When watching Saturday Night Live last night, it felt like much of the show evaporated into the air. It’s not that things weren’t funny, it’s just that they didn’t matter. Host Dan Levy attempted to inject some of his personality into scenes, and the cast and crew did a typically valiant job. Weekend Update worked with some average jokes, along with a pretty fun feature from Kenan Thompson and Chris Redd as YouTubers TwinsthenewTrend, but nothing really stood out beyond a joke where Update host Michael Che implied that his co-host Colin Jost taught country star Morgan Wallen the n-word. Everything felt perfectly average…until Phoebe Bridgers performed.
In many ways, it’s been the year of Phoebe Bridgers. Between her album Punisher dropping out in June, four Grammy nominations, her first Billboard Hot 100 charting single (a cover of the Goo Goo Dolls’ “Iris”), and critical acclaim out the wazoo, it’s hard to think of a musician who’s moved from an indie scene to the mainstream more comfortably. Last night was Bridgers’ first appearance on SNL and it certainly won’t be her last. Bridgers was on stage for a total of eight minutes, but she easily commanded the audience and made it her episode. Sorry, Dan Levy.
For all purposes, it makes sense for her to start with “Kyoto,” the big single off of Punisher. Backed by her seven-piece band dressed in skeleton suites, Bridgers launched into what’s her most obviously upbeat song yet. “Kyoto” in many ways is a microcosm of what’s so ingenious about her writing. With it’s soaring hook and huge horn parts, the song is a rare moment of sonic sunshine for Bridgers’ discography, but the lyrics are a bit sharper and more cutting than the instrumentation would let on. “I wanna kill you, if you don’t beat me to it,” she sings on the chorus. While the song doesn’t entirely capture Bridgers’ typical style of hazy, folky indie emo, it was a joy to hear it live with a full-backing – including a live horn section!
The evening was chugging along nicely, with mediocre sketches abound, but the highlight of the evening was clearly Phoebe’s second song. “I Know the End” is the closer off of Punisher, and it captures an apocalyptic energy that was refreshingly candid during the beginning of the COVID-19 crisis throughout the world. It was a ballsy pick to play on Saturday Night Live, but it does feel true to Bridgers’ persona. Personally, the song never quite clicked as much as other songs on Punisher, say “ICU” or “Garden Song,” but something changed last night.
Part of what “I Know the End” does so well is that it starts like a typical Phoebe ballad. Ringing guitars and atmospheric touches surround Bridgers’ voice, as she lists off vaguely worrying sentiments like “When the sirens sound, you’ll hide under the floor, but I’m not gonna go down with my hometown in a tornado.” I always felt the song’s transition halfway through sounded a little rushed on the album’s recording. Last night, it was just perfect. The apathetic dread was in full force in her performance, translating into something cathartically beautiful. About halfway through the build, the horn section drops back in – at that moment, I knew we were seeing one of the best SNL performances in years. It hit me somewhere indescribably in the gut. Phoebe wrapped the song with an explosive scream and a guitar smash, but that earlier moment was downright liberating.
Yeah, I guess the end is here.
Find me on Twitter at @selfseriousness.
If you liked this, please read our other reviews here and don’t forget to follow us on Twitter or Instagram or like us on Facebook.
