This week, Saturday Night Live returns after almost a month away with host Kevin Hart and musical guest Sia. Sounds like a pretty typical line-up for SNL; Hart’s new movie, The Wedding Ringer, opens on Friday and Sia is currently one of the biggest acts in music. Except Sia has decided to stop showing her face during performances.
During an interview with Nightline in July, Sia told Chris Connelly that she no longer wants to be recognized, or critiqued based on her appearance. Not showing her face has not stopped Sia from appearing on awards shows or talk shows, and should make for an interesting couple of performances from the Australian pop star this Saturday.
While her performances are sure to gather attention from viewers, Sia does have some stiff competition for strangest SNL musical performance ever. Here are just a few that left many viewers scratching their heads.
Frank Zappa – “I’m The Slime” (Dec. 11, 1976)
During its first few seasons, SNL still had not figured out the show’s structure that so many of us are familiar with today. The freeform nature of the show led to numerous interesting performances, since it was more of a variety show and less of a sketch comedy show.
This performance from Zappa from the second season includes his face being superimposed on drums, a voiceover from former SNL announcer Don Pardo, a chalkboard, and slime oozing from televisions. Zappa returned as a host and musical guest during the third season, but it was a disaster with Zappa blatantly reading from the cue cards. SNL writer Don Novello called it “one of the worst ever.”
David Bowie – “The Man Who Sold the World,” “TVC 15,” “Boys Keep Swinging” (Dec. 15, 1979)
Bowie has always been known as a great performer and his appearance in late 1979 on SNL is no different. With Joey Arias and Klaus Nomi as his backup singers, Bowie gives one of the great musical performances in SNL history, along with one of the strangest.
“The Man Who Sold the World” starts with Arias and Nomi carrying Bowie to the microphone. “TVC 15” features Bowie in a dress with Arias reading a newspaper and Nomi walking a fake pink poodle. Lastly, the massive head of Bowie sits atop a puppet during “Boys Keep Swinging,” which utilizes some amazing green screen technology for 1979. Oh, and also the whole nude puppet thing at the end.
Faith No More – “Epic” (Dec. 1, 1990)
Once SNL figured out the structure of the show, its musical performances became simple. Theatrics were out for the better part of 30 years, so finding oddball performances during this time is difficult. Which brings us to Faith No More.
This performance itself is pretty typical for this era with the dark factory stage and a popular artist performing. The only oddity is Faith No More’s frontman Mike Patton, a man who fans of the band know is anything but normal. Patton may be the only person to actually climb the stage at SNL and because of him, we all know that the huge fan in the back could actually spin.
Kanye West – “Power” (Oct. 2, 2010)
A few seasons ago, SNL decided to start letting its musical guests add a bit of flair to their performances again, and one of the first to take them up on this offer was Kanye West.
Both of West’s performances from this episode feature him in a white room, wearing a red leather suit, a la Eddie Murphy in Delirious, and surrounded by about 30 dancers. West started a trend that has been picked up by artists in subsequent seasons, and by Arcade Fire and St.Vincent during last season.
Rihanna – “Diamonds” (Nov. 15, 2012)
Rihanna’s choice to stand with her band and have a bunch of awfully produced computer animation shown on a green screen was pretty bold. She also has her band wear white t-shirts, so at times it looks like a bunch of guys with no torsos are backing her up. It’s similar to a Tim & Eric sketch, but not nearly as funny. Oddly enough, the lyrics for this hit were written by Sia.
Sadly, due to restrictions from Broadway Video and NBC, many, many musical performances are difficult to locate or not available online at all. Hopefully, one day they’ll make them all available so we can all witness the weirdness of Philip Glass, Chris Gaines, or a better version of Quincy Jones rapping.
If Sia’s performances from Jimmy Kimmel, Ellen, and Jools Holland are any indication, her performances on Saturday night should not only be entertaining, but a bit strange. And that is a good thing.
