Live: Afghan Whigs on The Jimmy Fallon Show 5.22.12

The day was going pretty poorly before I got an e-mail from the Fallon show about being on their 'band bench' for the Afghan Whigs taping that afternoon. I was already pretty stoked at the proposition of seeing the gents at Bowery the next night, but figured this was a little too good to pass up. Tickets evaporated for the show and a lot of people were left wanting, but none of them could get out in time to run the stupid NBC gauntlet. Luckily Alex could make it, and as I had seen a number of Dulli related shows over the last couple decades with her, it made for a comfortable pair of shoes.

That certainly helped, as the whole line for the list to get the wristband, to be able to wait on three more lines over as many hours, just to be able to wait on two more and be berated by an army of twelve year old interns in bad polyester suit jackets for the duration is not first date fare from where this old man is sitting. I watched a fair amount of Fallon when I had cable, and will give him begrudging general props, I don't find myself missing the show much.

This episode featured Anderson Cooper and John Mayer, who seems to have done little to dilute his inherent twat-dom, even if he has done us the favor of moving to Montana. While we still had to suffer through his interview segment, the stellar Two-Rock/Dumble rig he used to sit in with The Roots was pretty spectacular to behold. That sorted, we were shunted from our bleacher seats off to the aforementioned 'band bench' ringing the area our heroes were playing in. Word came down the pike while we waited that the air song would be the Marie 'Queenie' Lyons cover (See And Don't See) that they released digitally earlier that week, with another song to be taped for the web afterwards.

See And Don't See was decent, albeit somewhat perplexing. Three string players swelled the AW lineup from its already expanded six-pieces, Greg natty in what Twitter tells me is a Varvatos suit and everyone looking exceedingly healthy for some old-timers. A quick break for Greg to shed his jacket and strap on a 335 and the gents burned through I'm Her Slave to some collective band bench pants-shitting. It's good to have Afghan Whigs back. Check out both performances here at the Fallon web presence.

R