Jimmy Fallon seems to be a likeable guy. Sure, he laughs at his own jokes, he’s awkward when interviewing people and comes up with dumb half-thought out games. All of these things are fine, for your average drinking buddy. But for some reason Jimmy Fallon isn’t average. In fact he’s really fucking famous, so all these in adequacies add up to 55 minutes of god awful late night television. However the whole hour isn’t a complete waste of time, because those last 5 minutes are normally music gold. Jimmy Fallon seems to be a likeable guy. Sure, he laughs at his own jokes, he’s awkward when interviewing people and comes up with dumb half-thought out games. All of these things are fine, for your average drinking buddy. But for some reason Jimmy Fallon isn’t average. In fact he’s really fucking famous, so all these in adequacies add up to 55 minutes of god awful late night television. However the whole hour isn’t a complete waste of time, because those last 5 minutes are normally music gold.
Fallon might not have an ear for jokes that makes people laugh, but it seems like he does know music. Having The Roots as his house band was the best move Fallon ever made. They bring an element of cool to the set that Jimmy obviously lacks. The move also was an unofficial stamp of approval for other bands to come and join the party.
In the past week alone Fallon’s show has hosted multiple news–worthy performances. Broken Bells, the James Mercer and Danger Mouse collaboration, played “The Ghost Inside” off their self-titled album. The National debuted “Terrible Love” off their May release High Violet with a performance that almost made me clap at my computer screen.
Fallon also had his former SNL pals, Chris Parnell and Andy Samberg, stop by to perform “Lazy Sunday” for the first time live. The viral sensation is one of maybe ten instances when SNL has been truly funny in the past five years.
Fallon famously covered American Idol’s “Pants on the Ground,” in character as Neil Young. The effortlessly cool Julian Casablancas even stopped by around Christmas to cover the Fallon and Horatio Sanz “I Wish it was Christmas Today.” The only success Fallon has had on the Late Night is musically related, and there is nothing wrong with that.
Jimmy Fallon knows that this show salvaged his career. His best film role was as the hot shot new manager of the fictional band Stillwater in Almost Famous, where he was on screen for less than ten minutes. He starred in the moderately successful Fever Pitch and genuinely horrific Taxi, where Giesle Bunchen makes her “acting” debut as a really, really, good looking person who steals things. If not for the late night gig, he becomes the male version of Cheri Oteri.
It’s nice to see the show has some redeeming value. Sure, his monologue sucks and his interviews are boring, but musically it’s pretty awesome. As long as Jimmy Fallon keeps booking great musical guests I guess we can dub him the indie music king of late night?
