The Strokes were back on Saturday Night Live over the weekend, marking their fifth visit to Studio 8H across more than two decades. Appearing alongside host Druski on November 7, the New York quintet took the broadcast as an opportunity to present two tracks from their seventh full length record, Reality Awaits. The evening took an eccentric turn during the second half of the booking, when actor Walton Goggins walked out to back the group on hand percussion.
The band set their foundation early in the broadcast with a run through Lonely In The Future, offering a direct read on the material before changing the mood for Going Shopping. That was when Goggins, known to television audiences for his work on The White Lotus, slipped behind a set of bongos. His appearance on the stage was not an arbitrary stunt, but rather a live recreation of a project the actor and the band had shared earlier in the year. Goggins starred in the Johann Rashid directed video for Going Shopping, a clip framed around Paul Simon and his famous 1986 visual for You Can Call Me Al. In Rashid's version, Goggins took on the deadpan persona originally delivered by Chevy Chase, trading blank looks and choreography opposite the band.
Stepping onto the stage alongside Julian Casablancas and company brought that gag full circle. Goggins had previously expressed surprise at finding himself in the group's orbit at all. Around the arrival of the video, the actor noted that he never had the audacity to put a collaboration with the band on his personal bucket list. His appreciation also extended to the broader collection of songs, with Goggins labeling Reality Awaits as so gatdamn special. Bringing that enthusiasm to network television allowed the visual joke to transition from a recorded concept into a live piece of late night television.
Reality Awaits arrived in July, breaking a six year interval between studio records for the band. The group traveled down to Costa Rica to track the material, once again enlisting producer Rick Rubin to oversee the sessions. The partnership with Rubin carried forward from their previous album, establishing a familiar working dynamic in a fresh setting. After releasing the record, the band took to the road for an extensive run of concerts, wrapping up their first complete headline swing through Ireland and the United Kingdom in more than twenty years. That itinerary brought them to venues in Newcastle, Manchester, and Dublin, capped by a two night stand inside London at the O2 Arena.
Those dates also came with an unfamiliar presence on stage. Guitarist Nick Valensi decided to step back from live commitments in May, taking a hiatus from touring. To keep the schedule intact, the band recruited Steve Schiltz of Longwave to shoulder guitar duties during concerts. Valensi has not disappeared from performance entirely, having popped up in Paris last month for a surprise turn on stage with Duran Duran. Casablancas has made a point of reassuring concertgoers during recent shows that Valensi remains in the band and plans to return to his spot.
Saturday Night Live has remained a periodic checkpoint for The Strokes throughout their career. The group debuted on the program back in 2002, followed by appearances in 2006, 2011, and a Halloween episode in 2020. That 2020 visit coincided with the rollout of their sixth record, The New Abnormal, when they ran through The Adults Are Talking and Bad Decisions under the watchful eye of host John Mulaney. In an odd bit of network timing, Studio 8H will welcome Mulaney back to host the very next episode on November 14, when Phoebe Bridgers takes over musical guest duties.
