Sep 242012
Are you kidding me? Is there anything in this occasionally “Teach Your Children” sound-alike/hoedown that Mumford & Sons performed on Saturday Night Live that’s THAT worth getting worked up over? The keyboardist does the best Meg Ryan fake orgasm of the bunch, don’t you think?
Man, these guys put on a great show.
I don’t post much here, so maybe I should hold my fire, but here goes: it looks to me like he’s having fun playing music. Where’s the crime in that? I will now get off my soapbox and return to lurking.
Now way, man, don’t go back to lurking, let it fly. Sticking to the Mod is like sticking it to the Man.
Fair enough, markkay. This place is about opinions, and they don’t have to be right or even the same as my own. To me they look like a bunch of guys who were drafted out of a performing arts school and are playing their assigned, enthusiastic support role.
Over-emoting on SNL is a tradition: https://www.rocktownhall.com/blogs/index.php/you-decide-rock-town-hall-neil-young-on-late-night-tv-1989/
Damn video has been pulled but the comments get the point across; is this a performance or a workout?
I have to respond to say that although I did enjoy Neil’s Rockin in the Freeworld better (I remember staying up and getting this on VHS) both are examples of what was and still is good in rock. Simple bands and arrangements rocking the hell out of their instruments. No choreographed dancing bullshit, no extra fill, no tattoo’s or asscrack flying. Just some pure joy poured into and then out of a song that means a little bit more than any lyric Bieber, Usher, or Gaga could ever dream about.
Interesting: the English usually accuse the Americans as being too earnest.
I’d forgotten about this thread. Thanks for reminding me of it and all the great comments.
I had never heard of Sanford Mumford & Sons until last night and just finished watching their second song on SNL a few moments ago. Their Oh Brother Where Art Thou thing is annoying as is the one-foot bass drum schtick. Not to mention bad skin.
Thank you for mentioning the 1-man-band device of the kick drum. Young Nathan Lane’s got 6 or 7 guys on stage with him. He can’t pay one more musician to play percussion? Totally annoying.
Gotta side with Markkay on this. The song does nothing for me, but I don’t find anything annoying about the performance. Many of those Americana type bands just stand there like earnest statues. They are “performing” but isn’t that required when giving a performance? Much rather see a band have some motion than look like a still life. Not sure where the offense is coming from.
There’s a kind of telegraphed earnestness about them that I find annoying- the “thoughtful gazing into the distance” look on the singer’s face…that sort of thing. Strikes me as insincere….dunno if it is, but it comes off that way to me.
Neil & Co. were just rockin’ out (in the free world)! I love THAT performance! Showy, yeah, but the urgency of the playing (it helps to see that clip with decent sound) is the deciding factor.
Which one is the father?
And when can we expect the thread Rock’s Unfulfilled Fashion Ideas: Tie & Vest?
BANJO!