Your favorite 'band playing live on television' moment.

Okay. I thinked it would cool to tell your favorite moments that bands have played live like on talk shows or award shows or whatever. Since we have youtube it wont have to be like thing that you saw as kid when it aired the first time or something, but of course it would cooler if you could have some kinda story when seeing it and how did it effect you. Or at least say something so we dont just make a boring list thread. Okay. Heres 3 from me and myself:

The Replacements - Talent Show (International Rock Awards 1989)


First of all I hadnt even heard of that kinda award show and it got to be like most boring party ever before those guys from Minnesota the fucking Mats came in to the house. Like in the couple of seconds the great front men (and IMO best and most influental songwriter since the 80's) Paul Westerberg says "what the hell are we doing here?" it doesnt sound like some kid just wanting grab some attention and throw a curse word. It sounds like a guy seriously wondering what the fuck they are doing in this awful ceremony. They didnt need to be there. But while they were there and in a good mood so why not rock as hard as they could and put the other acts shame of them self.
In first verse Paul just looks (probaply as drunk as fuck, but still able to pull it off. and we know there are those guys who just cant. I wont mention Billie Joe's name) straight in to the camera. You can see his big nose and that wonderful smile just pouring the great lyrics like "We ain't much to look at so, close your eyes here we go". At this moment the bassist Tommy Stinson (who unfortunately ruin his great talent playing in that Axl n Poses band) sings backing vocals and after that just laughs out loud. You know something is coming. When camera comes to Pauls face he pulls his tongue out kinda showing the middle finger that he cant when he is playing and not missing a note.Then after first chorus the whole band kicks in like a motherfucker! Paul turns more volume and Tommys bass sound better than anybody there ever was. Chris Mars keeps the most steady beat there ever is and Slim Dunlap (the only nonfounder of the group. Tommys brother Bob was fired, because he was kinda too wild even for this group of huligans) does his jobs like his suppose to do. Couple sentences in, theres a part where the lyrics says "Feeling good from the pills we took" is cencored (yea kids, this was the 80's) and just by looking that wild face of Paul you know that they knew about that. Rocking just like they best can they come to this couple seconds of kind of middle section of whatever and Tommy yells "ELVIS!" which seems to amuse the hell out of Paul. Apparently they gave Elvis some kinda award on that show. Paul throws some adlibs here and there and then comes the final where boys get their revenge!
Remember the pills line? When the actual outro goes like "Its too late to turn back here we go", this time they were not worried about that, but "Its too late to take pills, here we go". Not once, but 3 fucking times! HA! Band end their terrific performance and who else is there than Matt Dillon cheering them and some old geezer in front of him looking not so impressed. Matt Dillon is a huge Replacements fan.
Well of course there is the performance on Saturday Night Live, but thats another story there and I kinda this one a better performance and if the Mats would played just like that everytime, they would have concuered the world.

Next one

Nirvana - Lithium (MTV VMA 1992):


Nirvana was of course at height of their huge success, but kinda nowhere to be seen. In concert or in interviews. They decided to go to this huge award thing. Producers have an idea. They want Nirvana to play their big hit Smell Like Teen Spirit and open the whole ceremony. Kurt especially is not up for that. By that time they were bored to death of that song. So they wanna play two new songs from then unreleased album 'In Utero'.Rape Me and Tourettes. To make a long story short the producers where not happy and all kind of threats were thrown like MTV will pull not just Nirvanas music out of the air, but all their management label(Beastie Boys, Sonic Youth) or whatever it was.
So they agree to play Lithium. But before that they decided to make a prank and play couple bars of Rape Me of just when the producers come off having a heart attack and yell to director "GO TO THE COMMERCIAL NOW OR YOU WILL BE FIRED!" they just start Lithium. Kurts voice is good as ever and he delivers those great lyrics just perfect. And then the first chorus comes and the most tallest bassist Krist Novoselic comes in and now called "nicest man in rock" Dave Grohl bounds the shit out of those drums like if John Bonham was a monkey and had big bones as drum sticks. Kurt yells the most simple chorus in rock n roll "YE E E YEE" with a passion. The performance is IMO simply the best rendition of Lithium and the house must have been just shaking by only 3 guys making that fucking huge sound.
At the end Andy Kaufmans reincarnation, Krist is not happy with his bass sound. So why not do something about it. He toss the thing like 30 feet on the air which he has done over manymany times, but then in front of hundreds of million of watchers...BANG!! It hits right in his forehead. The man is down and holding his head just when the song ends and Kurt comes trashing his guitar having no idea of what happened. Two guys left they trash their gear and then Dave goes to the mic yelling "Hi Axl. Where's Axl?! Hi Axl! Hi Axl!". Theres a great story about it by the man himself Krist Novoselic and what happened after he got out of the stage on that videos introduction section. And here too: http://blogs.seattleweekly.com/dailyweekly/2008/11/what_really_happened_at_the_19.php

The Mars Volta - Drunkship Of Lantern (MTV Latin Awards 2003):


