Turnstile took the stage for their Saturday Night Live debut this weekend, marking a rare live performance by a hardcore band for the late night sketch comedy show that has a contentious history with loud, snarling punk music. As part of their appearance, the band first performed “BIRDS,” with drummer Daniel Fang kicking things off with a hellacious solo. They later returned to rip through a medley of “I CARE”/”DULL,” staged in front of a wall of phones and accompanied by a serious light show.
The episode also featured a surprise appearance from Taylor Swift, who presented host Dakota Johnson with a cake for her birthday, meaning that, yes, Swift and Turnstile were in fact in the same room.
Background on SNL and Hardcore Music
In promotion of the episode, Turnstile joked about not trashing the studio during their performance like their hardcore forebears (as far as we know, they kept their promise). In that same promo, cast member Ben Marshall noted that it had been 45 years since a hardcore band had played SNL, referencing the band and the performance that made the show adverse to hardcore.
Saturday Night Live’s fear of hardcore punk came from a titular band. FEAR performed on the show in 1981, brought on by the then-recently departed cast member John Belushi, who was a fan of the band. FEAR’s performance featured an audience full of slam dancers, some of them fellow hardcore punkers such as Ian MacKaye and Harley Flanagan, as well as Belushi. FEAR’s four-song set caused $20,000 worth of damage to NBC Studios at Rockefeller Center and started a four-decade distaste for hardcore.
FEAR weren’t the only fast and nasty bands to cause a ruckus on SNL. The Replacements’ infamous drunken performance (which actually isn’t all that bad for The ‘placemats) in 1986 got them banned for life, the last straw being Paul Westerberg shouting, “Come on, fuckers,” on stage during “Bastards of Young.” But the original bad boy of SNL performances was Elvis Costello. During his 1977 appearance as a replacement for The Sex Pistols, whose members had visa issues, he stopped The Attractions shortly into “Less than Zero” and played “Radio, Radio” instead against his label and Lorne Michaels’ wishes. He was blacklisted from the show until 1989.
Upcoming Tour Dates
Following a muddy set at Austin City Limits on Friday night, Turnstile will next play October 5th at The Zoo Amphitheatre in Oklahoma City. Fans can look for tour date tickets here, where they can save $20 on their first order of $200 or more with promo code COS20 at checkout.
Turnstile 2026 Tour Dates:
10/05 – Oklahoma City, OK @ The Zoo Amphitheatre (w/ Die Spitz)
10/06 – Lawrence, KS @ The University of Kansas on The Hill (w/ Slayyyter, Die Spitz)
10/07 – St. Louis, MO @ Arsenal BG Ballpark (w/ Vince Staples, Die Spitz)
10/09 – Austin, TX @ Austin City Limits Music Festival
10/11 – Arcosanti, AZ @ FORM Arcosanti
10/14 – Ventura, CA @ Ventura County Fairgrounds (w/ Pennywise, Die Spitz)
10/15 – Las Vegas, NV @ The Amp at Craig Ranch Regional Park (w/ Vince Staples, Trash Talk, February)
10/18 – Santa Ana, CA @ Observatory Festival Grounds (w/ Boy Harsher, Terror)
11/14-15 – Los Angeles, CA @ Dodger Stadium – Camp Flog Gnaw Carnival
In conclusion, Turnstile’s performance on Saturday Night Live marked a rare appearance by a hardcore band on the show, and their energetic set was well-received by the audience. With their upcoming tour dates and festival appearances, Turnstile is sure to continue making waves in the music scene. Fans can look forward to catching them live and experiencing their high-energy performance for themselves.
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