SNL guitar smash
 

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.

Re: SNL guitar smash
 

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.

Re: SNL guitar smash
 

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.

Re: SNL guitar smash
 

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.

Re: SNL guitar smash
 

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

Re: SNL guitar smash
 

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.