Watch: Them Crooked Vultures brings the loud and laughs to SNL

By Harry Painter on February 7th, 2010 in Watch

6 Comments »
Watch: Them Crooked Vultures brings the loud and laughs to SNL

In anticipation of last night’s episode of Saturday Night Live, it was easy to forget Ashton Kutcher was hosting, considering the other guests lined up for the evening. The night began and ended with that sentiment, being that musical guests Them Crooked Vultures were much more memorable than the actor formerly known as Kelso.

The super group, which (as everyone should know by now!) consists of Foo Fighters’ Dave Grohl (drums), Led Zeppelin’s John Paul Jones (bass), and Queens of the Stone Age’s Josh Homme (guitar/vocals) (plus touring guitarist Alain Johannes), delivered as solid of a performance as you’d expect from three legendary rock stars, even despite the suspect setting of SNL’s Studio 8H and early sound problems (turn up Homme’s vocals!). Of course, it helped that the outfit chose not to throw any curveballs, sticking to the well-known and utterly fantastic singles, “New Fang” and “Mind Eraser, No Chaser”.

What’s more, there was a bit of a treat on top of the good performance — Grohl appeared in a sketch with Kutcher, Fred Armisen and Bill Hader as an aging rock band performing at a wedding. The sketch was surprisingly funny (Grohl should totally host SNL!), or maybe it just seems that way when surrounded by…well, SNL sketches (need I explain?).

Thus, by night’s end, we received yet another example of the fact that Them Crooked Vultures just seem to make a lot more sense live than they sound on record. Um… for some people.

Hat tip to The Audio Perv for video support…

Update: It turns out that Them Crooked Vultures, as well as The Roots’ ?uestlove, appeared in an unpaired sketch about Kutcher’s new social media network, “Tooter”.

We should also note that if you were disappointed by the unimaginative song selection, the band will be on TV again next Saturday for a more extensive performance. Be sure to check out Them Crooked Vultures on Austin City Limits on PBS (check your local listings for air time).

Them Crooked Vultures 2010 Tour Dates:
02/08 – New York, NY @ Roseland Ballroom
02/10 – Charlotte, NC @ The Fillmore
02/11 – Atlanta, GA @ The Tabernacle
04/16 – Indio, CA @ Coachella Music Festival
06/11-13 – Leicestershire, UK @ Download Festival

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comments (6)

  • You were thinking, “WTF is Dave Grohl doing with Led Zeppelin’s bassist”? Yeah, how silly of him to want to be in a band with one of his heroes and one of his good friends.

    Harry Painter February 12, 2010 at 6:39 pm

  • HEY ! Hey Harry Painter! The performance of Vultures on SNL sucked! THe vocals were BARELY audible. You would be an idiot to think differently. I was thinking… WTF is Dave Grohl doing with these guys? I will give Vultures another listen since I’m not ignorant and understand that things go wrong sometimes.

    At least I know Ashton Kutcher’s name. I know a few movies he’s been in and I know he’s got a HAAAWWWWT wife. I know when I hear crappy music and I know when I read a super crappy review such as yours.

    James February 12, 2010 at 6:08 pm

  • Nice! They left Mind Eraser uncensored!

    Seán O'Callaghan February 7, 2010 at 9:09 pm

  • 4-6 June Rock Am Ring

    Bman February 7, 2010 at 2:30 pm

  • I saw TCV live in Columbus at the LC and they were great. The audio mix for the performance last night on SNL was terrible. If I had never seen or heard the band previously, I would think they were horrible.

    Jim Ohio February 7, 2010 at 1:00 pm

  • Grohl’s cameo in the last sketch was good. You could tell Armisen was having fun being a punk singer haha.

    I was slightly disappointed by TCV’s performances, though. The music was solid as always, but as you pointed out, Homme’s vocals were off. Not only were they too low, but he didn’t sound so great either.

    Tom G February 7, 2010 at 10:38 am

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