My Morning Jacket - Saturday at SNL

MMJ on SNL - "I'm Amazed"


"Evil Urges"


Tom and I spent the early afternoon in Herald Square trying to find a black shirt with black buttons (so as not to clash with the black velvet jacket he wore). Thank G for H&M (my favorite store on earth!). If you ever wondered what bands are doing before performing on SNL, there's one example.

An evening at Saturday Night Live is a long one (you arrive around 4 and are there for about nine hours).

However, they are kind enough to provide you with good food, bread pudding, cheesecake and gelato (cookie dough gelato, no less!)

The band went through another set of rehearsals (the first being on Thursday) that sounded great in the studio. I will admit (and am sort of embarrassed, but) I got a tad choked up when I watched them do "I'm Amazed." That song is purty good, I must say.

From 8 - 10 they do a dress rehearsal with a live audience to run through all the skits and both band performances. It was quite interesting to see how things evolved from dress to the actual show, and I think they did a great job of cutting out the fat. My favorite bits of the night were the MacGruber series and Bill Hader's Italian talk show host.

Say what you will about SNL's somewhat inconsistent nature, it's pretty awesome to watch the show come together and see how hard the performers work. They seem like a genial, close-knit bunch (I've read about how it's a pretty dog eat dog environment, but you don't get that feeling when you're there - at least not the parts I saw).

Oh, I forgot to mention that Kristen Wiig and Fred Armisen warmed the crowd up with a cover of Blondie's "One Way or Another." She has a great voice, actually, which only makes her even cooler (if that's possible). She has that Suze Orman voice down... and who was in the audience for the live show but... Suze Orman!! I got to walk out next to Suze Orman!! She was pretty good natured about the skit. I did not ask her for investment advice or if Oprah is nice or anything like that.

My Morning Jacket did really well, I thought. I figured I wouldn't be surprised having watched the whole process, but then they ended both songs with the stop-action thing (which they didn't in rehearsal) so that was pretty cute. Those boys know how to entertain. I think we were all (the wives) sort of nervous for them, but I don't know why - they've never not delivered in the hundreds of times I've seen them. However, this was probably their most high profile performance EVER.

When the show is over, the cast, crew and loads of other people head to the after party and it was chock full of celebs (I admired Will Arnett from afar... I love that guy). I asked Bill Hader if he would do the LP Questionnaire, and he said yes so I'm excited about that. Will Forte told Tom he wants to go to Bonnaroo so maybe we'll see him again someday. I never talk to famous people, mostly because what on earth am I going to say, really? But also because I think if I was a famous type person, would I want me stumbling up like a moron going, "You're so cool. Tee hee. Can I steal your fork?" Probably not.

So that is what it's like to spend a Saturday at Saturday Night Live. We got back to the hotel around 4.30 am. I haven't stayed out that late since... umm... yeah. I can't wait to go back to NYC next month for MMJ at Radio City Music Hall. They should dress up like the Rockettes.

It was a good week,
Ms. P

ps. How great was it that Pooch made it into the band pics?! He was super happy.