23-year-old MC gained international attention for his 2020 mixtape Send Them to Coventry, which built a musical bridge between UK drill and Afrobeats. He’s got a fresh take on two genres on the rise, and as his Tonight Show appearance revealed, he sells his music with a wonderfully theatrical presentation. He began “Frontline” with a recreation of his Send Them to Coventry cover art, which shows him as a kind of felled Godzilla, lying in city streets and using a building as a pillow. From there, he treated the Tonight Show stage as a set for a one-shot music video, strolling through a Gambian market, leaning through the windows of...