Okay this is different, because I actually see this when it aired the first time in 2003. Could be a rerun of course, but no matter. That was the time when from MTV came even some kinda music and sometimes pretty awesome shows. I was 16 years old and I remember not watching particurarly that show but somehow I just flip the channel when they starts playeing People Of The Sun by Rage Against The Machine and the lead singer Zack De La Rocha comes from the stage. Apparently they freed him in some kinda cave, because he had not been seen or heard since 2000 when he quitted Rage (and sadly they got him back there until Rage comeback 2007). I remember thinking "wow, wonder what he got to say...but where are the dread locks?". He makes this great speech about the next band, compares them to MC5 and calls them "a band that its not interested in making hits, but making moments. This is that band and this is The Mars Volta." I was interested of course with that kinda introduction and then the bands starts this wild sounding music.
Afros, bongos and the drummer not playing the basic rock beat, but the band definetly sounds like a rock band . Cedric and Omar make just crazy moves and sing and play like its their last show. Especially in that time you would watch these Award shows and it all just the basic commercial poppunk or Britney Spears with her multimillion budget put that one show to make her look good with all the tigers, monkeys, snakes, whales, Madonna, when I needed some money to buy even one album cause I was 16 and you didnt get rich by going to school. Or if you were just too lazy to get a summerjob. This was something else. The music didnt sound to me like anything else and there was kinda this element of danger which seemed to lack at everything at that time. I listened good bands, but those were more than 10 years old or broken or dead. This was now! It was kinda cooler, just like these days where theres tons of great bands that ive been introduced mostly by TGA.
When solo breaks Cedric goes up to amp like Iggy Pop and you wonder what he is going to do next. He jumps off and runs straight into the crowd in this boring seated place where all rich and famous and boring people are and stole somebodys sunglasses. To 16 me that was the funniest thing ever, but now I kinda wonder if the guy ever get them back because throw them somewhere when he comes back and the band stops and they are gone. Wait a minute. No, I really dont care. Sadly I dont like them that much anymore, but that performance really just have stayed my mind especially it was so diffenrent and weird and great and kinda my moment like when somebody saw something like The Stoogeson that festival where Iggy throws beanut butter all over the crowd. Of course I found At The Drive-In, because of them, but thats another story.

Theres a whole anothers storys to be told about because Its that time of the year where I just cant stop something like this when I start. Should go to sleep. Its late around here near the good old communist neighbors of ours...

Love this thread, gonna take time to reply later but!!

PAUL WESTERBERG RELEASED A NEW TRACK LAST WEEK!!! It's a great piano ballad!

rkirkpatrick25 wrote:

Love this thread, gonna take time to reply later but!!

PAUL WESTERBERG RELEASED A NEW TRACK LAST WEEK!!! It's a great piano ballad!

Ryan, you're a Paul Westerberg / Replacements fan??

Also, the first TV moment that comes to mind is the Killers playing Dustland Fairytale right after Brandon's mother died with an orchestra backing the band. Amazing

DeathoftheCool wrote:

rkirkpatrick25 wrote:

Love this thread, gonna take time to reply later but!!

PAUL WESTERBERG RELEASED A NEW TRACK LAST WEEK!!! It's a great piano ballad!

Ryan, you're a Paul Westerberg / Replacements fan??

Only saw Paul Westerberg at the Great American Music Hall a few years back while I was still at SI

HUGE 'mats fan, but more of a PW fan tbh.... LOVE his solo stuff cohesively and individual 'mats tracks

rkirkpatrick25 wrote:

DeathoftheCool wrote:

rkirkpatrick25 wrote:

Love this thread, gonna take time to reply later but!!

PAUL WESTERBERG RELEASED A NEW TRACK LAST WEEK!!! It's a great piano ballad!

Ryan, you're a Paul Westerberg / Replacements fan??

Only saw Paul Westerberg at the Great American Music Hall a few years back while I was still at SI

HUGE 'mats fan, but more of a PW fan tbh.... LOVE his solo stuff cohesively and individual 'mats tracks

That's awesome. I love Let It Be but that's the only one I've really listened to several times.
Anyway, to keep the thread on track here is another one I can think of...
I actually just saw this today, but this is Elvis Costello on SNL in 1977. They were supposed to play the song "Less Than Zero" but stopped after a couple seconds to play "Radio Radio," a song that was critical of the radio industry, which he was instructed specifically not to play. Pretty badass
http://videosift.com/video/Elvis-Costello-Radio-Radio-SNL

rkirkpatrick25 wrote:

Love this thread, gonna take time to reply later but!!

PAUL WESTERBERG RELEASED A NEW TRACK LAST WEEK!!! It's a great piano ballad!

Hey thanks very much for this! Havent noticed at all. Sounds great. In that part when he sings "hit itlike I owed you a whole lotta money" he sounds the way he hadn't sound in years.

One by TGA that is pretty memorable is when they do Bring It On on Letterman. Brians vocals have never sounded better and I would hope he always sound like that. If only the two Alex's learn sing

This is certainly one of the funniest ones I can think of at the present...

Jables wrote:

This is certainly one of the funniest ones I can think of at the present...

Nirvana was always having fun at television. Kind of same kinda performance of Oasis. Noel must smoked pretty much those jazz cigarettes:

DeathoftheCool wrote:

Also, the first TV moment that comes to mind is the Killers playing Dustland Fairytale right after Brandon's mother died with an orchestra backing the band. Amazing

I was going to post this exact video! Best performance of one of my favorite Killers songs. They were on Good Morning America last week and were fantastic.

Don't watch a lot of tv anymore lately..But this one was pretty awesome.