Late-night television is traditionally not the place we turn to for a sick metal, hardcore or punk performance, but every once in a while a heavy act subversively slips past TV censors to crush it in front of a mainstream viewership, and it blows our minds every time.
But what makes a TV appearance stand out the most to headbanging fans? Just the simple feat of a fully-screamed breakdown making it onto the airwaves? A particularly chaotic and dangerous display of punk fury?
With that in mind, we asked Revolver readers to pick the most memorable late-night performance of all time, and these were the biggest five vote-getters.
Knocked Loose with Poppy on ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’ – “Suffocate”
So here’s a feeling we can’t shake: That Popped Loose appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live last week was an instant classic.
Knocked Loose technically hit the outdoor crowd with five songs from You Won’t Go Before You’re Supposed To, but it was the performance of their joint single with Poppy that made it on-air. And damn, what a sight to behold.
Consider the glorious contrast between the stage pyro and the light rain gracing the parking lot. Marvel at the mix of bone-crushing riffs and manic blasts. That may be the biggest late-night pit ever. And just look at the way Poppy and Knocked Loose vocalist Bryan Garris gave it their all with unrelenting fury — especially that unexpected, late-game pig squeal from Garris, truly a historic “bree.”
The collaborative performance immediately got people talking — from haters and concerned parents to hardcore fans and new converts.
Faith No More on ‘Saturday Night Live’ – “From Out of Nowhere”
Faith No More were major players on the talk-show circuit during their Nineties heyday, making their way onto soundstages for The Arsenio Hall Show, The Jon Stewart Show, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Late Night With Conan O’Brien and more. And yet, it may well be the band’s two-song showcase on Saturday Night Live that remains the most, well, “Epic.”
The January 1990 episode, hosted by John Goodman, naturally found the group playing their breakthrough, crossover rap-rock hit, and they did a damn good job of it. That said, our fans gravitated toward “From Out of Nowhere,” what with Mike Patton aggressively headbanging his way through the anthemic cut, along with putting on an acrobatic vocal performance and bayoneting poor Mike Bordin’s kick drum skin with a mic stand.
It’s a late-night appearance that confirmed FNM were indeed the real thing.
Fear on ‘SNL’ – “Beef Baloney”
“They look very frightening, but they’re really very nice.”
Famous last words from Halloween star Donald Pleasance just moments before L.A. punk antagonists Fear and a bunch of eventual hardcore legends full-on fucked up the Saturday Night Live set on Halloween Night, 1981. Indeed, Fear’s SNL spot may well be one of the show’s most infamous musical performances ever.
The band were invited onto the show by John Belushi. In turn, Fear brought then-current and future members of Minor Threat, Negative Approach and Cro-Mags out to 30 Rockefeller to skank, stagedive, and freak out the normies in the crowd.
Vocalist-bassist Lee Ving got, like, three words into “Beef Baloney” before a hurricane of stage invaders sent the mic stand scattering across the stage. F-bombs abounded; a $100,000 camera almost got smashed in the fracas. It yielded Fear an instant ban from the show. But damn, was it ever worth it.
Beastie Boys on ‘The Late Show With David Letterman’ – “Sabotage”
Some of us here will swear that the funky-to-fast-as-fuck-hardcore diptych of the Beasties playing “Ricky’s Theme” into “Heart Attack Man” on SNL was their ultimate Ill Communication late-night appearance, but you can’t go wrong with a slammin’ “Sabotage” on the Late Show with David Letterman, either.
Recorded mid-way through the band’s co-headlining run on Lollapalooza ’94, the Beasties were on-point and fully in the pocket — the proof is in Ad-Rock ramming an A flat chord to infinity as MCA leaned into the iconic bass groove.
You also have to give it up for auxiliary players like Money Mark, who added gravitas with some extra ambient organ swells, and DJ Hurricane, who cut up the turntables while wearing a shirt with his own damn face on it.
Make no mistake, this is pure perfection.
Slipknot on ‘Late Night With Conan O’Brien’ – “The Heretic Anthem”
“God helps us all, it’s Slipknot.”
This sly quip from Conan O’Brien proved that the Late Night host knew exactly what he was getting into when he invited the Iowa Nine back onto his program in 2001. Just the year before, they bashed into “Wait and Bleed,” which the host said “blew everybody away.” The ‘Knot cranked up the intensity a thousand-fold, however, when they came out to play Iowa favorite “The Heretic Anthem.”
It’s almost comical seeing the nonet crammed onto the soundstage to hit their heavy anthem. Yet while you rarely see them in the same frame together, you still feel the full heft of the band — whether through Joey Jordison’s grotesque double-kick tap-dancing, Mick Thomson’s death-drilled guitar breakdown or Corey Taylor and Clown’s tandem barking.
For all those reasons and more, the masked maniacs delivered one of the heaviest and most iconic TV performance ever.