Boygenius were the musical guests of honor on Saturday Night Live this weekend and (despite Timothée Chalamet’s incredible reprisal of his Soundcloud rapper Smoke Chedda Tha A$$ Getta), laid down one of the best performances of the season.
The group, made up of Phoebe Bridgers, Julien Baker and Lucy Dacus, dropped in to perform two tracks from their debut full-length, The Record (released earlier this year).
On their first track, Not Strong Enough, the trio tipped their caps to The Beatles’ iconic Ed Sullivan Show appearance, wearing matching suits and borrowing the iconic Beatles typeface for their kick drum logo.
Phoebe Bridgers adds a further authentic nod on the six-string front, using a Rickenbacker 325, as favored by John Lennon during The Beatles’ first Sullivan performance in 1964.
However, it’s the group’s raucous second performance – of new song Satanist – that will likely stick with viewers. The track sees Bridgers swap out her Ricky for a B.C. Rich Warlock.
Ever the pop culture student, her usual Warlock has been shelved in favor of an even more devilish model, namely B.C. Rich’s $2,999 USA Custom Shop Stranger Things Eddie’s Guitar build.
All of which might explain all the demonic red lighting – clearly down to the upside-down mojo contained within Eddie Munson’s signature guitar.
Elsewhere, sticking to the theme, Baker plays like a woman possessed. Hurling herself around in the song’s heavier sections, narrowly avoiding a collision with Dacus at one point (who also winds up on her knees, strangling the neck of her Gretsch).
The chaos then culminates with Baker launching her Fender Acoustasonic Strat skyward.
We’re not sure what state it was in afterwards. Indeed, the Acoustasonic has only been with us for a few years, but judging from live shots and this performance, Baker’s has already endured decades’ worth of abuse.
It’s a moment that recalls Bridgers’ 2021 solo appearance on SNL, when the songwriter sparked controversy among some viewers for smashing her guitar while simultaneously being a woman.
Despite the critique, that smashed guitar – a budget Danelectro ‘56 – later sold for $100,000, so if the Acoustasonic didn’t survive the drop, we hope someone picked up the pieces…
Despite her guitar heroics, Baker was recently left off Rolling Stone's controversial 250 greatest guitarists list, with Dacus being the only member of Boygenius to make the cut, rather than the group as a whole.
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