SNL has had two great musical guests on over the past two weeks, that’s rare for them. Phoenix played on the 4th and Yeah Yeah Yeah’s played last Saturday. Both bands had potential to deliver a great show and both had reasons that they needed to. Phoenix is still trying to get more recognition with their upcoming release and YYY’s need to make retribution for their sub-par new release. That being said neither band delivered a stellar performance or anything close to it. Although Phoenix was the more enjoyable band to watch, the performance was impersonal and they seemed almost unexcited to be playing a major television appearance. Now I have never seen Phoenix live or seen clips from a live performance, maybe that’s just the way they are, you can judge for yourself. I wasn’t able to fine YouTube clips of the performances but you can watch then over at My Old Kentucky Blog.

The Yeah Yeah Yeah’s are a completely different story though. Usually when a band has a new release and they appear on SNL they will play two songs from that new release but not YYY’s. They played “Zero”, that most loved and hated of first singles off of It’s Blitz! and then they played “Maps” from their debut release 6 years ago. Having a band do that makes me think that they are a little nervous about the reviews they have been reading about the new stuff and want to remind people why they liked them in the first place. Karen O also seemed out of place and uncomfortable. I know that “Maps” doesn’t really lend itself to her normal shenanigans but she still seemed a bit distant and unnatural.