SNL guitar smash

[balohna]

Apparently Phoebe Bridgers smashed her guitar on SNL last night (from the footage it seems fine, but I digress...).

It reminded me of Adrock smashing his guitar at the end of Heart Attack Man on SNL. Did we ever get a story on this? It’s a pretty generic looking white guitar, not his typical black Hondo (though it could also be a Hondo?). I’m curious if he planned it, if it was spontaneous, if he did it for the spectacle or if he was frustrated by it or what. You see a chunk of something break off when he does it, but everyone just walks away like it’s no big deal.

[balohna]

The performance in question has been scrubbed from YouTube, but lives on on Vimeo.

https://vimeo.com/37353791

I remember downloading this through P2P back in the early 2000s. Pretty sure the quality was way better, or maybe my standards were lower.

[brooklyndust]

Along with Sure Shot, it's my all time favourite performances from them.

Bridges' smash Live on Saturday Night seemed contrived and unnatural. And no, it's not because I'm not a fan or unfamiliar with her but because the smash didn't seem to match the intensity of the song. So, I instantly queued up the Heart Attack Man performance to show my friends how it's done. I'm sure I have heavy bias.

For years I have had the same questions as you about that performance.

I wonder if there is any backstory, was Horovitz pissed or simply Ad-Rock was just being Ad-Rock.

Mike D seemed confused at the end of the guitar smash, hence the shoulder shrug he gives to hurricane.

The real questions are during the Sure Shot performance. Ad-Rock drops two ad-libbed f-bombs in the middle of the song, the second one you can hear Mike go "shhhhsh" trying to cover or reel him in.

It seemed like Ad-Rock flipped the bird to the camera every chance he got. Once during Sure Shot, Ricky's Theme and then again on the closing credits.

My understanding is that an F-bomb or veering off script on SNL from a musical guest is an automatic fine and lifetime ban / partial ban (Rage, Costello, Bowie, Cypress Hill, Fear, Zappa)
They were brought back 5 years later in 99 and then again for the 25th anniversary. So who knows why the f-bombs and the guitar smash and who knows why Lorne Michaels gave them a pass over others.

[dust monkey]

horovitz was prob not in best mindheadspace, guessing dude's not super proud of this m&m b4 m&m performance. i love it, another example of the shenanigans before the shenanigans was cool.

i don't get this smash guitar nonsense, are you sure it's not a goof or are we (me) really that old?

i don't care i don't know, loved this when i watched live, love as much today as i did then. these guys went from classic iconic hip hop sure shot, to great jazz inspired freestyle, to throwback hardcore (great hardcore) in the span of 9 min.. mca bars (top 5?), then went stand-up then straight into hardcore fuzz chaos no bars. who is better...?

...and this is why they collectively are they best ever.

[M|X|Y]

Along with Sure Shot, it's my all time favourite performances from them.
...
Bridges' smash Live on Saturday Night seemed contrived and unnatural.
...
It seemed like Ad-Rock flipped the bird to the camera every chance he got.

Yes, yes and yes. The energy on this is real and raw. Peak IMO.

[Sir SkratchaLot]

I still have my original VHS recording of this. Adrock dropping the F Bomb on live TV was a big deal back then. My VCR heads went screwball on me for the 2nd set so I only got the audio for that one. I had a nice VCR too, stereo sound and errthing.