Explaining Arcade Fire’s SNL performance: What went wrong on stage?
Walton Goggins debuts as 'SNL' host with Arcade Fire as a music guest. Critics let the band's performance as a disappointment.
Arcade Fire's return to Saturday Night Live on May 10, 2025, for their sixth stint as musical guest, was disastrous for many viewers. Critics slammed the performance as “deflated” and devoid of the energy that made the show fun, overshadowing the host, Walton Goggins, in what could have been an excellent episode of SNL's 50th season.
The band's performance of songs from their new album Pink Elephant felt anticlimactic, particularly for longtime fans who watched them throughout the 2000s. In addition, for many, SNL's 8-minute Weekend Update segment did not allow the band to develop anything sufficiently substantial, and altogether with ongoing controversies regarding frontman Win Butler.
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A disappointment performance for Arcade Fire
The performance occurred under the shadow of ongoing scrutiny of frontman Win Butler, who has been under investigation for allegations of misconduct since 2022. Butler and Régine Chassagne still front the group, but there was a sense – a sense of struggle in both artistic and personal sense in their performance.
Arcade Fire played songs off their recent album Pink Elephant, and outlets like A.V. Club observed the performance was “sweaty and deflated.” long-time fans in the audience observed the lackluster emotional charge of their previous performances on SNL.
As much as they could spin the visuals, even to include Butler scrawling handwritten messages on his lapels, overall it just felt off. Critics are now speculating if the band is dealing with the fallout of recent controversies or the waning efficacy of their new material.
Pope Leo XIV was mentioned in SNL's Weekend Update
The Weekend Update segment on Saturday Night Live took a humorous view of some of the week's news, including Pope Leo XIV being announced as the new king of Vatican City. In a historic first, an American filling the role. Co-anchor Colin Jost opened with the punchline, "As an American Catholic, I could not be more proud, which is a sin, and now I'm ashamed."
Jost, following the pope's Chicago associations, remarked, "You can tell he's from the South Side of Chicago because he's got his hands up," which received a few gasps and laughs from the audience. Jost continued, amazed by the news, "When I heard the pope was a super religious guy from Chicago in a funny robe I thought, oh no, it's Kanye," in reference to the rapper's recent controversial association with white supremacist ideologies.
In response to criticism leveled by conservatives who stated that the new pope was too progressive, Jost quipped, "I also think it's great that conservatives are already complaining that this pope is too woke. How woke can a 69-year-old man from Chicago be? It's not like he came out and was like, 'Hey, I'm Pope Leo XIV, he/him.'" He added in jest, "Honestly, there are no woke Catholics. If you are a woke Catholic, you're just not a Catholic."
