3/03/2009

Late Night Monday: Letterman; Fallon

U2 began their week-long stint on CBS' The Late Show with David Letterman, wrapping up the first night with a spirited performance of "Breathe" from their new album No Line on the Horizon. Gotta say, there's a reason why these guys have been around almost 30 years. It's simple math, really: tunes + star power. The best salesmen have nothing going on without a product to sell, but few out there, aside from the beloved Irish quartet, can bring a crowd to its feet and revel in the joyous celebration of a communal experience while backed by just an OK song.

Which got us thinking, if U2 were a brand new band we'd wager quite a few of the too cool naysayers always jumping at the chance to knock Bono and co. on a regular basis, would be falling in line as the breathless sycophants they show themselves to be whenever some lame-ass, flavor-of-the-month-blog-band arrives on the scene.
(You know who you are.) But we digress...

Meanwhile over at NBC, the debut of Late Night with Jimmy Fallon got off to a good start, as far as we're concerned. (We'll leave the minutiae to the TV critics.) And that is: his monologue wasn't bad; and The Roots were great. (As was their first-ever comedy bit with Fallon.) Hopefully, the known-to-be hyper host will chill somewhat and find a comfortable groove and succeed in his new job.
No, he was never our guy but he is Conan's successor and we don't want him to fail.