Post Malone And Nirvana Tore The House Down At SNL's 50th Anniversary Concert

In the 11 years since Nirvana's Rock N Roll Hall of Fame induction, where the surviving members reunited with a rotating cast of guest vocalists, they've come back out for a few special occasions - most recently the concert benefitting the California wildfires. They almost always use the same singers: St Vincent, Joan Jett, Kim Gordon, and sometimes Dave Grohl's daughter, Violet; the common theme here obviously being that they're all women. I think that was a choice on Grohl/Pat Smear/Krist Novaselic's part to prevent whoever they chose drawing immediate comparisons to Kurt Cobain, and instead doing something completely different - and Linkin Park just followed suit and did the same thing themselves with Emily Armstrong stepping up as lead vocalist last year. 

They finally found someone worthy of stepping up and giving it a rip as a male vocalist last night, though, and that man's name is Post Malone. If you've ever seen the super famous COVID-era livestream where Post and Travis Barker did a bunch of Nirvana covers - soon to be released on vinyl - I think you'd understand why he was the perfect man for the job too....

Not only is he one of the biggest stars in the world, capable of actually bringing Nirvana's music to the next generation who may genuinely not know them beyond their t-shirt - he's fuckin awesome as well. Adam Sandler introduced them as 'Post Nirvana' and Post walked up smoking a cigarette, Grohl with a smile he couldn't wipe off his face (like he knew they were about to absolutely crush) - and they went right into 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' which they haven't played in twelve years. Post sounded great, took the guitar solo himself, and brought a punk rock vibe to the whole performance....and of course, the band sounded amazing and as huge as ever at Radio City Music Hall.

I loved that even Dave (who I'd say admittedly isn't the biggest Nirvana fan in the world) left the show with the takeaway that Post Nirvana tore the house down. There's nothing better than that live rock n' roll energy at it's best, and if you don't think that was genuinely awesome for the legacy of Nirvana - coming onto this STACKED bill for a tremendous one-song performance featuring one of the most famous artists of our generation, and then being the only thing anyone is talking about the next day - I think you've lost the plot.

Here's some highlights from the rest of the night, which I thought was pretty awesome and worth a rewatch/skim on Peacock….